Waterbury
History of the Old Stagecoach Inn Vermont bed and breakfast, Waterbury
The town of Waterbury was established in 1763 under a grant from King George III, but sustained settlement did not begin until 1780. Many of these early pioneers were from Connecticut. In fact, Waterbury, Vermont, took its name from Waterbury, Connecticut. Then, as now, the town lying where the Winooski River breaks through the Green Mountain chain on its way west to Lake Champlain sits at a strategic intersection: east/west, from Montpelier to Burlington, and north/ south from the Mad River Valley up to Stowe. Therefore, Waterbury was a logical location for an establishment catering to travelers going in either direction.
The inn was built in 1826 by Waterbury's first lawyer, later Judge, Dan Carpenter, and his brother who previously had been active in construction of the Congregational Church just to the south. However, a letter discovered behind the walls during a recent restoration indicates that the actual builder of the inn was a Mr. Allen with Horace and Henry Atkins as carpenters and joiners. A Mr. Parmalee is named as the original owner. The inn, or tavern, served as a rest stop for people and horses and as a local meeting house. The King David Lodge of the local Masonic order met there in a hall in the ell1 at the rear of the building. Because of the strong anti-Masonic movement at that time, the only available meeting places for these groups were the local taverns. The railroad across the state had not yet been built, so travel in both directions was by horse-drawn coach over rutted roads, icy and snow covered in winter, and a bottomless sea of mud in the spring.
Author Unknown
Footnotes
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In this context, “ell” is an old architectural term referring to an L-shaped addition or extension of a building. A modern equivalent would be “wing” (as in “the rear wing of the building”). ↩