The Walloomsac Inn in Bennington Vermont

 

Bennington is Vermont’s front door. Coming into the state from New York is entering a picture perfect world. All the postcards you’ve seen are right there in front of you. Old stylish houses trimmed with elaborate moldings, white picket fences, mountains sitting in the background with deep blue skies complete with a puffy cloud or two drifting though.

Well, it might not be quite as spectacular as that but when you enter this state you enter a different way of living. I have only visited it as a tourist but I have to say it is one of my favorite places. How can you complain about a state that outlawed billboards?

Traveling rt.7 across the state, there are two large cities on either end.  Bennington sits in the east, next to New York and Brattleboro in the west, next to New Hampshire. History abounds in both cities. There are stores filled with souvenirs and restaurants to satiate your appetite. Both have bookstores, and that is always important for a city to have! The Bennington Bookstore is the oldest in the state.

There is one place in Bennington where I have stopped numerous times. Coming into town on the side of the road is a large hotel. Three or four stories tall, covered in old grey wood, cracked and bent. Balconies with thick ivy curling around the banisters and shutters with their slats falling from the frames cover the sides. Tattered curtains hang in the windows. Could it be haunted? Just imagine what it looks like in late October!

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 (Pictures will enlarge when clicked)

I can’t help but pull over and take a couple pictures every time I pass through town. A little bit of internet search brought up some facts about the place, including its name.

Pre- 1974

It is the Walloomsac Inn and was originally built back in 1771! Named after the near-by river, it is the oldest hotel in Vermont. The original section of the building is still standing. The hotel is located across the street from a beautiful white church where Robert Frost is buried.

The front entrance – date unknown

 In the days before the railroads came to Bennington, this was a stagecoach stop and the owner had rooms to rent to the travelers. It took 4 days to travel between New York City and Bennington. The fare was $9. The inn has been called various names including The Dewey’s Tavern , The Hicks Tavern and The Walloomsac House. It was a very busy spot in town. After the railroads came business dropped a bit but it continued on until 1996 when it closed down completely.  The hotel was sold in 1891 to the Berry family who still live in it.

There is a ballroom on the second floor and many parties and social gatherings have been held there. Some of the inns more famous guests were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, both before they became presidents. President Rutherford B. Hayes and President Benjamin Harrison both stayed there also! Slightly different types of guests were the British soldiers who are rumored to have been kept as prisoners of war in one of the sheds behind the inn during the Revolutionary War.

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The back section, the most photographed, was built in the late 1890’s. Even though the building appears to be falling down, there is a brick structure underneath the wooden surface. It is in better condition than it looks, apparently.  To put it back into good shape would cost a fortune so chances are it will continue to sit alongside the road, catching the attention of passing drivers.

Front entrance of the original building – 4.25.21

The urge to explore hits me every time I pass it by. Imagine dancers in stylish clothes swaying across the floor to the sounds of a band in the ballroom, now dusty and unused… rooms sitting empty for decades filled with the spirits of travelers who visited in the past. I’d love to explore it, one of these days…one of these days!