Birthplace of a Small Nation

On a hillside, a Colonial-era campsite overlooks elegant homes along a tree-lined street. The scent of campfires mingles with the smell of new-mown grass, and a settler in a coonskin cap strolls down Main Street past pleasant storefronts.

As a fife and drum corps rumbles by, residents in knee breeches and bell-shaped dresses and folks in sneakers and shorts take in scenes of 18th-century family life, or learn about Civil War field medicine, or pewter molding, or candle making.

The people of Windsor, Vt., are celebrating a beginning.

Ours is a country of beginnings, starting with a declaration that launched 13 colonies toward a democratic nation. But other independent nations have existed on this continent as well—Texas from 1836 to 1845, California for a brief period in 1846—and Vermont for 14 years before joining as this country’s 14th state in 1791.

It’s a beginning Vermonters delight in celebrating. And just as Philadelphia served as the birthplace of America, so Windsor holds that distinction in the Green Mountain State.

Windsor is proud of that heritage and proud that 10 years before the U.S. Constitution was signed in 1787, the nation of Vermont extended suffrage to all men, established the right to public education, and even abolished slavery.

“It was the first time in history these ideas had been brought together,” says Larry Bowser, Windsor selectman and president of the Windsor Heritage Days committee.

In this Connecticut River town of 3,756, two and a half centuries of history merge—but never do they come together more visibly than during Heritage Days, a weekend celebration of the signing of the Vermont Constitution on July 8, 1777. (This year’s event will be held July 6-7.)

From that start, Windsor became a hotbed of innovation and independent thinking, attracting statesmen and inventors, skilled metalworkers, and entrepreneurs. The American Precision Museum, housed in an old armory on Main Street, celebrates Windsor’s role in introducing interchangeable parts, a key development for the modern industrial era. From the mid-1800s through 1980, Windsor was a hub for the machine tool industry. Thousands of skilled workers earned good wages in factories along the river.

Even in the heyday of progress, though, Windsor never forgot its past. In 1914, the Old Constitution House, Vermont’s official birthplace, was moved uptown—on sleds pulled by oxen—and restored as a museum where generations of Vermont children have learned their history. In the 1970s, a historic downtown inn—which now houses the Vermont State Craft Center—was saved from demolition by a group of history-conscious citizens.

When times got tough, Windsor looked back. In the mid-1980s, the bottom dropped out of the local machine tool industry. “In one year’s time, in a town of 4,000 people, 1,000 jobs were lost,” says Jill Michaels, a development consultant hired by the town. Empty storefronts multiplied on Main Street. The town’s grand old homes began to show neglect.

But Windsor recovered, partly because it hadn’t forgotten its heritage. An influx of newcomers, attracted by the availability of vintage homes, brought new energy and resources to the town’s historic buildings. In 1996, a group of citizens, old and new, met and devised a plan for the birthplace of Vermont’s rebirth that has sparked new pride—and new investment—in Windsor’s downtown. Out of that effort, Heritage Days was born.

“The first year we just had a couple of historic re-enactors, but last year we had more than a hundred,” says Historical Society President Bill Ballantyne, who also chairs the Downtown Development District board. “Every year the number of people wanting to participate has at least doubled.”

Last year, physician Gail Barton baked 18 kinds of cookies for a Victorian tea party on her front porch. Others offered garden tours or old-fashioned lawn games. Cathy Hoyt, one of several seamstresses in town, filled at least 40 new orders for “period” attire. Hoyt also helped Windsor school children sew their own costumes for the event.

“There’s been an incredible resurgence of pride in our town and our history,” Ballantyne says. “Tourists are charmed by the sense of connection they experience here. And we’re discovering locally that it’s economically advantageous to save old buildings.”

Susan Keese is a Vermont-based freelance writer.

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