Brattleboro Historical Society Podcast

When President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin in 1963, he requested that his personal security detail at

his residence be made up of soldiers from New England. Among those chosen to stand guard was Brattleboro’s Joe Jacques.

Joe later recalled standing at rigid attention on the balcony of Kennedy’s residence, a young

New England soldier far from home, posted at one of the symbolic front lines of the Cold War. Here's the story...

August 4, 2026 there will be a day of celebration at the Creamery Bridge on Western Avenue as part of Vermont Covered Bridge Week. The bridge was built in 1879 and is the last existing covered wooden bridge in Brattleboro. We hope to see you there between 4 and 8 pm.

Arden Humphrey was a farmworker at the Brattleboro Retreat. In 1889 he would disappear. State-wide newspapers declared it was the biggest Green Mountain mystery in 25 years! Here is the story...

Beginning in the 1780's, many "Vermont Sufferers" moved to Bainbridge, NY. Many of these transplants were Revolutionary War veterans from Brattleboro, Guilford and Dummerston. Here's their story...

Brattleboro may have had a few men at the first Vermont public reading of the Declaration of Independence. This is the story...

Susannah Willard Arms has been identified as providing "Patriotic Service" during the American Revolution by both the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution. This is her story...

The Centerville Covered Wooden Bridge was built in 1879. Eight years later the Brattleboro Creamery Association constructed a plant nearby that converted local dairy cream into butter. The business operated until 1911 and produced more than 200,000 pounds of butter a year.

Long before European powers fixed their gaze on the Connecticut River Valley, the region that would become Brattleboro was part of a broader Abenaki homeland. The Connecticut River and its tributaries—especially the West River and Whetstone Brook—were more than waterways; they were transportation corridors, food sources, and cultural anchors...here's the story...

Hosea Beckley wrote a Vermont geography/topography/history book in the 1840's. The book has wonderful descriptions of our region and gives examples of how geography impacted early settlement in Windham County.

Spencer M. Clark was born in Brattleboro. Eventually, he moved to Washington, DC and became the first Superintendent of the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing. In 1866 he placed his own image on United States currency, a five-cent note, and had the notes circulated as legal tender. US Congress had not authorized this action and a scandal ensued. This was not Spencer M. Clark’s first scandal....