Grape-Nuts Cereal Commercial Featuring Lower Waterford

Image courtesy of ThrowAway History.

Talking about the Rabbit Hill Inn and its history always rambles around to the February 1975 commercial for Grape-Nuts cereal, where part of the filming angle is from the grounds of the inn. The cereal was considered a health food at the time, so the spokesman for the product here is Euell Gibbons, noted for his book Stalking the Wild Asparagus and other publications.

Click on this YouTube link to watch the ad! Anyone recall being an extra during the filming? (There are other Grape-Nuts ads with Mr. Gibbons on YouTube, but this is the only one set in Lower Waterford, Vermont.) All of the children of the Carroll family, the innkeepers at the time, took part.

If this makes you nostalgic or curious -- please join us Wed. July 25 at 6:30 pm, in the Community Room of the white church shown here (Lower Waterford Congregational Church), for the first ever Rabbit Hill Reminiscence Reunion, sponsored by the Waterford Historical Society.

The Hull Family at the Rabbit Hill Motor Lodge

Judy Hull Groskopf provided these wonderful photos from the late 1950s or early 1960s, while her father Alden "Tony" Hull managed the Rabbit Hill Motor Lodge in Lower Waterford, Vermont, along with the St. Johnsbury House. Here he is, on the porch with Judy -- and here's his wife Margaret, enjoying a break from raising three daughters with Tony.

Do you have photos of the Rabbit Hill Inn from another time period? It would be wonderful to see them. Join us at the Rabbit Hill Reminiscence Reunion, on Wed. July 25th at 6:30 pm, across the road from the inn, in the church Community Room. Refreshments and good memories to share.

Rabbit Hill House, 1952: The Well

This 1952 photo, taken at what was then Rabbit Hill House where Mrs. John W. Davies resided, was provided this week by Speedie Morey, whose mother worked for Mrs. Davies. (Mr. Davies "created" the White Village when he purchased many of the structures in Lower Waterford, Vermont, and had them painted similarly.) Thank you so much for sharing the image!

What memories does it bring back for others? Share yours at the July 25 gathering in Lower Waterford. (See posts below.)

The Rabbit Hill Inn: Some History of the Main Building

The Rabbit Hill Inn as Rabbit Hill House, home of the Davies family. Photo taken by Arthur Morrison in 1937, from the roof of the Lower Waterford Congregational Church.

When the Rabbit Hill Inn was owned by the Bowman family, under the name The Valley House: "Mr. Bowman is holding the horse and Mrs. Bowman is standing behind the seated lady, whose identity is not known. The side door was used as the entrance to the Post Office. The barn seen over the roof of the ell was used to stable the horses of travellers." (Eugenia Powers, writing for the 1965 town report)

Thanks to Eugenia Powers, who gathered Waterford history from both documents and those with long memories in the 1960s, we have these wonderful photos of the Rabbit Hill Inn before it bore that name.

The Vermont historical survey of Waterford's structures, written by Allen Hodgdon, dates the main structure of the inn to 1795, without more detail on that time period. Hodgdon then says, "A part of the main building was erected around 1830 by Jonathan Cummings, who used part of it for manufacturing sleighs and window mills." Eugenia Powers corrects that by saying he built winnowing machines, and windmills for grinding corn, and that the building was only one room deep then.) Nathaniel Bishop, she wrote, bought it and ran a store and a tavern there.
 
The next information comes from another history gatherer, Dr. C. E. Davis, who wrote Waterford's story in A Vermont Village. Dr. Davis wrote that Jonathan Cummings (but perhaps this should be Nathaniel Bishop) sold this building to O. G. Hale and F. A. Cross, who in 1840 enlarged the building to its "present size." Around 1859 (date from Eugenia Powers), they added two front "piazzas" with an alcove in the peak, supported by four enormous Doric columns, each made from a pine tree cut across the river in New Hampshire. According to local memory, these massive trees were dragged by oxen across the Connecticut River when it was frozen, and then shaped by hand.

The building then served the very active Burlington-to-Portland stage route as an inn, and stayed in business until 1912. Among its names were Fred Cross's Churn, then for a long time The Traveller's Home; the Bowman family (according to Eugenia Powers) renamed it The Valley House, and Bowman's Hotel.  Other innkeepers included J. Hosmer, Russell Armington, William Goss, Walter Buck, and O. D. Hurlburt; Mrs. Hurlburt, as a widow, sold the place to the Ed Bowman family, who rain it as a hotel until 1912 and continued living there until 1919.

This photo of Eugenia Powers's report on the inn includes some local color:

At that time, Lower Waterford had become a sleepy little village with many part-time residents, and the need for its dozens of small horse barns faded with the advent of automobiles. John W. Davies purchased the inn and many nearby properties, and he and his wife lived there until his death in 1936. Then Mrs. Davies used the inn as her summer residence.

When Mrs. Davies died, the inn was called back into service: The St. Johnsbury House, Inc., acquired it, in 1957, and converted the attached ballroom and carriage stalls into guest quarters. Manager Alden "Tony" Hull and his family became part of Waterford life then. And the names continued to change a bit: from Rabbit Hill House, which Mrs. Davies had called the place, to Rabbit Hill Motor Inn and Rabbit Hill Inn.

That is the time period we'll explore on Wednesday July 25, 6:30 pm at the Community Room of the church across the road from the Rabbit Hill Inn -- if you have memories to share of working at the inn, staying there, getting married there, having a special meal, and so on, please do come join the Waterford Historical Society and share your story (free event; refreshments provided; some handicap access).

[Many thanks to Dave Morrison for sharing his copy of the 1965 town report, which contained the two photos and a long history of the Rabbit Hill Inn by Eugenia Powers.]

The Rabbit Hill Inn: First Structure, "The Beye-way"

Here is a photo "today" of the western-most part of the Rabbit Hill Inn -- the part that older local residents still call the Beye-way.

This structure was built in 1795 as a store, according to its recorded history in the Vermont Historic Sites and Structures Survey. The store name, in the early days of the Rabbit Hill Inn, was The Briar Patch (now it is rooms for the inn, instead). Inn legend says that Samuel Hodby built it as both a tavern and general store, where dry goods and notions were sold. In the early years, people called it the Brick Front Store because of its ground floor front of local brick, made at a nearby clay pit. The two front piazzas are supported by four log pillars.

Subsequent storekeepers are said to have included Mr. Stoddard, two sisters named Winch and Wilbur, the Bowman boys, M. A. Farr (1842), and Solomon Wood (1844). For another period, "Mr. Hunt" used it for a workshop.

After 1922, the structure was owned and occupied by a sister of Mrs. John W. Davies (Mr. Davies owned many structures in the village at that time, creating the White Village). This sister's name was Miss Beye, which led to the building's next name, the Beye-way. Also in this building, for a few years, was the town's library, operated by Mrs. Davies; she eventually moved the library across the street into the former Goss store, now called the Davies Memorial Library.

The next set of photos will show what became the main building of the inn -- also assigned a construction date of 1795.

Please do mark your calendar for the Rabbit Hill Reminiscence Reunion, a special evening of memories of the inn over the past three generations, in the Community Room (downstairs of the church) across the road from the inn, on Wednesday July 25, 2018, at 6:30 pm (free event; refreshments provided; some handicap access).

A Century of Good Food and Cuisine at the Rabbit Hill Inn: Let's Talk About It, July 25

Now that the Fourth of July is over, it's time to focus on the excitement of the Rabbit Hill Reminiscence Reunion -- on Wednesday July 25 at 6:30 pm, in Lower Waterford across the road from the Rabbit Hill Inn.

Did you work there? Have a strong connection because of a wedding or other special event? Do you have one of the inn's old signs or perhaps the mysteriously vanished white rabbits (non-living!) that used to be given to the innkeepers by many guests? Or just curious about the stories and history of Waterford, Vermont's outstanding focus for so many years? Come join us! We'll provide the snacks; you provide the conversation.

Speaking of snacks ... today's delicious recipe taken from the Rabbit Hill Inn's "recipe file" online is for Soba Noodle Summer Vegetable Salad. And check out more of the inn's recipes here, including its traditional oatmeal bread.

Here, from one of the community members who may be telling some tales of earlier years at the July 25 event, are two recipes from John and Ruth Carroll, innkeepers at the Rabbit Hill in 1968. (Come tell us more details ...)

Interested in more about Lower Waterford, the inn, and local history? Here are some other "reports" from the Waterford Historical Society.