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.]