Lower Waterford Church Building Begins a New Chapter

 This announcement appeared in the Caledonian-Record on July 23, 2022 (click on image to enlarge):

Farming Diversifies in Waterford—Including Now!

 The Caledonian-Record, our regional newspaper, printed an article about the recent changes to the Gingue farm, a multigenerational farm in the region of town once known as Waterford Hollow. Although the end of profitable dairying came with sorrow for this family, they quickly began to diversify their products and processes. Enjoy reading this agricultural success story -- and for follow-up, why not subscribe to the newspaper yourself? (The online access is terrific—another example of adapting, for a paper that began in 1837.) https://www.caledonianrecord.com

Bruce Brink and His Horse-Drawn Sleigh Rides, 1985, Waterford

This Caledonian-Record newspaper article from February 2, 1985, by Patricia Viles (married to Perry; see White Birch Farm owners of the past), speaks for itself in terms of the joy of Waterford's winter activities of the past. (Missing words for the bottom of second column: are open, by design. A clos-) The clipped-out article was found during the January 2020 archives work session.

March 3, 1915, Local News: What Do You See Here?

My husband Dave, an extraordinary researcher, recently gave me this copy of a March 3, 1915, article from the Caledonian-Record, part of its "local news" showing the Lower Waterford section. What surprises you? What connections can you make? It was 103 years ago (and 2 months and 26 days), yet many of the names are still very much present in Waterford today, as well as in memories.

Waterford's Northeastern Speedway

The Caledonian-Record printed for January 6, 2017, included a pair of photos in the sports/racing section that apply to Waterford's own Northeastern Speedway. For connections to more information on the historic track, click on this earlier post and follow the embedded links to related material.

Bill Labadouche confirmed today that the noted photographer of the track's heyday, Norm McIver, has passed away, and so has regional racing historian Cho Lee, who carried on from McIver. We hope that Mr. Labadouche may be able to provide more Northeastern Speedway materials here in the future. Meanwhile, here are today's photos (thank you, Dave Kanell, for the scan):

Clearly Spelled Out Local History -- Until You Try to Pin It Down ...

Can you imagine the labor of going through every single edition of the local paper for decades, and writing up the high points of the news? I admire Claire Dunne Johnson's two volumes in which she did exactly that for St. Johnsbury, Vermont, and the vicinity, using the Caledonian-Record. The titles are "I See By the Paper" ... An Informal History of St. Johnsbury, with a first (unnumbered) volume that goes through 1919, and volume 2 covering 1920–1960.

Last weekend as Helen Pike organized the epic first work session for the Waterford, Vermont, history archives, I found myself rattling off a detail from volume 2, and (can I plead not enough caffeine?) I got the date wrong. I said 1925, and actually Mrs. Johnson clearly says 1935 in her book for this. Here's the event that intrigued me in that year:

We got the new Waterford bridge completed and opened in January of 1935. It ended up costing Vermont $12,250 and New Hampshire $87,300. It didn't solve all of the problems. In April it was reported that New Hampshire was setting up signs to indicate Rte. 302 from Littleton [NH] to Woodsville [NH] was the main east–west route. St. Johnsbury was upset, because Rte. 18 had long been part of the main route from Portland [Maine] to Burlington [VT]. Apparently an amicable solution was reached.

Thanks to my mistake on the year, we wrestled at our gathering with "which bridge was this one?" for a few minutes . Now that I've gone back to the pages of the book, though, it's pretty clear the bridge mentioned was the current Route 18 bridge, with its wide scenic span over the Connecticut River.

Still, I have to wonder, after the fact, whether part of the storm over the bridge could be related to earlier occasions when the route to our modest river-side town had other ups and downs. The great photo shown here comes from Dave Kanell's collection, and just arrived at our place a couple of weeks ago. On the back it says "Aug. 18, 1929 -- Poor Roads."

I'd love to know where the snapshot was taken and, importantly, who the smiling woman in the photo is. (Click on the photo to enlarge it.) Any suggestions?