July 2018: Mark the Calendar for Waterford Events!

The Vermont Historical Society is promoting the July 14 reunion at the reconstructed Northeastern Speedway on Route 18 in Waterford:

Northeastern Speedway may be gone, but is not forgotten.  Join us at the historic track in Waterford, VT on Saturday, July 14th from 9:00am to 2:00 pm for their annual reunion event. We'll be there with our popular auto racing trivia and info on our Anything for Speed exhibit, on view now at the Vermont History Center in Barre.  We hope to see you there!

Tori Hart
Development Manager

Northeastern Speedway Annual Reunion

Saturday, July 14, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm
Northeastern Speedway, Waterford, VT
Join us at the former site of Northeastern Speedway for their annual reunion event, a guided walk around the track, play auto racing trivia, and more at this special get together featuring vintage racing cars from the 1950s and 60s.

Also, watch for more news about the Rabbit Hill Inn Reminiscence Reunion, across the road from the inn, on July 25 at 6:30 p.m., brought to you by the Waterford Historical Society. Hope you can make it to both events!

Waterford Essays, 1990: Sent by Edward B. Lee Jr. to Jack Hird

The Waterford Historical Society was very pleased to receive this envelope with its two typed essays, sent by Edward B. Lee Jr. of the Lee Farm (mail via St. Johnsbury, but the main farm is in Waterford) to Jack Hird.

Waterford's Proud Tradition of Professional Firefighting Continues

Waterford's fire department is relatively young, despite the town's long history -- for many years our rural enclave relied on assistance from other towns with established fire departments. Now that we have our own firefighting team of highly trained volunteers, we still depend on other towns' firefighters, and support them in this vital work.

Here's a clipping from today's Caledonian-Record, saluting the achievement of Ryan Aremburg, whose family plays a large role in the town's current fire department.

Mark your calendar for June 27 at 6:30 p.m. at Lower Waterford's Davies Memorial Library, to hear veteran firefighter Clarence Priest, Jr., talk about his archives of the town's firefighting history at the regular meeting of the Waterford Historical Society -- free and open to the public.

Waterford's Historical Society and Church Collaborate: Yummy Benefit Event June 16

Here are the details from author Helen Pike, who's also a member of the Lower Waterford Congregational Church and president of the Waterford Historical Society:

Rhubarbecue, History Trivia: Perfect Together

WATERFORD - The Waterford Historical Society and the Congregational Church are finalizing plans for their annual joint benefit in June that celebrates rhubarb with a twist.

The centerpiece is an all-you-can-eat rhubarbecue buffet dinner with a culinary theme that extends through a choice of rhubarb-flavored desserts and includes rhubarb switchel as one of the drink options.

Helming the main course of pork and chicken choices is award-winning chef Brill Williams, who moved to this Connecticut River community after an illustrious 42-year career as the chef and co-owner with his parents of the Inn at Sawmill Farm in West Dover. Now enjoying a life of mostly leisure, Williams is the breakfast chef for the Rabbit Hill Inn across from the church.

“Cooking is part of my family heritage,” said William,s who still bakes with his mother, who is in her 90s. He is also contributing a salad of European cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and feta cheese to the buffet dinner.

Sides by Waterford’s amateur, but avid cooks include farm-made baked beans, freshly sliced cole slaw, a simple green salad, and homemade rolls.

This annual event follows a long-time tradition in Waterford, said Norrine Abbott Williams, who serves the church as both a trustee and a deacon, but is no relation to the chef. Starting in the 1950s, the Ladies Social Circle hosted hugely successful lobster salad suppers followed by homemade strawberry shortcake with fruit grown in their gardens. Now, as then, the monies go to maintaining the historic building built in 1859.

“We’re five years into establishing a new tradition that highlights old-growth rhubarb found on the remaining farms here in town,” she added. “We couldn’t be happier to share this bounty with everyone.”

In 2014 the two community groups produced their first food-centric fund raiser that drew on recipes found in a 1955 church cookbook, including the late Irene Nutter’s rhubarb custard pie.

“We’ve updated those recipes and added to our collection of what you can make with rhubarb,” said WHS treasurer Roberta Smith who has been coordinating recipes and bakers since 2014. Besides pies in which different fruits will be combined to sweeten the tart rhubarb taste, other rhubarb-based dessert dishes are cookies, one-person tarts, and at least one cake.

Open to the public on both sides of the Connecticut, the evening’s second feature is what planners are hoping will be a spirited round of the Vermont Historical Society’s trivia game which is in the final stages of development.

“As a member organization in the VHS, we’re excited Waterford is a beta site for this work-in-progress,” said WHS president Helen Pike. “We’re working on a bonus round of 10 questions just about Waterford history that’s surprising even us!”

In addition to VHS rewards, planners are rounding up locally sourced prizes for top point winners. So far they include a jar of Williams’s signature homemade chocolate butternut sauce, a pint of syrup from Tom’s Maple, a signed copy of The Countryman Press edition of “Spiked Boots: Sketches of the North Country” by late Waterford author Robert E. Pike, and a signed copy of “The Darkness Under the Water” by today’s Waterford author Beth Kanell.

The WHS plans to use its portion of the proceeds to continue its oral history project and buy supplies for its ever-expanding paper and photographic archive.

The dinner is scheduled for Saturday, June 16, in the Community Room located on the lower level of the Lower Waterford church. The Maple Street door opens at 5:30 p.m. and serving starts at 6 p.m.

Tickets are $25. Only 80 will be sold. RSVPs due by Monday, June 11, for food planning purposes. To reserve group seating, call Pike at 802-748-0180.

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.

The Innkeeper's Daughters: 2018 Rabbit Hill Inn Reunion, July 25

The Rabbit Hill Motor Inn, circa 1960.

Many people have worked at the Rabbit Hill Inn over the years, in Lower Waterford, Vermont. Did YOU? Or a close family member? The Waterford Historical Society invites you to attend the first ever Rabbit Hill Inn Reminiscence Reunion, on Wednesday July 25 at 6:30 pm in Lower Waterford, across the road from the inn.

Please do mark your calendar! And to get you in the mood, here is the story of Alden "Tony" Hull's daughters:

The Innkeeper's Daughters

That's what Judy, Margot, and Deb Hull were nicknamed by their cousin Susie, because this local trio of sisters grew up with a dad who managed two major Northeast Kingdom inns during the 1950s and 1960s. Their father, Alden "Tony" Hull, ran both the Rabbit Hill Inn in Waterford and the St. Johnsbury House on Main Street in St. Johnsbury.

Alden was the youngest of five children, born in 1907, growing up in Leominster, Mass. He and his brother entered the U.S. military service when they grew up, and when their service years were over, the two found themselves talking in a bar in Massachusetts about what they might do next. A man named George Nicholas overheard them and offered them work. He said he had just purchased a hotel in St. Johnsbury and needed a manager. Tony took him up on the offer. Tony would have liked to purchase a place for his own hotel, and had an eye on a place in Lower Waterford that had been an inn in the past – but at that point was the private home of Mr. and Mrs. John Wesley Davies. Mrs. Davies had named her home Rabbit Hill. Tony couldn’t afford to purchase it, so George Nicholas did, instead! The purchase took place in the mid 1950s and by 1957 to Rabbit Hill Motor Inn had opened. Tony Hull then managed both of these Vermont inns full-time. His brother Raymond, nicknamed Ted, followed a similar path, buying his own inn to run in Colebrook, New Hampshire (Colebrook House).

At home on Cliff Street in St. Johnsbury, his daughters grew up knowing that many family meals would happen at the St. Johnsbury House: their Sunday dinners (after church, at North Congregational), and their birthday dinners as well. Summer dinners might be at the Rabbit Hill for the family, if Tony needed to check on things with Anita Oakes, who rain the day-to-day Rabbit Hill routines. Most especially, the family’s Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners happened at these inns, because Tony Hull had to work then! Judy says this turned out to be mostly very enjoyable for her mother, Margaret. When the girls became teens, they pitched in: Deb worked at whichever inn was short of staff, mostly waiting on tables, and worked two summers at the Rabbit Hill Inn. Judy worked some at the St. Johnsbury House, and maybe twice at the Rabbit Hill Inn, but she also has memories from age five of going with her father and exploring Lower Waterford village while he worked at the inn nearby. As a teen, she spent her working summers in Maine, instead.

The third sister, Margot, became a telephone operator in St. Johnsbury (eventually she would become a nurse), and Deb joined her at the switchboard until finding a career in education. Judy had a very different path ahead: While visiting her sister Deb and Deb’s husband Gary in Ft. Polk, Louisiana, she met Ron Groskopf, and soon the pair married and relocated eventually to Ron's hometown of Sonoma, California, in the famous "wine country." Ron created a business shipping the beverage, and after their three children grew up, Judy joined him in the business -- which they brought to Vermont with them when they decided to change locations to Judy's home region instead, after Tony Hull's death and that of Margaret, who lived her later years in East Burke and then St. Johnsbury again.

Altogether, Tony spent 25 years running hotels, a rewarding but very different career from his own father, who'd been a headmaster, an attorney, and then Speaker of the House in Massachusetts. Tony’s college years were spent at Bowdoin College in Maine (his sister and three brothers also pursued more education, including Raymond’s time at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy – when Judy reflects on them, she notes that such ambition and achievement were unusual and even amazing within one family in those years). Her father’s early passing at age 71, in 1979, meant his daughters didn't get to watch him enjoy retirement for very long. (Even in retirement, he kept busy, as a side judge for Caledonia County.) But the three daughters have good memories of their dad’s 25 years of managing the St. Johnsbury House, as well as the years in the 1950s and 1960s as manager of the Rabbit Hill Motor Inn.  Tony’s kitchen was famous for Sunday morning after-Mass popovers, and he was an ardent booster of St. Johnsbury. Regional historian Christopher Ryan (writing from California) recalls a day in 1951 when the St. Johnsbury Academy homemaking students (all girls) were invited to “run” the hotel and learn about the lodging industry; Tony also hosted sports banquets at his St. Johnsbury inn.

The “innkeeper’s daughters” all live in Vermont now -- two within half an hour of each other, and the third a couple of hours away.

Lower Waterford's Church: New Ways to Center the Community

The April 26, 2018, front page of the Caledonian-Record featured ongoing efforts by the Lower Waterford Congregational Church to maintain its historic structure and adapt to new ways of being the center of this Vermont Connecticut River community.

Of course, the church as a structure is the unmistakable focus of Lower Waterford. But it has changed in use since the mid 1800s, when attending church was a "must" for good citizens. This image from 1909 shows the structure when its wooden porch eased the way long-skirted ladies could step down from carriages.


In the second half of the 20th century, although the church congregation slowly reduced in size, keeping up the building continued, as shown here.

Now the church hosts summer and autumn worship services in collaboration with the Third Congregational Church in East St. Johnsbury, and collaborates with the town office, the neighboring Davies Memorial Library, and the Waterford Historical Society to provide meeting space for community events.

A search for grant support to encourage an ongoing role for the structure and its community spirit continues. Watch for updates on this year's campaign to support the village church as an essential component of 21st-century Lower Waterford, and beyond.