Montpelier: Images of Vermont's Capital City

by Paul A. Carnahan, Bill Fish

Overview

Once a small clearing in the woods, Montpelier today sits at the center of Vermont's civic and cultural life. Its artists, legislators, innovators and leaders have made the nation's smallest state capital a crossroads for all. Glimpse the only surviving photographs of the second State House—taken just years before it burned—and the welcome given to Admiral George Dewey, fresh from victory in the Spanish-American War, by the largest crowd the city has ever seen. Survey the wreckage of the 1927 flood, learn how Montpelier's glorious historic district came to life and follow the footsteps of presidents passing through town.
Gathered together for the first time, these timeless images show Montpelier's citizens in their grittiest, saddest, happiest and most triumphant moments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596295018
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	10/14/2008
Series:	Vintage Images
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Paul Carnahan has been the librarian at the Vermont Historical Society since 1990. He has been active in the Montpelier Downtown Community Association and has also served on various ad hoc committees related to city planning. He was recently appointed to the Capital Complex Commission by the Montpelier City Council. As VHS librarian he created a physical and web exhibit entitled "Before the Golden Dome" about the buildings that surrounded the Vermont State House before the dome was gilded in 1907. Carnahan grew up in Brattleboro and is the author of The History of St. Michael's Episcopal Church, Brattleboro, Vermont (1982), and curated the exhibit "The River & the River Valley" for the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in 1983.

Bill Fish moved to Montpelier in 1994 and is an employee of Dartmouth Journal Services, currently as an Offshore Services Specialist. He has also had extensive newspaper experience, having worked for nine years at the San Diego Union-Tribune. Today, as an avid local history buff, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Montpelier Historical Society. In 2007, on behalf of the Society, he co-produced a calendar featuring old photos of the city, juxtaposed with modern images taken from the same vantage points.

Editorial Reviews

Montpellier, Vermont, obviously, is not as old as Montpellier, France, its namesake city, but its history does stretch back to the 18th century. Paula Carnahan's pictorial displays the city in all its radical change and soothing continuity. A tribute to one of the country's most beautiful state capitals.