A Creditor, A Senator, and A Carpenter Walk into a Hotel... - 147-149 Main Street

The Inn at Montpelier is spread between two buildings, one made of yellow-painted brick on the left, and a white-painted wooden one on the right. The Federal-style white house is the older of the two. Built around 1807, it’s another of the few remaining wooden frame houses from the early days of Montpelier.

A Finger in Too Many Pies
The first owners were Chester Houghton and his wife, Hetty. Chester was a feverishly active merchant in town. He had a general store, and a tavern, leased a distillery, was in the tin business, and then later invested heavily in a store, mill, and potash operation in Northfield. In short order, he became overextended and lost the house. His creditor briefly took possession before selling it to William Upham, a prominent lawyer who became a US Senator in 1842, one of only two Montpelier residents to hold the title. The other is Patrick Leahy, whose birthplace we saw in Tour #1.

By the time Senator Upham died, his widow sold the house to the owner of the yellow brick home next door. This was none other than James R. Langdon, who we’ve encountered a few times on these tours. At the time, the grand covered porch had not yet been added. It had been the home for many years of Dr. Edward Lamb, a revered physician lauded for losing only 3 of the 70 patients he treated during a spotted fever outbreak, most of whom he neglected to bill. In fact, he neglected to bill so many of his patients that his house was mortgaged to James Langdon many times over several years and he ultimately took possession when Dr. Lamb died. The two houses remained in the Langdon family until the death of James’s daughter Lizzie in 1924. The brick house next became the property of Alton and Bertha Baird, and the lane running between the two homes became Baird Street, which is no longer a through street.

The City’s Best-Dressed Carpenters
Baird was a carpenter who established a thriving construction business that was involved in many large projects throughout the city up until the 1970s, including the development of the town’s first brick apartment building in 1930, which is still in operation today and can be seen in the background behind the inn.

Baird’s crew of skilled carpenters assembled at the headquarters on Baird Street each morning, most in dress shirts and ties, over which they pulled coveralls before getting to work. My own grandfather, Nelson Paxman, was one of them. One of their more whimsical projects was the construction of an enormous wooden model of the State House in 1929. It served as a parade float during the dedication of the Crown Point Bridge over Lake Champlain when Vermont Governor John Weeks and New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt met in the middle to shake hands.

The model State House went missing for a number of years in the 1980s, which is a story in itself that I won’t get into, but thanks to the tireless detective work of one Paul H. Guare, it was located, restored and once more proudly rides through the streets of Montpelier in every parade. At all other times, you can visit it at the Morse Farm and Sugar House, which is a few miles up Main Street in East Montpelier.