Tour - Five Walks Through Montpelier VT: Tour #4 - Elm Street Extended Loop

Five Walks Through Montpelier VT: Tour #4 - Elm Street Extended Loop

Montpelier, Vermont 05602, United States

Created By: Kiltumper Close Press

Tour Information

Hello, and welcome back! Tour #4 begins at the corner of Elm and School Streets. The complete loop from this point is about a mile in length. The stops are widely spread out on this one, so it’s a great option if you’d like to take an extended walk – or even a bike ride - without as much description. It ends at the Unitarian Church on Main Street, where Tour #3 picks up. I will let you know toward the end when we are rejoining the area that’s covered in that tour, so you won’t miss anything.

From this point we are going to start walking up Elm Street. You can choose either side of it, but our first stop will be a few blocks up at the city’s oldest cemetery, which is on the right-hand side of the street.

Tour Map

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What You'll See on the Tour

The Making of a Million Dollar View - 104 Elm Street

About a half-block up from the intersection with School Street, have a look at the large cliff on the left-hand side. At the top is the spectacular lookout point for the city view I mentioned in the last tour, and that viewing spot was la... Read more

A Grid-Shaped Meadow - Corner of Elm and Spring Streets

Walking further up the street, at the intersection of Elm and Spring we’re entering an area once known as Hubbard Meadow after its owners, the Hubbard family. On a map, you can see it’s the only neighborhood in town with a neatly laid o... Read more

Our Founding Family's Resting Place - 207 Elm Street

The cemetery at this location dates back to 1813 and is the oldest in the city. It was originally leased to the town by the honorable Jeduthun Loomis, an early upstanding citizen and Judge who agreed not to pasture cows and horses on the la... Read more

Our Big, Fat, Greek Love Affair - 241 Elm Street

Apart from the State House and Court House, we haven’t seen too many examples of this type of Greek Revival architecture on our tours, but here is one, and you’ll see a few more like it on this tour. They conjure a Southern antebellum s... Read more

A Butcher, Then a Baker - 279 Elm Street

We are honestly unrivaled when it comes to top-shelf bakeries in Montpelier, and this is another that should be on your pastry pilgrimage through the city. The shoebox-shaped building doesn’t look particularly historic but it dates back t... Read more

Vine Street Bridge: What IS a Samill, Anyway?!

I think of this part of town as one of Montpelier’s hidden gems. This pedestrian bridge crosses over a picturesque section of the North Branch called Waterman Falls, and it leads to a leafy green and shaded neighborhood that we are going ... Read more

The Birth of 2x4 Lumber - 3 Mechanic Street

Dennis Lane started out as a sawmill operator in Barre, but he was also an inventor, and a tinkerer. He kept adjusting and tweaking the machinery until he finally came up with a new technology he patented as the Lever Cut Circular Saw Mill.... Read more

The Old Hubbard Home - 14 Franklin Street:

At its apex, the Lane company had over 500 employees. It also comprised about 15 buildings in the Mechanic and Franklin Street area, so the atmosphere of the neighborhood was much more industrial at one time. It’s hard to imagine the belc... Read more

The City's First High School - Corner of Main and Franklin Streets:

Past the Hubbard house, you’ll come to Main Street Middle School as you near the end of Franklin. This started out in 1914 as the city’s first public high school. The current high school, built in 1956, is at the edge of town at the int... Read more

Around We Go! - 156 Main Street Roundabout

So now we’re here at Keck Circle, installed in the year 1995. It is not just Montpelier’s first roundabout, but the first modern roundabout on a state road in the entire country! How about us, huh?! At first the traffic got backed up be... Read more

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 th... Read more

Montpelier's "Arms Dealer" - 146 Main Street

Across the street from the inn you’ll see a brick house in the Greek Revival style. It was once the home of the famed Colonel Perley Pitkin. Along with being the fire chief and key partner in the Lane Manufacturing Company, he also served... Read more

The Boy Physician - 144 State Street

Next to the Pitkin home is a lovely house built in what’s known as the Gothic Revival Classic Cottage style, and after that is another Greek Revival beauty. This was built sometime around the 1820s by James Spaulding, who was Montpelier�... Read more

Welcome Back to Tour 3! - Corner of Main and School Streets

Welcome Back to Tour #3 It may seem like I’m skipping over the Trinity Methodist Church and the public library, but those two are covered in Tour #3. As you reach the intersection of School Street, we will also reach the end of this exten... Read more