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HORSE AUCTION, MAIN STREET, BRATTLEBORO
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Many photographs credited to the Brattleboro Historical Society have been posted lately, most of them by the Historical Society but a few of them, like this one, by others. This is one of the most remarkable examples - a time long gone by but still recognizably Brattleboro's Main Street.

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PHYSICAL THERAPY
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According to the best currently available information, the first step in the United States toward developing what we now know as physical therapy was taken at the Wesselhoeft Water Cure at the corner of Church and Elliot streets in Brattleboro (the current location of the central fire station).

https://archive.org/details/dr.-frederick-miller/mode/1up

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MAIN STREET, BRATTLEBORO, OPPOSITE HIGH STREET
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When I looked maybe an hour ago, guesses as to the date of this photograph were 1870s and 1890s.

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The attached photograph of Vermont Yankee is dated yesterday, May 20, 2026. Of the three comments posted so far, none express pleasure that the plant was shut down. Two take the opposite view.

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ISLAND PARK
HINSDALE - BRATTLEBORO
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This photograph of Island Park from the early 1900s is the most interesting depiction of the park I have seen. The Vernon Dam was started in 1907 and completed in 1909, raising the water level in the Connecticut River and greatly diminishing the island's size. The Retreat Meadow actually used to be a meadow with a very large vegetable garden. Since construction of the Vernon Dam, it has been a pond. A painting of Island Park (which I posted here awhile back) made not long before a great storm destroyed it shows Island Park as much smaller and it looked a lot less prosperous. Even without the storm Island Park may have run its course. The first customer for electricity from the Vernon Dam was Brattleboro's J. Estey & Co.

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THE BRATTLEBORO HOUSE
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I've never seen a photograph of this historic Brattleboro hotel before today. The original Estey organ works was opposite it in what I take to be the Food Coop parking lot. Great looking building.

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Notice [in the attachment] "Alpine" in the telephone number. The Alpine exchange, abbreviated AL, comes out as 25 on a telephone dial. Thus, Alpine 4-9824 is equivalent to 254-9824. Canal Street has been renumbered since, such that 48 Canal Street would now have a higher "house number," as they are called: I'd guess in the high double digits. Brattleboro streets were renumbered in 1913 - who knows why - and then again about 1998 to comply with the 911 system.

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BLAKE BLOCK
MAIN STREET, BRATTLEBORO
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The attached picture shows the Blake Block on Main Street in Brattleboro. Strange to say, the driveway to the left of the building seems to be Elliot Street.(!) This illustration was posted by Facebook's I Grew Up in Vermont group. The Blake Block may be my favorite historic Brattleboro building. It seems to have been a part of the early commercial development along Main Street that eventually led to moving the Town Hall from the West Village (West Brattleboro) to the East Village.

As far as can be told from a quick search online, Elliot Street was not significantly widened until the time of Harry Truman's presidency.(!)

The Smithsonian museum of American art has a depiction of the Blake Block right after the very destructive fire in 1869, which leveled buildings from Elliot to High Street.