A History of UVM Alumni House: Burlington’s Victorian Time Capsule
Researched and Written by Dan Brainerd ’21 and Emma LaRose ’21
FOREWORD
UVM Alumni House, originally constructed in 1892, is a historical gem. The beauty of the
building naturally draws our guests in; the comfort and good company often convinces them to
stay a while. Such a captive audience gives us the opportunity to creatively showcase our history, the history of the University of Vermont, and our historical place in the greater Burlington area and in Vermont. This book offers a unique perspective by using Alumni House as a lens through which to explore a variety of historical themes and stories.
One of the distinct pleasures of my role is the opportunity that I have to collaborate with undergraduate students on a daily basis. The breadth of knowledge, experience, and passion that exists within our campus community is a treasure that has already offered so much to Alumni
House, and as we continue to grow and engage with our students we will surely become ever richer.
This spring, I asked our Historical Research Interns to complete an ambitious project: write a book about Alumni House. Emma LaRose ’21 and Dan Brainerd ’21 had approximately twelve weeks to research, propose topics, devise a structure, and then dig into the actual process of writing.
(And rewriting, and editing, and rewriting again…) They spent countless hours researching, writing, revising, and restructuring their work. In the meantime, they also had to learn exactly how to make their writing come to life in the form of a real book. From those early drafts to the final print, what they have produced here is a reflection of their supportive teamwork, dedication, and
– of course – their passion for the study of history. All of the writing in this book is original, and attributed to Emma and Dan. I could not be more pleased to showcase their hard work here in the pages that follow.
2 The Historical Research Internship is a product of collaboration between Alumni House,
the UVM History Department, and the College of Arts & Sciences Internship Program. Dan and
Emma have been supported by professors, peers, and a university that values offering them hands-
on experience.
They have also been wholeheartedly supported by the UVM Foundation and the Alumni
Association team. Alan Ryea, Sarah Lenes, Jessica Dudley, Andrea Van Hoven, Eileen Dudley,
Kathy Erickson, Catherine Meyer, Jayne Airoldi, and Kim McCrae have all offered support for
this project in the form of knowledge and wisdom, enthusiasm for the vision of this internship, or
simply in their earnest commitment to making our students feel welcome. I feel compelled to steal a little bit of this preface to acknowledge the amazing team that continues to be so supportive of student success at Alumni House.
As a former history major, it is more than a treat to work every day in such a historic building. Here at Alumni House, you can literally reach out and touch living history. This book
will guide you on a historical journey through the house, and offer a glimpse of what life was like
127 years ago. I encourage you to stay a while and explore. The UVM Alumni House is a true time
capsule, and it stands now as a testament to the value of historical memory.
Patrick Maguire Operations Manager UVM Alumni House
3 PREFACE
The central theme of this book is the history of Alumni House, previously known as the
Delta Psi House and before that, the Edward Wells House. This house will serve as our starting point for a deeper investigation into this land, Burlington, and the UVM community in the late nineteenth century. Each chapter explores a different subject. Some of these subjects are broad, while some more directly relate to this house and the family who once lived here. This book offers a unique look at the Victorian Era with a distinct focus that separates it from other historical literature on the era.
A story is a necessary part of any place. It tells us how that place came into existence and how it has become what it is now. This book gives the UVM Alumni House a story. It also gives stories to individuals and groups during the Victorian Era. History is the study of the past. The
Alumni House is part of the past in the sense that its architecture, design, and documents can teach us about another time, as well as the social and cultural influences that shaped people’s lives in the area during that period.
We had a lot of fun working on this book, but it was also quite challenging at times.
Probably our biggest challenge was time. We only had one semester to research, decide on a structure for this book, and then actually write it. Additionally, we both had classes with work that demanded our attention as well. With more time, we would have liked to delve further into
Burlington history and learn more about the individuals that really shaped this city in the nineteenth century.
Some of the fun aspects of this process were our multiple trips to UVM Special Collections where we looked at photos. Holding these materials in our gloved hands was a mystical experience because there we were, two people in the twenty-first century, holding in our hands photos that
4 have been around for over a century. This particular experience really brought us back to why we
became history majors in the first place. Another aspect of this experience that we really enjoyed
was coming to the house and getting to utilize it as a primary source on homes of the Victorian
Era. This was such a different experience than being in a class learning about the study of history.
We were able to apply skills that we learned in our history classes, but we did not conduct this in
a classroom setting. That was probably one of the most enjoyable aspects of this project because
after being in school for so many years, it is fun to experience a different way of learning. Overall, this process was very enlightening and we learned a lot about the study of history. Even a small case study such as the Alumni House can teach us a great deal about history, culture, and change over time.
We hope that you enjoy this book. We learned so much from our research and we are
excited to share this history with you.
Emma LaRose ’21 Dan Brainerd ’21 Historical Research Interns UVM Alumni House April 2019
5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book exists due to the vision, support, wisdom, and shared expertise of many
individuals who have helped us along the way. We are incredibly grateful and would like to take
this opportunity to thank each of them.
We would first like to thank the CAS Internship Program and the UVM history department for helping to make this internship possible in the first place. Patrick Maguire is the operations manager at the Alumni House and he deserves a great deal of credit for all the help he gave us.
Patrick was our de facto mentor and gave us his original vision for this project. Thank you, Patrick, for the countless words of inspiration, edits and believing in our ability when we were lost. We couldn’t have written this book without you.
We also want to thank many of the other folks at the Alumni House for all they helped us with. A huge thank you to Jessica Dudley for helping us to understand all that goes into marketing for a project like this. There’s a lot to know, and Jessica was a wonderful guide throughout all of this and is always smiling and happy to help, or just to talk. A huge thank you to Kathy Erickson as well, who helped us understand the vast amount of information an author should consider while looking at the layout of a book. Kathy, you were pivotal in helping us figure out how to craft this book and make it more exciting for those reading it. Thanks for all of your positivity and support.
Finally, we’d like to thank everyone in the UVM community who helped this book come
to life. Prudence and the team of archivists at Special Collections were fundamental in the making
of this book. They were the ones who helped us with research and finding quality historical
photographs to include in our book. The Special Collections archivists are amazing people, a huge
thank you to them. Finally, thanks to the curatorial team at the Fleming Museum for helping us
6 understand how public history differs from academic history. Without meeting with these nice folks, we wouldn’t have known how to write this kind of book.
7 CHAPTER 1
Edward Wells: Home and Family
On July 23, 1886, Effie Wells purchased this piece of land at 61 Summit Street, nestled in the Hill Section of Burlington. Within six years she and her husband, Edward, had completed their beautiful mansion on the hill with sweeping views of Lake Champlain. The house would stand as a testament to the splendor that wealth could bring in the Victorian era, and would serve as a home for Effie, Edward, and his daughter, Anna.
What is it that makes a house a home though? Is it nights spent in the company of family and friends? Coming home and sharing a meal with loved ones? Or is it simpler: do the people sharing a house make it a home? Since 1892, this house has been a home for many: The Wells family, generations of Delta Psi brothers, and now for UVM alumni and friends.
The Wells family boasts a long and storied history. Hugh Wells, born around 1590 in
Essex, England, was the first recorded member of the Wells family.1 He ventured to New England in 1635. Once he arrived, he lived in either Salem or Rister. Soon after that, he went to live in the
Hartford, Connecticut area. Hugh Wells’ son, Thomas, was born in 1620 in Colchester, England and he joined his family on their journey to the New World in 1635. Thomas lived in Hadley,
Massachusetts from 1659 until he died in 1676. Ebenezer Wells, son of Thomas, was born in 1668 in Hadley and later lived in Hatfield. Ebenezer’s son Thomas was born in Greenfield,
Massachusetts in 1693. He would go on to become a surgeon and physician. Joseph Wells, son of
Dr. Thomas Wells, was born on October 8, 1731, in Deerfield. Joseph died in Greenfield December
22, 1804. His son Roswell was born on September 9, 1769.
Previously, Wells had been spelled Welles but Roswell changed this to Americanize it.
Roswell relocated to Waterbury, Vermont in 1805 and remained there until his death on July 26,
8 1826. This was the first time a member of the Wells family lived in Vermont. William Wellington
Wells was Roswell’s oldest son. William attended the University of Vermont and graduated in
1824. Initially, William was interested in the legal profession but he came to realize that he wished to be involved with the family business. In 1827 he became part of Hutchins, Wells & Company in Waterbury. William appeared to be a jack of all trades: in 1830, he started a tannery in
Waterbury, followed by a grist mill in 1835. On top of this, he owned a dry goods store in
Waterbury and also found time to serve in the Vermont legislature. William married Eliza Wells, daughter of Judge Dan Carpenter, on January 15, 1831. Together they had ten children, of which two died in their infancy. Edward Wells was born in Waterbury, Vermont on October 30, 1835.
In his youth, Edward Wells took a single course at Bakersfield Academy, and never went to college. He worked in a dry-goods store and then his father’s store early in his career, eventually becoming a clerk during the Civil War.
William Wells, the brother of Edward Wells, was born on
December 14, 1837, in Waterbury, Vermont. He enlisted in
the first regiment of Vermont Cavalry in 1861 at the beginning
of the Civil War. William Wells joined the ranks as a private
and quickly rose to the title of major general by 1863. During
this year his regiment fought at Gettysburg, tasked with
charging the Confederate soldiers in what seemed like a
suicide mission. This served a vital role for the Union in
winning the battle, though, and kept the Confederates at bay
for enough time so that Union reinforcements could come.
William Wells was a general in charge of 4 companies at Wells, Richardson and Company Building (All photos courtesy of UVM Special Collections)
9 Gettysburg, on the left flank of the Union army. William emerged from the war as the most decorated soldier from the state of Vermont and was given a medal of honor. There are 2 matching statues of William Wells, one of them in Battery Park here in Burlington, the other in Military
Park at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Edward was the principal clerk for the Vermont State Treasurer after the war until 1868.
Then he went to work at the wholesale drug firm, Henry & Company of Waterbury and Burlington.
In 1872 this company came into Wells’ hands and it became the dye and drug manufacture: Wells,
Richardson & Company. He was president of the Burlington Trust Company (1892-1907), vice president of Burlington Cotton Mills, and vice president of Burlington Safe Deposit Company.2
Some of the products Wells, Richardson & Company offered were Improved Butter Color,
Diamond Dyes, and patent medicines. Mass marketing was a very important aspect to the success
of the company. Wells and Richardson employed the technique of testimonial, in which a local
person would testify to the effectiveness of the drugs that the company sold, though many of the
drugs were full of alcohol or laced with cocaine. The company was the most profitable business in
Burlington at its height but began to come under scrutiny in the early twentieth century with the
introduction of the Food and Drug Administration.
.3
Wells, Richardson and Company Advertisements 10 The building of Edward Wells’ house began in July 1891.4 This was around the time of the
peak of success of the Wells and Richardson Company. In 1906, one year before Edward died, the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was created. FDA regulation would inevitably be the
downfall of many patent medicine businesses like Wells, Richardson, & Co. Construction of the
Wells House was completed in 1892 just in time for Christmas. In total, the house cost $100,000.
Today that would be $2,777,758.24. The architect of the house, responsible for the exterior and
interior design, was Edgar Allen Poe Newcomb (1846-1924) of Boston.
Edgar Allen Poe Newcomb (not to be confused with the poet) was born in 1846 and died
in 1923. Newcomb wrote all of the blueprints for the Wells House by hand, a common practice
during this period of time. Many of Newcomb’s works were in Boston or Honolulu, Hawaii.5
At the age of 16, Edgar dropped out of high school at age 16 in order to pursue the
architecture business under his father.6 He spent 30 years working at his father’s business, L.
Newcomb and Son, and he toured Europe multiple times to admire the religious architecture there, which was his primary interest.7
Newcomb worked on many religious buildings, especially churches, all across the country.
His work includes the First Baptist Church in Haverhill, MA, the First Universalist Church in
Boston, and the First Baptist Church in Portland, ME. He was not strictly limited to religious architecture, though. Newcomb also designed Northern Union Station in Boston, other private houses, and of course the Alumni House as we know it today.8
Newcomb’s interests went beyond architecture. He was also an accomplished bass vocalist who sang in multiple choirs around the United States.9 He was also a songwriter during the time
of his architectural career and spent much time in the pursuit of music.10 He composed over 50
songs including a lilting lullaby entitled “Slumber Song.”11
11
On May 9, 1894, Edward Wells bought the rest
of the land on the Summit Street plot, known
as the Grasse Mount property. The Grasse
Mount property began at the end of Summit
Street closest to Main Street and extended up
to the end of the Wells House. After purchasing
the rest of the property in 1894, Wells Edward Wells House continued working with Wells, Richardson, and Company. As he continued his work, his family
grew, and his daughter, Anna, was becoming a young woman. During the late-1890s she was
beginning to reach marriage age. Wells hosted many parties in the house hoping that his daughter
would meet somebody so that she could marry. She eventually married James Greenleaf Sykes on
June 12, 1901, and the couple moved to New York. Only a few years later, on February 19th, 1907,
Edward Wells died in a Florida Hotel while on vacation with his family.
Anna Wells was Edward Well’s daughter from his first marriage. Her step-mother did not leave the house to her. She left the property to Henry L. Ward and he sold it to the Delta Psi fraternity in 1924.
Effie Wells was described as an avid reader and very opinionated. Before her death, her
relationship with Anna had soured; there was a lack of trust between Mrs. Wells and her step-
daughter. This ultimately led to a 1920 court case over the house. One incident, described in The
Burlington Free Press on March 31, 1920, involved Mrs. Wells sending one of Anna’s daughters
a monetary gift. The granddaughter sent a thank you note, but later sent a note returning the money
because her parents did not wish her to keep it. This was very upsetting to Mrs. Wells. Another
12 area of disagreement between the two women was Henry Ward. Henry Ward was one of the
trustees of the Wells property and Mrs. Wells saw him as the only one able to prevent Anna and
Mr. Sykes from taking over the property. The issue at hand in this court case was whether Mrs.
Wells was sane when she made her last will in 1917.12
The attorneys of Mrs. Sykes tried to show that Henry Ward had “undue influence” over
Effie and that “she was of unsound mind when she made the will.”13 Bullard, one of the lawyers, argued that Henry Ward had tried to cause a rift between Effie and her family. Mr. Ward’s lawyer argued that the Sykes had tried to make life very difficult for him and this was just another manifestation of that. Since the Sykes were unsuccessful in getting rid of Ward as a trustee, they aided in his departure from the Burlington Trust Company. Ward’s lawyer also argued that “Mr.
Ward’s relations to Mrs. Wells were those of business, helper, and friend.”14 After two months,
the Jury finally determined that the will was what Effie Wells intended it to be, and she was not
being coerced in any way or in an altered mental state. Anna Wells Sykes lost her case and did not
inherit the Wells House.
It’s naturally interesting to discover the origins of a place, and this is what the story of
Edward Wells gives us: an origin story of the unique and beautiful Victorian building now known
as the Alumni House. Knowing about the family that lived in the Wells House can also tell a person
about how architecture was defined by cultural values in the Victorian era. What did wealth and upper-class cultural tastes say about how a house was designed? Read on to learn more about
Victorian architecture and its cultural and social implications.
13
1 Hiram Carleton, Genealogical and Family History of the State of Vermont, (New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1903). 2 Chittenden County Historical Society, Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods Vol. II (Burlington, VT: Chittenden County Historical Society, 1997), 148. 3 Chittenden County Historical Society, Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods Vol. II, 49. 4 Chittenden County Historical Society, Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods Vol. II, 147. 5 Article, “Famous Architect Dead Here” The Honolulu Advertiser, 11 Nov. 1923, https://www.newspapers.com/image/258500839/?terms=Edgar+Allen+Poe+Newcomb. 6 Article, “Famous Architect Dead Here” The Honolulu Advertiser. 7 Article, “Eminent Architect Arrives in this City” The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, 12 Jan. 1901, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1901-01-12/ed-1/seq-3/. 8 Article, “Eminent Architect Arrives in this City” The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. 9 G.H. Wilson, The Boston Musical Yearbook Vol. I, (Boston: Geo. H. Ellis, 1884), 49, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044040443590;view=1up;seq=111. 10 Article, “Eminent Architect Arrives in this City” The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. 11 Library of Congress, Catalogue of Copyright Entries Part 3: Musical Compositions, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1919), 567. 12 Article, The Burlington Free Press, March 31, 1920, https://www.newspapers.com/image/197914275/?terms=anna%2Bwells. 13 Article, Burlington Daily News, May 26, 1920, https://www.newspapers.com/image/355464671/?terms=anna%2Bwells. 14 Article, Burlington Daily News, May 26, 1920, https://www.newspapers.com/image/355464672/.
14 CHAPTER 2
Architecture and the Victorian Home
Victorian Home
A key component of understanding any time period is understanding how people lived.
One way to gain this understanding is through the home. The way a home was designed provides a lot of information about the people who built the homes and the people who lived in them. In the
Victorian Era, each room had a distinct purpose. The color that was picked for the walls, the color
of the floor, and the size of the furniture were all crafted by architects and designers. These things
had implications for how the owners of the home were seen, whether they had good taste or not,
and for the functionality of the home. A home cannot be removed from the historical context within
which it was built. Alumni House, in this way, serves as a time capsule – a window into the design,
symbolism, and personal meaning of homes in the Victorian Era.
Victorian Styles
Home design styles fluctuated quite a bit during the Victorian Era. Different periods within
this era favored different things. Yet there was also quite a lot of overlap between styles and, not
unlike today, homes often contained furniture and décor from a variety of inspirations. The
Industrial Revolution greatly altered the possibilities of the average middle-class consumer. People
no longer had to have each item made specifically for their needs by a carpenter; factories supplied
ready-made standard furniture. For the first time, people could flip through catalogs and decide
what they liked. Since factories could turn more items out at a time with more cost-efficiency than
a person hand making the furniture could, it suddenly became a lot cheaper for the middle class to
buy furniture. The Industrial Revolution allowed the middle class to emulate and participate in the
popular style trends in a way they had never been able to do.
15 The beginning of mail order catalogs in the 1870s and 1880s had a huge impact on the
consumer. People could buy the latest furniture style from a catalog. This increased the availability,
affordability, and accessibility of furniture. It could be delivered to the closest railroad station and
then home. In her book on Victorian homes, Plante said that “For the first time in history, working- class families could savor the household luxuries that had long been enjoyed by the wealthy.”1
From the 1830s to the 1860s cherry and mahogany were the popular woods for making
furniture. Pieces of furniture had discreet rectangular lines and were often plain and elegant with
gilt and paw feet. Between 1840 and 1860 rosewood and oak were used, along with gothic arches,
spool turnings, and carved trefoils. Between 1850 and 1870 there was a Rococo Revival. Furniture
was upholstered and was made of rosewood and black walnut. Carved fruits, flowers, birds, vines,
and tendrils were common features. Gilded mirrors and marble tabletops also featured during this
time period. In the 1850s and 1860s cast-iron furniture, accessories for the home, and garden were
popular. The Renaissance Revival occurred between the 1860s and 1880s. This involved large
French-inspired furniture that was primarily carved from walnut.2
During the Late Victorian Period, between the 1870s and 1890s Eastlake style furniture was popular in the United States.3 These were rectangular and had less additional features than
earlier styles. Cherry, walnut, oak, ash, and chestnut were used during this time. Furniture was not
very large nor very small. It was accentuated with lines, geometric patterns, and brass drawer pulls.
From the 1870s onwards to the turn of the century Japanese-inspired designs were popular. People were infatuated with the so-called “exotic.”4 The 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia
influenced Victorians in their wish to have “exotic” things in their homes.5 The Centennial
Exhibition was a key event during the 19th century as it displayed many of the new technologies
and inventions of the time. It was a type of world’s fair similar to the Great Exhibition in London
16 in 1851.6 It was held to commemorate one hundred years since the Declaration of Independence
was signed.7 During this time souvenirs, Japanese screens, fans, and wicker furnishings were
present in homes.8
Cottage style furniture became the furniture of the working class as it cost less than the more formal styles.9 This furniture was made with softwoods, such as pine, poplar, and birch.10
This furniture was then painted in light colors.
Aside from considering the furniture that would have filled the homes of people living
during the Victorian Era, it is also interesting to consider the other ways in which individuals
would choose to decorate their homes. Wallpaper is one aspect that allows us to visualize what a
home during this period would have been like. There were landscape scenes, nature scenes,
historical papers featuring prominent figures, architectural papers, ashlar papers, and
frocked/velvet papers.11 Striped papers and ones with small, overall designs were typical of
bedrooms. Wallpaper in the 1840s began to be made by machines, which allowed the Middle Class
to access it.12 One person who designed wallpaper during the Victorian Era was William Morris.
The patterns for the wallpaper were “distinctive for their soft, flat colors, their stylized natural
forms, their symmetry and their sense of order.”13 Gibbons showed how Morris “created structure
through his designs by building strong, rhythmic and fluid lines from the shapes of leaves, vines,
and branches.”14
Windows, traditionally something we use to look outward, also give us an opportunity to peer inside when it comes to the world of Victorian home design. In the 1830s and 1840s windows were usually covered with shutters, Venetian blinds, fabric roller blinds, or a simple treatment with two curtains and a valance. In the 1850s, the coverings of a window became more of an art. It was common for middle-class parlor windows to consist of more than one layer such as a shade, glass
17 curtain, under-curtain, valance, ornate drapery made of velvet, brocade, or cotton damask. Lastly,
the floor is another element of the room that can provide a fuller picture of what sitting in a room
would have been like. Floors were painted or covered with floor cloth, matting, or wall to wall
carpet. In the 1850s carpeting was less expensive than in earlier decades so people started to see it
as a necessary feature of the parlor.15
There were multiple design movements that impacted the styles within homes during the
Victorian Era. The Aesthetic movement was one such style that emerged in the 1880s. This style
focused on the study of beauty.16 Some features of this style were peacock feathers and bamboo
furniture. Another movement that was influential to the Victorian style was Art Nouveau in the
1890s.17 This involved adding features of romantic design, like floral motifs, flowing swirls, and
curves, to the home. Tiffany glasswork was popular. The most well-known characteristic of Art
Nouveau is “its undulating, asymmetrical line, often taking the form of flower stalks and buds,
vine tendrils, insect wings, and other delicate and sinuous natural objects; the line may be elegant
and graceful or infused with a powerfully rhythmic and whiplike force.”18 A third style that existed
in the U.S. in the 1890s was Arts and Crafts.19 This style started in England in the 1860s and came
from William Morris and John Ruskin.20 The Arts and Crafts Movement was a reaction to the
Industrial Revolution.21 The Industrial Revolution made everything the same- it was not artistic or
imaginative in the sense that, increasingly, clothing, furniture, and basic goods were produced in
mass quantities by factories and therefore not unique. William Morris criticized the Industrial
Revolution for this reason.22 In 1861 he formed Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company.23 In
1875 this became Morris and Company.24 It was “dedicated to recapturing the spirit and quality of
medieval craftsmanship.”25 “‘The firm’ was run as an artists’ collaborative, with the painters providing the designs for skilled craftsmen to produce.”26 Gustav Stickley introduced this style to
18 the U.S. There was supposed to be a “harmonious union of art and craftsmanship.”27 The appeal
of the dark oak and severe lines began to ebb.
Victorian Home
The whole nature of the home changed during the Victorian Era. The size of homes
increased and with this so did the number of rooms. There were alterations in the way a room was
designed. The kitchen, the dining room, the sitting room, the parlor, the library, and the bedroom
all changed over the course of the Victorian Era and are important when thinking about what the
Victorian home looked like. The size and number of rooms of the Edward Wells House indicate
the wealth of the owner and his ability to have a home with purpose-specific rooms.
The dining room is one room that emerged during the Victorian Era. This room had not
been very common in homes before this time because homes were simply not that big to warrant
a separate space for dining. In the early nineteenth century, only the wealthy had a purpose-specific
dining room. It was common for the middle class to dine in the sitting room. With an increase in
the economic wellbeing of many, homes were built quickly and space for dining became the norm.
As a result of this transformation, furniture manufacturers began to make dining room sets.28
In the early Victorian period, the dining room was situated on the first floor near the kitchen. In a row house in a city, the dining room was in the half-basement. By the 1870s the dining room tended to be on the ground floor and if the kitchen was still located in the basement a dumbwaiter was used to bring the food upstairs. With the advent of this space came new rituals. If one was having a dinner party, invitations were sent to the guests. It would be considered very rude to not respond to this invitation even if you were unable to attend.29
19 Now let us imagine that you were around in the Victorian Era so that you can better
visualize the rituals of dining. You are now visiting the home of a wealthy merchant, like Edward
Wells, in a large family home such as Alumni House. As you walk into the dining room imagine
a dinner party comprising of six to ten guests. Pretend that you were one of those guests. As a
guest, you would have sat in the parlor before eating and would have only headed to the dining
room after having been told to by the host. Once you got to the dining room you would have seen
names at each place. The place at the table you were given would have been very deliberate
because it was important that there was good conversation during the meal. Awkward situations
were not a situation that a good hostess would have wanted to facilitate through her seating arrangements. Now that you are at your seat you would have seen many food items. If this dinner was happening during the early Victorian years you would have noticed two white tablecloths on the table and a rug underneath the table. Once all of the guests finished eating dinner the top table cloth was taken off and dessert was put on the remaining cloth. After dessert, the bottom table
cloth was removed. Fruit and coffee were put on the uncovered table.30
The ritual was changed a bit in the 1870s with all of the food being put on the sideboard
and the servants being responsible for all of the carving. This allowed there to be a more decorative
centerpiece in the middle of the table and the host/hostess would be able to pay more attention to
their guests. The tablecloth that was used was white damask or lace. Flowers, mosses, or ferns were used for decoration. The tablecloth was left on after dinner and the crumbs were “brushed off” and then dessert was put out.31
While you are still picturing yourself in the dining room of a wealthy Victorian person’s
home it is wise to consider what furniture you would have seen and been sitting on. If your dinner
party took place in the middle of the nineteenth century it is likely that the furniture would have
20 been of the Renaissance Revival style. This furniture was usually made of walnut. However, if the
dinner party you were at was in the 1870s Eastlake furniture would have been utilized. This
furniture was less elaborate but still incorporated “recessed burled veneer panels, marble tops, and
decorative shelves and mirrors were often featured on Eastlake sideboards.”32
Moving on to another room that incorporated rituals: the parlor. There was a lot of guidance in the Victorian Era provided by books and manuals. One such book was Palliser’s American
Cottage Homes from 1878.33 These architectural plans showed smaller homes with sitting rooms
or living rooms, but larger homes like the brownstone and homes in the cities had parlors. These
parlors were meant to be formal and were used for hosting guests. Parlors were usually at the front
of the house and were often sectioned off from the sitting room by wooden pocket doors or by the
front hall.
Now place yourself in a different day in another upper-class Victorian home in the
nineteenth century, but this time you are in the parlor. This parlor, that you are in, would have been
at the front of the house and were often sectioned off from the sitting room by wooden pocket
doors or by the front hall. It is sometime between the hours of noon and five. You have come to
make a morning call. You have been careful not to come when the lady of the house was eating
her midday meal. The door was answered by the servant and you gave them your calling card to
give to the lady of the house. Since the lady was not busy you have been invited into the parlor.
While waiting you are mindful not to wander around because that is unacceptable behavior.
However, you cannot help admiring and assessing what this particular lady has assembled in her
parlor. Once the lady comes into the parlor and pleasantries have been exchanged conversation
begins. Political, religious, or controversial topics were not appropriate for conversation. You
would not expect to be served food as that was reserved for a planned meeting. If the mistress of
21 the home was occupied with needlework when you arrived, assuming that you were a friend, she
would continue working on it as it would not distract her from talking. Once you have finished
with your call you would be escorted out by the hostess or a servant. These are the rituals that
govern your morning call. If you had made an evening call they would have been a little different.
Your morning call would only last for, at most, a half an hour. Evening calls were made by friends
so there was less ceremony to them. These calls would last longer but would be before 9 pm so as
not to catch the family in bed.34
If your call was made prior to the early 1870s the furniture would have been of a similar
style. Before the end of this decade, it became a mixture of furniture styles. If the parlor you were
in was that of a middle-class home there would have been factory made sets of parlor furniture. If
it was a parlor in the home of a wealthy person the furniture would have been from the
Cabinetmaker’s shop. Parlor sets often featured a sofa, an armchair, and a lady’s chair. A lady’s chair was designed to meet the needs of the large dresses of the era. You would have also seen a fireplace. This would be the most elaborate fireplace in the house, often incorporating tile, woodwork, and the mantle would be used as a display area. The fire screen would also be decorated with a canvas of needlework or a scene of nature. When it was not the season to use a fireplace a bouquet of flowers might be put in front of the hearth.35
The parlor was not only used for making calls. The parlor was also the place where
weddings, receptions, and family funerals would occur. Since it was a place where guests were
received and entertained it was quite a public room, therefore you would have wanted your parlor
to be the best room in the house. The parlor was usually only used for social occasions unless there
was not a sitting room.36
22 Now briefly reimagine that dinner party you attended. If it had been in the mid-nineteenth century women would have headed to the parlor after dinner and the men would have stayed at the table or gone to the library. But this ritual changed in the late Victorian period with men and women going to the parlor after dinner for conversation or entertainment. It was common to play the card game whist, act out Shakespeare, or play charades.37
Time for you to place yourself in still another Victorian home. This time you are looking
at the library. If you were in the home of a person of the middle class there would not always be a
room dedicated to the library so part of the sitting room would serve this function. However, the
home you are in has a library. You notice immediately that there is something different about this
room. You are correct in noting this difference. The library was a room that was distinct from the
other areas of the Victorian home as it was a distinctly masculine area. This could be picked up on
immediately just based on the décor. Decorations were related to hunting, smoking, business, and
anything that did not seem too feminine. The library was decorated with dark colors and the
furniture was often large and comfortable. There were often upholstered armchairs, footstools,
sofas, chairs, tables, desks, and bookshelves. The wealthy would have built-in bookshelves, with
glass doors, along the walls. The wallpaper or paint was usually red, green, or blue.38
From the 1870s to the 1890s shutters were common in libraries particularly if the man of
the house liked to smoke. Curtains would pick up this scent, but shutters would not. These shutters
would be stained to correspond with the woodwork or the color of the room. The library was
supposed to feel grand. There would be fringed scarves placed across tabletops, crystal decanters
filled with liquor, smoking paraphernalia on his desk, a fancy clock, and the family’s book
collection.39
23 If you were visiting a home at the beginning of the Victorian Era the lighting that was
available in the library was light from candles and the fire. As the nineteenth century progressed a
kerosene student’s lamp was a suitable item for a desk. In the late nineteenth century homes with
electricity often had a combination fixture in the library which could use either gas or electricity.
This was used as electric power was not that reliable at the time.40
The library was an important aspect of any Victorian home as acquiring knowledge was a
pursuit the Victorians were very interested in. Plante notes the importance of libraries: “A library
in some form was considered an important part of the household and in fact, became a status
symbol – a measure of success and a barometer of social standing and worldliness”41
The next room for you to visualize is the sitting room. In this room, you also sense that it
is different than the other rooms you saw. The sitting room was a space quite different from the
dining room and the parlor. This space was meant for the family. It was not a space where
entertaining or receiving of guests took place. This room was usually located on the first floor
behind the rooms devoted to more public activities, but it could be on the second floor. You
observe the light colors on the walls and the simple covering of the windows. This room was where
the family spent a lot of time, yet it was considered to be part of the realm of the mistress of the
house. The room was decorated with feminine taste. If there was no library in the home the family’s
books would be in this room. If there was not a music room, which was usually only in homes of
the wealthy, the piano would be in this room.42
This room was meant to be comfortable and practical as it was where the family spent a lot of time and was not meant to impress others. If the floor was made of softwood it would be painted and have a rug or carpet over it. It was the same for the hardwood floor. The reason for rugs that
24 could be removed was that it was easier to clean them. Tapestry rugs were common in the sitting
room. The ceilings of the sitting room were usually kept simple.43
On to the kitchen as your tour of a Victorian home nears its completion. If you are visiting
a kitchen in a home at the beginning of the Victorian period there were still large fireplaces and
cooking hearths, similar to the Colonial style. The Colonial style of kitchens incorporated objects
that were present during the Colonial Era. A large fireplace was a common element of these
kitchens. However, if your visit took place in the 1850s wood- or coal-burning cast-iron stoves or ranges were popular. Another factor in determining what you would observe in your tour of the kitchen would be the location of the home. During this time period, there was a difference between a kitchen in the city and one in the country. The kitchen of a home in the country would be a homey room and a place for the family to eat. The kitchen of a city home was the realm of the servants.
The family in city homes would be in the parlor, dining room, library, or sitting room. The kitchen was not their domain or the center of their life. Kitchens in large mansions such as Alumni House tended to be in a wing of the house, in the basement, or in another building. The reason for this out of the way location is people did not want the heat or the smells of the kitchen to negatively impact their guests.44
The change in the perception of and location of the kitchen began with the publication, in
1869, of the American Woman’s Home by Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe. This
work advocated for a new type of kitchen that was structured in such a way as to be efficient. They
suggested built-in work areas and storage bins, which was quite different than the “freestanding
kitchen cupboards” common at the time.45
In the 1870s the insertion of gas lines and indoor plumbing in cities and towns resulted in the kitchen being moved from the basement to the first floor at the back of the house.46
25 One interesting effect of the Industrial Revolution is that there was a shortage of domestic
servants because of the availability of alternative work: factory jobs. The domestic servants that
were available were expensive. As a result, women of the middle class in the 1880s and 1890s had
to tend to their own kitchens. Since these Victorian women were more involved in the kitchen,
new “gadgets”, to make tasks easier and more efficient, came into being. The availability of
packaged and canned goods changed the kitchen from a site of production to one of consumption.
Cookbooks and “household manuals” also came to be popular during this time because people had
to learn how to use the new items in their kitchen.47
People also began to care more about the way their kitchen looked. In the 1880s and early
1890s wooden wainscoting was common in the middle-class kitchen. Chintz or muslin were the materials of the curtains of these kitchens. Green plants were also used as decoration. There were usually pine tables, dressers, and cupboards, which added warmth to the space.48
The spread of disease came to be a worry of the 1890s and 1900s, which affected the nature
of the kitchen. White tiles came into fashion in place of the dirt concealing wooden wainscot. Tile,
brick, or linoleum was used on floors. There was a white porcelain sink attached to the wall. The
plumbing was out in the open. The “sanitary kitchen” was popular up until the 1920s.49
The kitchen flooring of the middle-class was soft pine in the early 1800s. This wood was typically painted grey, dark green or red, or deep mustard yellow. A wealthy home would have brick flooring. Oilcloths would cover the wood floors. Initially, these oilcloths were handmade but by the middle of the nineteenth century, they could be bought at a store.50
During the late Victorian period, tile was a popular flooring material for the wealthy. Tile
was still too expensive for it to be common among the middle class, and therefore many kitchen
floors were still made out of wood. However, painting the floor went out of favor in the 1870s so
26 wood was varnished. Linoleum was also used as flooring. This material came into existence in
England in the 1860s and was able to be purchased in America in the 1870s. Linoleum was
appealing because it was not that expensive and sturdy.51 It looked like the costlier tile, so it was
in style at the time.52
The final stop on your tour of the Victorian home is the bedroom. For this, you have to do
some stair climbing. With the increase of the size of homes in the 19th-century bedrooms were
placed on the second and third floor.53 The family would have more spacious rooms at the front of the house on the second floor. Servants would have smaller rooms in the back or on the third floor.
If your visit was at the beginning of the Victorian era you would have seen four-poster beds with canopies. You would have also seen American Empire sleigh beds. But your visual would be different in the middle of the nineteenth century when factory made bedroom suites became available. Factory made beds had high headboards. Wooden bedsteads were not popular in the late
1800s. Middle-class Victorians utilized spool beds made in factories and cottage furniture to outfit
their bedrooms. Brass and iron beds were available by the late 1870s and talked about in Charles
Eastlake’s book Hints on Household Taste. The 1890s was when iron and brass beds became
common. Part of the bedroom was designated as a dressing area which was used as a bathroom
until real bathrooms emerged.54
27 The ventilation of bedrooms was subject to discussion at this time. In the American
Woman’s Home Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe discuss the problems of a room
lacking in ventilation. This was during the time that there was a concern with disease and one way
that disease was thought to be prevented was clean air. Bedrooms came to be light instead of dark
with carpets, wallpapers, and ornately carved furniture.
The commonplace bedroom of the late 1800s was
painted with light colors or wallpaper and had wood
floors with rugs. There was less furniture in the late
Victorian era than in previous periods. Brass and iron
beds also came into use in the 1890s following the
Victorian home interior cleanliness concerns.55
People of the Victorian Era put time and effort into gardens, front porches, and piazzas.56 These features became a part of the living space. Wicker, which is made of rattan, reed, willow, and cane, was common in these settings. The open-weave design became commonplace after 1900 as it cost less. Victorian home interior
Victorian Architecture
Architecture tells us as much about a home as the interior design. The way a home was
supposed to look from the outside reflects the values of the architect and the people of the period.
The architecture also gives us insight into the technologies of the period and the values of the
people building these homes. A good-sized sitting room would speak to the desire to spend a lot
28 of time in an intimate family setting. The way a room was decorated would speak to whether the
mistress or the master of the house would spend a great deal of time in that room. It is not easy to
decide what type of a home a person wants, as a result of this mail-order architectural plans were developed in the Victorian Era. These plans provided people with the guidance they needed to create the home that would be the most functional for them and the most aesthetically pleasing.57
The Queen Anne Style was popular in the U.S. between 1880 and 1900. This style
incorporated varying roof shapes, gables, patterned tiles, bay windows, dormers, porches, towers,
and turrets.58 The Queen Anne Style is a mix of styles. The picturesque and romantic movement
is expressed in this architectural style.59 Charles Eastlake’s contributions to design at this time were often incorporated in Queen Anne Style.60 Richard Norman Shaw was one of the first to use
and popularize this style in England in the latter half of the nineteenth century.61 The reason the
style is referred to as Queen Anne is because of the Renaissance revival that was in vogue during
Queen Anne’s time as monarch from 1702-1714.62 Alumni House is a testament to the trademarks of the Queen Anne architectural style.
The suburbs of the United States in the Victorian era contained unique homes making it a very different setting than the suburbs of modern America with homes that are nearly impossible to distinguish from one another. During this period the number of architects in the United States was increasing, but not at the same rate as the number of Victorian-style homes were being built.
As a result, the guidance people received for their homes often came from mail-order house plans.
Plan books contained house plans. These designs were meant to be used anywhere so no mention was made of where these buildings ought to go. These books were not expensive, as the architect expected to make money when the plans in the book were bought. These books usually cost in the range of fifty cents to a dollar. Plan books took time to emerge after the close of the Civil War.63
29 One successful pattern book creator was Samuel Sloan. His use of floor plans, elevations,
and reasons for the use of each design was appealing to those who wished to know whether the
person doing work on their home was doing a bad job. George E. Woodward was the one who
continued in Sloan’s footsteps after the war. His books cost $12.00, which were expensive for the
time, and he also incorporated a lot of details into his work. Mail order architecture books were an
important invention of the late nineteenth century as they met people’s wish for specific, laid out
plans for their homes. The work that would inspire this business was created in 1876 by George
Palliser, entitled Palliser’s Model Homes for the People. This book included pictures of designs,
the price of construction, and the prices of these plans ranging from $3.50 to $80.00.64
The second version, called Palliser’s American Cottage Homes, was published by George
and his brother Charles in 1878. This book was advertised as one for the common people: it cost
$5.00 and contained forty plates that showed the hand-drawn plans. The Pallsiers made clear, in
their book, that they would be able to give the designs to anyone, anywhere in America, but they
did not state the cost of this service.65
With Artistic Modern Houses of Low Cost, Robert W. Shoppell emerged in 1881 as another publisher of architectural design books. Mail-order house plans became a successful business for
Shoppell. He gathered architects who created plans anonymously using the name of Cooperative
Building Plan Association. Each plate listed the cost of building and the design. These books were meant to be catalogs and were priced accordingly at 25 cents. “Each set included floor plans and elevations, framing plans, details and sections, specifications, bills of quantities of materials, and, eventually, chromolithographed color sheets to guide the final painting of the building.66
How to Build, Furnish, and Decorate was another book of Shoppell’s that impacted the
nature of architecture in the Victorian era. He credited his success with the lack of willingness of
30 people to go to an architect, who would be expensive, to plan their house. “Shoppell’s new
enterprise matured at the perfect time to serve the needs of vast suburban expansion, and railroad
companies were eager to encourage this expansion in regions that previously would have been
inaccessible to the middle-class businessman who subscribed to Modern Houses.” The Pallisers
were a bit miffed by the degree of Shoppell’s success. They claimed that their designs were custom.
“By the 1880s, the Pallisers and Shoppell had perfected their respective business techniques, and
each had attempted to prove their superiority in certain areas of the mail-order business. But they were no longer alone. The magnitude of these two businesses could not satisfy the needs of a rapidly growing nation, and other entrepreneurs were ready to heed Shoppell’s invitation that ‘the same plan of doing business is open to all architects.’” Frank L. Smith also started to sell his own periodical called Homes of To-Day in 1888.67
The changing needs of Americans were reflected in the changing nature of building homes.
The railroad both opened up areas to settlement and it allowed building materials to be shipped in
an easier manner. “The mail-order plan brought high standards of design and the latest architectural
trends to countless middle-class homeowners and builders. Houses built from such plans reflect
not only the aesthetics of their era but also the new technologies that placed in the hands of the
middle class those amenities formerly reserved for the wealthy.”68
A Testament to Another Time
The common features of Victorian architecture can clearly be seen in the Alumni House. The proliferation of fireplaces, the woodcarvings, the shape of the roof, and the porches all indicate that this is a Victorian home. In the Historic Structures Report for the UVM Alumni House.
Pritchett said, “the building is an outstanding example of Queen Anne architecture in Vermont due
31 to its abundance of high style features embodied by the stone and brick façade, prominent corner
tower, multiple dormers, stained glass windows, unique carvings both inside and out...and a
generally intact interior featuring nine fireplaces and a multitude of oak and mahogany
woodwork.”69 Therefore it is the features of a home that make it a certain style. Although the furniture currently in the Alumni House is not of the Victorian period it is not hard to imagine
what the rooms would have looked like filled with Victorian pieces. The windows and doors are
also illustrative of the era. The ornate nature of the Wells home makes it a jewel in the study of
Victorian architecture and is a marvelous demonstration of what wealth during the 19th century
could create.
32
1 Plante, Ellen M. The Victorian Home: The Grandeur and Comforts of the Victorian Era, in Households Past and Present, 14 2 Ibid, 10 3 Ibid, 13 4 Ibid, 13 5 Ibid, 13 6 Stephanie Wolf, Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia Encyclopedia, 2013, https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/centennial/. 7 Stephanie Wolf, Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia Encyclopedia, 2013, https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/centennial/. 8 Plante, Ellen M. The Victorian Home: The Grandeur and Comforts of the Victorian Era, in Households Past and Present, 14 9 Ibid, 12 10 Ibid, 12 11 Ibid, 13 12 Ibid, 13 13 Julie Gibbons, History of Surface Design: William Morris, Pattern Observer, Accessed April 4, 2019, https://patternobserver.com/2014/11/25/history-surface-design-william-morris/. 14 Julie Gibbons, History of Surface Design: William Morris, Pattern Observer, Accessed April 4, 2019, https://patternobserver.com/2014/11/25/history-surface-design-william-morris/. 15 Ibid, 17 16 Ibid, 14 17 Ibid, 14 18 “Art Nouveau,” Encyclopedia Britannica, March 14, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/art/Art-Nouveau 19 Plante, Ellen M. The Victorian Home: The Grandeur and Comforts of the Victorian Era, in Households Past and Present, 14 20 Ibid, 14 21 “Arts and Crafts movement,” Encyclopedia Britannica March 1, 2019 https://www.britannica.com/art/Arts-and- Crafts-movement 22 “Arts and Crafts movement,” Encyclopedia Britannica March 1, 2019 https://www.britannica.com/art/Arts-and- Crafts-movement 23 Ibid 24 Ibid 25 Ibid 26 Ibid 27 Plante, Ellen M. The Victorian Home: The Grandeur and Comforts of the Victorian Era, in Households Past and Present, 14 28 Ibid, 54 29 Ibid, 54 30 Ibid, 54 31 Ibid, 54-57 32 Ibid, 71 33 Ibid, 22 34 Ibid, 22-23 35 Ibid, 24, 26 36 Ibid, 24 37 Ibid, 24 38 Ibid, 24, 78, 85, 86 39 Ibid, 83 40 Ibid, 81-82 41 Ibid, 78 42 Ibid, 88-89 43 Ibid, 91-92 44 Ibid, 100 45 Ibid, 100
33
46 Ibid, 100 47 Ibid, 100 48 Ibid, 101, 114 49 Ibid, 101 50 Ibid, 105 51 Ibid, 105-106 52 Ibid, 105-106 53 Ibid, 136 54 Ibid, 136, 148 55 Ibid, 139 56 Ibid, 14 57 Garvin, James L. “Mail-Order House Plans and American Victorian Architecture” Winterthur Portfolio Vol. 16, No. 4 (1981): 309, accessed March 12, 2019. 58 “Architectural Styles of America and Europe: Queen Anne” Architecture Styles.org, Oct. 2011, https://architecturestyles.org/queen-anne/. 59 Ibid 60 Ibid 61 “Queen Anne Style: 1880-1910” Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, Aug. 26, 2015, http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/architecture/styles/queen-anne.html. 62 Ibid 63 Garvin, James L. “Mail-Order House Plans and American Victorian Architecture” Winterthur Portfolio Vol. 16, No. 4 (1981): 309-310, accessed March 12, 2019. 64 Garvin, James L. “Mail-Order House Plans and American Victorian Architecture” Winterthur Portfolio Vol. 16, No. 4 (1981): 310, 312, accessed March 12, 2019. 65 Garvin, James L. “Mail-Order House Plans and American Victorian Architecture” Winterthur Portfolio Vol. 16, No. 4 (1981): 312, 314, accessed March 12, 2019. 66 Garvin, James L. “Mail-Order House Plans and American Victorian Architecture” Winterthur Portfolio Vol. 16, No. 4 (1981): 314, accessed March 12, 2019. 67 Garvin, James L. “Mail-Order House Plans and American Victorian Architecture” Winterthur Portfolio Vol. 16, No. 4 (1981): 314, 321, 326, accessed March 12, 2019. 68 Garvin, James L. “Mail-Order House Plans and American Victorian Architecture” Winterthur Portfolio Vol. 16, No. 4 (1981): 334, accessed March 12, 2019. 69 Liz Pritchett Associates “Historic Structures Report: Edward Wells House” p3 https://www.dropbox.com/s/qaojg2dy7yw6vix/Historic%20Structures%20Report.pdf?dl=0.
34 CHAPTER 3
Albert Whittekind: Local Wood-Carving Legend
A walk around the UVM Alumni House can show someone a great deal about the past.
The house says a lot about the period in which it was created. Specifically, the wood carvings
throughout the house can inform a modern onlooker of people’s values and class. Who was the
craftsman behind the beautiful carvings at the house? It was Albert Whittekind of Boston.
Whittekind was born in 1859 and trained as a wood carver. He was one of the first American
professional carvers in the country and worked on the UVM Billings library in 1886.1
Whittekind took pride in the art of woodworking, which as an occupation was being edged out by premade wooden art for many of the new houses of the Victorian era, with their interchangeable parts and easy assembly. Whittekind took great care in all of the carvings he did.
His work was always original and exemplified the true beauty of the Victorian style.
Whittekind began his woodworking career as a young man of 15 years. He was first employed by Norcross General Contracting in Boston, he worked on both the Capitol building in
Albany, New York, as well as Billings library in Burlington, on the UVM campus. When he came to work on Billings in 1886, he decided he wanted to live in Vermont permanently and settled in
Winooski. Whittekind worked in multiple woodworking shops around Chittenden County. Later in his life, Whittekind did smaller and smaller jobs. He claimed in a Burlington Free Press article that new mass-produced wood carving “hasn’t the life given it by hand”2 and that the woodworking
trade was beginning to cycle out of necessity.3
There were many examples of elegant woodwork around Burlington that are attributed to
Whittekind. The Burlington post office contained a government shield done in oak of the archway
in the main lobby. The same building also contained a grouping of harvest crops like pumpkins
35 and potatoes above the bulletin board that was done by Whittekind. He also worked on Hotel
Vermont on the corner of Main and Pine streets in Burlington, which has since closed down and
been turned into affordable housing, the Webb home in Shelburne, and Bishop Hopkins Hall at
Rock Point. He also worked on many projects outside of Burlington, such as the New York Public
Library and St. Luke’s hospital in New York, among many other places.4
Whittekind was primarily influenced by ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian architecture styles, like most woodcarvers of his day. Many of these woodcarvers worked in a “Ruskinian
Gothic” style, which denoted animals and plants in the natural world. This style, pioneered by John
Ruskin, called for more personality within the woodworking than simply following predetermined rules and patterns. Whittekind’s work shows this type of personality.5
Whittekind’s carvings were mainly composed of the natural world. There are a lot of
flower-like designs to be seen throughout the Alumni House. A beautiful example of these designs
are the walls abutting the fireplace in the Perkin Music Room. There are also cherubs at the very
top of the edges of the fireplace in the Newton library room, denoting religious aspects to
Whittekind’s design.
Whittekind seems to have had a large appreciation for Greek and Roman mythology as
well.6 On the porte-cochere, which was the south-side extension of the house that allowed horse-
drawn carriages to enter, examples of this mythology abound. There are large god-like masks,
arms, and male torsos on the tympani of the porte-cochere, which are all highly mythologized.
Singular birds or owls are also in the corners of the porte-cochere, and owls were highly
mythologized creatures as well.
A highly interesting aspect to the design of the house was that on the east side of the house
on the porte-cochere, a mask appears to be smiling. It is probable that Edward Wells specifically
36 requested this design. On the porte-cochere, there were “Whittekind carvings of god-like masks – on the east side to greet guests with a gleeful smile, and on the west side, frowning…”7 The mask
on the west side of the porte-cochere, however, appears to be upset, due to the fact that guests left
the house towards the west side. Wells specifically requested these masks to be smiling and
frowning.8
In a Burlington Free Press article, Whittekind claimed that he worked for nothing in the
early years of his business. He claimed that he had 4 years of indentured servitude before he began
to finally get paid for his work.9 Indentured servitude is the process by which a worker sells their
labor and works until their contract time is up. There are various types of indentured servitude,
Whittekind’s, in particular, was labor in exchange for learning experience. Whittekind was an older man at the time this article was written, and he said that the woodworking trade around 1935 was slowly phasing out of practice in Burlington.10 He also said that he was hopeful that more young people will begin to see the value in old fashioned woodworking. He died in 1943, at 84 years.11 Now it’s time to take a walking tour of the wood carvings in the house and rediscover some beautiful history!
Wood Carvings Tour
Upon entering the house through the front door, the Santin Family Fireplace Alcove is the first part of the house you’ll see with elegant wood carvings. At the center of the mantle above the fireplace, a wooden wall contains a perfectly carved pumpkin, among some other things which seem like pieces of fruit, and some leaves in the midst of all of this. This reveals Whittekind’s absolutely stunning attention to detail and care in wood carving. To the left, right and above the little group of fruits at the center, there are leaves that give the fireplace a natural and realistic look.
The leaves curve in many directions and are symmetrical on both sides. Symmetry was one of the
37 main tenets of Victorian wood carving, and Whittekind uses this aspect masterfully. There are two supports holding up the mantle, which both have leaves growing upward carved into them. The pillars on either side of the fireplace also have curly, circular growing leaves going up the four sides of them, and at the top all four sides of both pillars have smiling masks carved into them as well. There are two main things to note here: the leaves give a natural look, which was the main aspect of Victorian architecture and wood carving, and the smiling masks were a common theme in Whittekind’s work throughout the house.
Santin Fireplace Carving Santin Fireplace Pillar Carving
Santin Fireplace Carving Santin Fireplace Face Carving 38 As you move leftward of the Santin Fireplace, you’ll come across the stairs leading
upstairs. Directly to the right of the stairs is the room which was once the music room, which itself
contains many beautiful wood carvings. The room is now called the Perkin Music Room. Upon
entering this room, you’ll notice the fireplace on the wall that is left of the door. This fireplace has
marvelous wood carvings around it, on the mantle and the surrounding pillars. The wooden section
of wall below the mantle is where we’ll start. At the very center of this section, there is a wreath
circumscribing two horns which are crossed in an x-shape, much like a skull-and-crossbones. The horns reveal a musical motif that permeates throughout this room, which is a nice feature for what once was a music room.
To the left and right of the wreath are treble-clef shaped carvings each facing inward towards a hammock-like string of leaves that connect the treble-clefs. The treble-clef shape is already a very pretty and elegant shape and was a smart addition for the wood carvings in a music room, much to Whittekind’s credit. The pillars to the left and right of the fireplace that support the mantle are gorgeous. Like most other sets of two in the house, these are perfectly symmetrical and start wide at the bottom, immediately narrowing out, and then getting wider again towards the top.
These pillars have vine-like leaves climbing up towards the top of the fireplace, another classic
motif. The mirror above the mantle has two pillars to the left and right sides of it which have carved
parallel lines leading upwards to flowers at the top edge of the mirror. There are also curved
wooden accents above the leaves, giving the carving something of a royal feeling. At the very top
of the wooden mantelpiece, there are many carved wooden balls hanging from wooden pieces
jutting out from the bottom of the mantelpiece top. The wooden balls look like apples hanging off
a tree.
39
k
Music Room Fireplace Pillar Music Room Fireplace Pillar
Music Room Fireplace Mirror Music Room Fireplace (Left Edge)
40 Music Room Treble Clef Carvings Music Room Crossed Horns If you move away from the fireplace and to the next room over, the Newton library, you’ll
notice bookshelves lining the walls, and of course, another fireplace. The common Victorian home
probably had just one fireplace heating the whole house, but here there are fireplaces in practically every living space. This is a clear sign of wealth and class. If you look at the mirror above the fireplace first, the lining of the mirror is particularly interesting. The lining is carved with jagged, curved carvings. They are probably a certain type of leaf, probably something more exotic.
At the edges of the mirror directly above the lights on both sides, the wood that moves up the wall has some interesting carvings. Upon close inspection, these side carvings look like various
types of drinking glasses encapsulated by flowers that also move up the wall. The flowers are
jagged and seem to stick out from the glasses. The very tops of these wooden walls are quite
interesting as well. The tops have two cherubs facing outward with arms outstretched from their
bodies. They seem to resemble crucifixion in this pose. These cherubs have full heads of hair and
look like they are wearing crowns, and each has curly leaves surrounding it. Highly religious wood
carving motifs were very common in the medieval era and were brought back by many Victorian
wood carvers. These carvings seem to be the only religious ones in the Wells House.
41
Library Room Mantelpiece (Bottom)
Library Room Fireplace Mirror (Top Right) Library Room Fireplace Mirror Border
Now, if you exit this room and are back in the room that the main entrance of the house
comes into, the next beautiful carvings are near and along the staircase on the way upstairs. The
pillars that are on the right side of the staircase are fascinating, with details of ivy-like leaves moving up each one. The larger pillars towards the bottom of the stairs also have similar leaf designs, and the smiling masks at their tops. Once you get to the top of the first layer of stairs, you’ll notice the square pillar that leads into the railing for the second set of stairs. This pillar is stunning and is a defining part of Whittekind’s work on the house. The top of the pillar has curly leaves carved into it which seem to droop downwards and almost to meld into the base section of the wood. This is a beautiful design.
42
Stairway Pillar (close) Stairway Pillar (far)
Rectangular Pillar (top of first set of stairs)
Pillar Base (bottom of stairs) Edge of First set of Stairs
43 The first room you’ll entire when you make your way up the second set of stairs is the
Amidon room. This room has many less intricate carvings than many other rooms, seeing as this
room was simply passed through and occasionally used for sitting. The only real carvings in this room are the parallel lines that seem to move up on either side of most doors in the house, as well as the multiple circles within circles carved into the top two corners of each door. This happens with many doors in the house as well.
The last room with notable wood carvings is the Hurd Lounge, which is located to the left at the top of the staircase. This used to be Anna Wells’ bedroom. The general theme of the room was an ocean theme, which at the time was a more feminine motif and thus suitable for Edward
Wells’ daughter.12 There is a drawer below the bookcase to the left of the fireplace which has an
oval-shaped necklace of pearls that seems to be tied together with fringed seaweed; very creative
use of the ocean motif. The area directly above the fireplace and directly below the mantle has a
smaller version of this same ovular pearl design two times, directly next to each other.
If you look to the mirror above the fireplace, you’ll notice at the four corners of the mirror
wood-carved shells facing inward towards the mirror. These have seaweed at the outer edges of
them facing away from the mirror. The pillars holding up the mantle seem to be ocean-themed as
well, looking curved and seeming to be crashing over inward towards the room, much like waves
crashing down on a beach. This is a nice touch that adds much to the ocean theme. The final
carvings to note about this mantelpiece are the tops of the pillars on the sides of the fireplace.
These also resemble crashing waves with their inward curling edges on the top and are also lined
with shells moving up the pillars.
44
Hurd Room Fireplace Mirror
Hurd Room Full Fireplace Hurd Room Pearls
Hurd Room Pearls (on fireplace) Hurd Room Fireplace Pillars
Hurd Room Mantelpiece (bottom)
45
1 Carlisle, Chittenden County Historical Society Bulletin. 2 Article. “Possibilities Lie in Block of Wood.” Burlington Free Press. November 20, 1935. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13143861/the_burlington_free_press/. 3 Article. “Possibilities Lie in Block of Wood.” Burlington Free Press. November 20, 1935. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13143861/the_burlington_free_press/. 4 Article. “Possibilities Lie in Block of Wood.” Burlington Free Press. November 20, 1935. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13143861/the_burlington_free_press/. 5 Carlisle, Chittenden County Historical Society Bulletin. 6 Carlisle, Chittenden County Historical Society Bulletin. 7 Liz Pritchett, Historic Structures Report - Edward Wells House (Montpelier, VT: Liz Pritchett Associates, 2009), 17. 8 Carlisle, Chittenden County Historical Society Bulletin. 9 Article. “Possibilities Lie in Block of Wood.” Burlington Free Press. 10 Article. “Possibilities Lie in Block of Wood.” Burlington Free Press. 11 Carlisle, Chittenden County Historical Society Bulletin. 12 Liz Pritchett, Historic Structures Report - Edward Wells House (Montpelier, VT: Liz Pritchett Associates, 2009)
46 CHAPTER 4
The Victorian Era in the United States and Burlington
The Wells House was built from 1891-1892.1 The records showed that “it cost about
$100,000, a considerable sum for that time.”2 The date of its construction falls squarely within the
Victorian Era, a common name for a period from 1837-1901, which corresponds with the years
that Queen Victoria was in power in Great Britain.
The Victorian Era was a time of change in the United States. The Industrial Revolution
greatly altered the lifestyle of Americans and the accessibility of items. What was once only
available to the wealthy could now be accessed by the middle class as a result of the mass
production of goods in factories. New developments in technology and transportation fueled the
success of many new industries.
Victorian America
The Victorian Era was a tumultuous time for some and a time of great opportunity and
prosperity for others. The Civil War and the Reconstruction period occurred during this time,
dramatically impacting the rights of formerly enslaved peoples and the economy of the South. The
North was heavily industrializing with mill towns, factories, and railroads. People began to move
to cities to look for work beyond the family subsistence farms. This was also a time of immigration
to the U.S., driven in part by the potato famine in Ireland in the 1840s. What it meant to be
American was vastly changing. The United States was not a very welcoming place for immigrants
at this time. “Irish Need Not Apply” signs appeared in businesses to discourage Irish people’s hopes of finding work. There was also the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prevented immigrants from China from coming to the US from 1882 to 1892. These examples made it clear that many
Americans were not ready for change. As a result of this climate, many immigrants struggled to
47 achieve equal access and opportunity. There was also a clash between religions. Protestants often saw themselves as better than the Catholics, particularly because the Catholics were often immigrants.
Over the course of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century the concentration of people within the United States changed. In 1830 the percentage of the U.S. population living in urban places was 8.8%. By 1890 the percentage of the U.S. population living in urban places was 35.1%. In 1920 this number had reached 51.2% of the population living in urban areas. This
transformation created quite a shift in the nature of American life. When people moved to the cities
they often left farms and family behind. In 1810 agriculture made up 75% of the labor force. Where
people live reflects the values of their society. This shift from rural living to urban population
centers reflects Americans’ values shifting from being more family-centered to being more independent. People saw different opportunities in cities such as social mobility that weren’t possible in the countryside where they were generally confined to a village or farm.3
Immigration during the 19th century fundamentally changed the composition of the United
States and forced Americans to confront those they saw as foreign. In 1832 there were 60,000
immigrants to the United States. In 1847 there were 234,000 immigrants. This is quite a drastic
change. In total between 1847 and 1854 around 2.7 million people immigrated to the United States.
Immigration brought along with it different religions. Up until this time the United States had been
predominantly Protestant, with only 70,000 Catholics in the United States in 1807. By 1840 there
were 660,000 Catholics in the U.S. And by 1859 there were 2 million of them. That’s quite a
transition only over a span of forty-three years because the values of Protestants had been quite
prevalent in all aspects of American society up until this point. Irish immigrants were altering what
it meant to be American because they didn’t fit into the mold of what the average American should
48 be; a white, Anglo-Saxon protestant. Chinese immigrants also changed what it meant to be
American, as they didn’t fit into the image of a traditional American. Between 1870 and 1875,
80,000 Chinese immigrants came to the United States. There was some backlash to this
immigration in the form of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882.4
One example of the anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States was the emergence of
the Know-Nothings. They began as the Order of the Star Spangled Banner in New York City in
1849. They then became the Know-Nothings. They were anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic. They used derogatory stereotypes of Irish and German immigrants to support their policies. After the
1854 elections, they had forty-three seats in Congress. In 1855 they became the American Party.
Their nominee for the 1856 presidential election was Millard Fillmore, who received fewer votes
than the Democrats and the Republicans. After this they did not have much electoral success. They had been successful locally but the national stage proved more challenging because they were focused on one issue. The reason to mention this party is that it illustrates one way that Americans reacted to immigration.5
Oftentimes, what comes to mind when thinking about the Victorian Era is grandeur: elegant
homes and elegant people. However, this time was not all grand. One momentous event within
this time was the Civil War and the ensuing Reconstruction period. Around 620,000 soldiers died
in the Civil War, which was 2% of the United States population in 1861.6 The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments added to the rights of many Americans. The thirteenth amendment abolished slavery, the fourteenth gave citizenship to former slaves, and the fifteenth amendment granted them voting rights.7 One effect of these new rights for African Americans was that they were elected to state governments and the US Congress.8 The Civil War and the
Reconstruction period fundamentally altered the way America was governed and its image.9 Prior
49 to the Civil War, the United States was viewed as a union of the states so it was thought of as a plural noun.10 After 1861 it became a singular noun; it was no longer a union but a nation.11 A
union implies multiple independent states, while a nation implies one singular country. The federal
government greatly expanded its powers after the war with the implementation of Reconstruction
policies.12
One reaction to the policies of the Reconstruction Era was the emergence of the Ku Klux
Klan in the South. This group sought to limit the success of the policies meant to provide rights to the newly freed blacks. In response, the KKK was founded in 1866. The federal government attempted to deal with the KKK with acts such as the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. This act suspended the writ of habeas corpus to more effectively deal with the KKK. Habeas corpus meant officers had to obtain a warrant for search and seizure operations. Since officers didn’t need a warrant to search establishments where illegal KKK activities took place, it was easier to stop and arrest KKK members. Eventually, the KKK lost its popularity, but racist policies remained on the books in many southern states. In 1915 the KKK reemerged in reaction to an influx of immigrants into the US. They added Catholics, Jews, anyone they saw as foreign and labor groups to their list of people they found to be problematic in American society. In the 1920s there were four million members of the KKK.13
Technological Changes
There were many transformations that took place in the United States during the Victorian
Era. However, not all of these transformations were purely social in nature. Many were
technological and related to transportation and communication, which would ultimately have an
effect on society. One such invention was the telegraph, which allowed for communication across
great distances.14 The telegraph was patented in 1837.15 The first train to be powered by steam in
50 the U.S. came into use in 1830.16 A big project of the 19th century was the transcontinental railroad,
to link the East to the West.17 The transcontinental railroad was built following the Pacific Railroad
Act of 1862.18 The Central Pacific Railroad Company and the Union Pacific Railroad competed to see who could get the most miles of track laid.19 It was completed in May 1869.20 The Industrial
Revolution brought changes that aided in the efficiency of labor. In 1830, it took a farmer around
250 to 330 hours to produce one hundred bushels of wheat.21 By 1890, for the same task, it took
40 to 50 hours because of the aid of a horse-drawn machine.22
By exploring economic, social and political events in the U.S. at this time is that it sets the
events that occurred in Vermont in its proper context. In Burlington, the world in which Edward
Wells was living in, both local and national events impacted his life. The changes that occurred
during the Victorian Era are still felt today, in our ability to travel and communicate across vast
distances.
Victorian Burlington
Burlington in the Victorian Era
51 The story of Burlington in the Victorian Era is one of economic downturns and economic success stories. Burlington was no different than the U.S. as a whole at this time. The city experienced immigration and the divide between the rich and the poor. Some people did extremely well because of the advances in technology. Others fared no better than they had in years before.
There were great innovators and entrepreneurs who worked tediously to leave their mark on Burlington and to positively influence their contemporary city. The industries that defined
Burlington during this period also defined the United States. Burlington can offer invaluable insights into U.S. history as it all happened here, on a smaller scale.
The geography of a given location cannot be severed from the study of its history.
Burlington would not be the same city if it was not on the shores of Lake Champlain and nestled between New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Quebec. This waterway gave Burlington access to other markets and to other people. Burlington certainly had aspects of an international city with its immigrant components.
52 Industries in Victorian Burlington
Burlington was marked by a boom
that brought many successful
industries to the city during the 19th
century. Lumber was one of them.
The number of trees and the location
of Burlington in relation to Lake
Champlain and the railroad allowed
for the easy transport of lumber.
Burlington “was the third-busiest inland lumber port in the United States after Chicago and Albany. Bundles of money passed through the city’s brokerage houses and banks.” The lumber industry was booming and, “by the
1880s a thousand workers toiled to ship annually over 150 million board feet of lumber from the
Burlington waterfront”23
Lawrence Barnes was one
prominent businessman who
became very wealthy in the
Burlington lumber industry.
The reason for Barnes success
was that he utilized
Burlington’s prime location in
Burlington Dockyard relation to Canada. It was
53 beneficial to be near Canada because “logs from Canada, particularly the still heavily forested
Ottawa River region could be sent more cheaply via the Richelieu River to the East than through the Erie Canal...and once in Burlington the logs could be loaded onto railroad cars and be moved to mills around New England.” The cost of items shipped via the railroad was determined by weight so the most cost-effective measure Barnes could take was dressing the timber before shipping it south. In order to accomplish this, he created a mill on Burlington’s waterfront.24
Marble was another important resource in Vermont during this time. Although marble was
not quarried in Burlington, Burlington was a site of its transportation. “Burlington had no marble
quarries, but as a transportation hub it was ideally suited to receive large blocks of marble by rail
from Rutland or by boat from Grand Isle County and Plattsburgh, New York, cut and polish it to
order, then ship it by flatbed car to customers across the country.”25 Therefore Burlington was
positively impacted by the success of the marble industry in Vermont.
The Burlington Woolen Mills in Winooski was a landmark of the textile industry,
particularly important in the Burlington region during this era. “They worked long hours, 7 am to
7 pm on weekdays and half a day on Saturday, turning 1.4 million pounds of wool annually into
800,000 yards”26 of various types of clothing. Since a lot of people commuted between Burlington and Winooski there was discussion of combining Burlington and Winooski into one city. This
proposal ultimately failed, partially due to the fact that Burlington was in debt and the people of
Winooski did not want to be responsible for paying off some of this money. In addition to wool,
there were also several businesses involved with cotton. The Winooski Cotton Company was in
existence from 1845 until the Panic of 1873 caused it to go bankrupt. The Queen City Cotton
Company was opened in the 1890s. This was located on Lakeside Avenue and it employed many
54 French Canadians, which resulted in a heavy concentration of French Canadians near this
business.27
Fires in Victorian Burlington
During the Victorian
Era, Burlington had
a problem with fires.
There were a lot of
devastating ones,
especially in the
1890s.28 There was a
big fire at the
firehouse on
Smoke from the Burlington Fire (1898) Colchester Avenue
and at Burlington lumberyards.29 On December 29, 1898, the Herald and News reported that
“Burlington suffered heavily from a fire Saturday morning, the extensive lumber mills and stock of the Shepard & Morse Company, near the depot being destroyed.”30 On April 22, 1899, in the
Bellows Falls Times, it was reported that a fire “occurred Wednesday morning in the millinery department of E.E. Clarkson & Co.’s store at 193 Bank Street, the store being completely gutted.
Shortly before 8 o’clock smoke was discovered issuing from the basement and an alarm was rung in. The fire department responded promptly but the flames in the basement had gained great headway when the firemen arrived and the fire was then bursting through into the millinery store.”31 Originally there were only volunteer fire departments, but because the problem was so
prolific a professional one came into being.32 This demonstrates that the conditions of a city can
55 influence the jobs that exist within it. The Burlington Fire Department was created in 1865.33 This
fire department was still almost entirely volunteer-based, with the city only paying the chief
engineer and the four assistant engineers.34 In 1895, the fire department officially became entirely
professional because of two large fires.35
Class Divisions and Immigration in Victorian Burlington
During the 19th century, there were clear distinctions between the wealthy and the poor in
Burlington.36 They most certainly did not live in the same neighborhoods and did not experience
Burlington in the same way. Wealthy citizens, such as Edward Wells, lived on the “hill”.37
Neighborhoods were also ethnic specific. The Irish and the French-Canadians, for example, lived
in their own areas. The Third Ward was one such community. Deemed the “Bloody Third,” it was the part of the city that the Irish and French Canadians primarily lived in.38 The “Bloody Third”
was called such because of “its tradition of tough elections.”39 It was tough in terms of violence,
“when the Irish were the dominant ethnic group in the ward, there were fights at the polls.”40
The Irish tended to inhabit the homes closest to the lake. Homes near the water did not
have the same appeal as they do today-- only the impoverished lived in that area. The French
Canadians lived in “Little Paris,” which were a bunch of tenements east of the Old North End.
Most of the Irish and the French Canadians lived in awful conditions; their homes were very
crowded and dirty.41
The immigration to Burlington that occurred in the nineteenth century mostly involved
French Canadian and Irish people. According to Feeney, “by 1848 over four thousand Irish
immigrants annually sailed into the United States via the lake.”42 By the mid-1840s around 30%
of Burlington’s population was Irish and 11% was French Canadian. There were many of job
56 possibilities for the unskilled male Irish laborers and for female servants or mill workers. The
French Canadians were involved in building the mills. Early on, the French Canadians would work
here seasonally and go home when not working. This began to change and many would come to
inhabit Burlington and Winooski. Irish women had better luck getting domestic work than French
women because they spoke English. Irish inns and businesses dominated Water Street in the 1840s.
The population of Burlington grew quite a bit in the 1840s, from 4,271 to 7,285.43
Relations between immigrants and the established members of the Burlington community were not always good. One issue of contention was alcohol. Since 1852 alcohol could not be sold in Vermont. Irish and French-Canadian immigrants did not always follow this ban on alcohol. As a result, they ran into problems with the law. Many bootleggers were Irish and French Canadian.
Bootleggers found a way to sell alcohol by setting up grocery stores, with very limited grocery
items, called ‘diving bells.’ These stores would sell alcohol for ‘medicinal purposes.’ In 1869 there were thirty-nine of these diving bells.44
During the nineteenth century, the religious composition of Burlington also shifted. This is exemplified in “the 1820s through the 1850s- Burlington went from being overwhelmingly
Protestant to predominantly Catholic.”45 In 1832 St. Mary’s was built in Burlington, which was a big moment for Catholics in Vermont as it was the first permanent Catholic Church in the state.
St. Mary’s was a small church, and at this time Burlington was part of the diocese of Boston. The
first priest for this church was Jeremiah O’Callaghan, who was a colorful character. He had run
into difficulties as a priest in Ireland because of his aversion to money lending with interest.46
O’Callaghan was not a man to avoid conflict. There were quite a few disputes between him
and Protestant church leaders in Burlington. One issue involved the nature of Catholicism and the
nature of democracy and whether the two could go together. Another issue involved criticizing the
57 role of the Pope and denying the basis of this role as existing in scripture. On May 9, 1838, St.
Mary’s was burned in what was determined to be an act of arson. O’Callaghan did not refrain from making accusations as to who started the fire. A committee was set up, comprised of leading members of the community, and it found that the fire was a result of arson but they did not determine who set the fire. On June 23, 1839, the First Calvinistic Congregational Church was set on fire in another act of arson. This was seen as an act of retaliation for St. Mary’s destruction.
The person found to be responsible for this fire was Joseph Roe.47
The new St. Mary’s was opened on October 10, 1841. This was a large affair with two thousand people coming out to the mass. Even though Burlington had its Catholic church back the
French Canadians were not satisfied because they could not participate fully in their faith as the sermon was not in French and they could not go to confession for the same reason. Additionally,
O’Callaghan was not a big fan of French Canadians. According to Vincent Feeney, “Burlington at mid-nineteenth century, and eventually all New England, presented the church with a unique problem: division among Catholics was based less on geography than on language. A new type of parish organization, based on language and culture, was called for.”48 St. Joseph’s was built in the
1850s to accommodate the needs of the French Canadians. Therefore St. Joseph’s became the church of the French and St. Mary’s the church of the Irish. By the 1850s there were around 20,000
Catholics in Vermont.49
Leisure in Victorian Burlington
In order to better imagine and relate to life in Victorian Burlington, it is helpful to consider
some of the options for leisure that were popular at the time. Every time has its own set of activities
that are particularly popular and they reflect the values of the people of the period. Although the
58 wealthy had the most time to participate in leisurely pursuits, the common person was not left out
completely.
One aspect of the wealthy
lifestyle was time for
leisurely activities. This
is exemplified in the
yacht club. “For the
wealthy- the people on
the ‘hill’- their exclusive
sporting domain was yachting...beginning in the 1870s, sailing mania had swept the country.”50 The Lake Champlain
Yacht Club was created in 1887 and the clubhouse was finished in 1888. This club was exclusive,
reinforcing the fact that people of different classes of Burlington did not operate in the same social
circles. Feeney stated that “the club was an instant success. Within months membership
approached two hundred.” Some of those who were part of the club were from Massachusetts and
New York.51
Baseball became popular in the 1850s, and particularly so after the Civil War. In 1860 the
Burlington Base Ball Club was established, which was the first team in the city. Ballfields were
built in many cities in the 19th century and Burlington was no exception to this phenomenon. As
the sport of baseball developed the setting it was played in became more formal. Early on, people
played pretty much wherever there was unoccupied land. In Burlington, these places were Battery
Park, Howard Park, and the old fairgrounds. In the 1880s it was considered crucial for a city to
have a ballpark and a baseball team. Mayor Woodbury set out to find a location for an established
59 ballpark. In 1887 Woodbury found a spot that was owned by the Vermont Central Railroad, saying
“there he laid out a diamond and a quarter-mile running track, and constructed a three-hundred- seat covered grandstand.”52 A fence was put up in order to charge for entry. The location was ideal
because one side was the Central Vermont Railroad and the other was the Horse Railway
Company, which provided transportation from downtown Burlington to Winooski. Athletic Park
was used until 1906 for a variety of team sports in Burlington. Woodbury benefitted from its
widespread use as he received ten percent of the money that was collected from entrance fees.
UVM had a competitive team at this time as well.53
In the 1890s UVM had a reputation for being skilled at baseball.54 For instance, “in 1890
they defeated Dartmouth for the first time, the victory so momentous that it led to a "night shirt
parade’ down Pearl and College Streets”55 This brings to mind other odd nighttime traditions UVM
students have, such as the notorious midnight naked bike ride. Baseball was an aspect of many of
the inhabitants of Burlington’s lives during the latter half of the nineteenth century. It was a sport
played by those pursuing a college degree but could also be mastered by those with no formal
education.
During the winter ice skating and coasting were popular. There was an ice rink in the late
1880s in City Hall Park. Coasting was essentially sledding using a variety of objects as a sled.
However, coasting was a hazard to other people on the road so Mayor Woodbury banned it on city
streets in 1885. Burlington had its first winter carnival from February 22-26, 1886. The reason the
carnival happened that year was because of Small Pox in Montreal, where a winter carnival usually
occurred. “During the day there was coasting down a closed-off Main Street, tobogganing down
Howard Street, snowshoe races, hockey matches, ice skating, and even ice sailing and horse
trotting races on the frozen lake.”56 There were also fireworks, concerts, and a ball on the last
60 night. Many people came; the trains and hotels were full. They came from New York, the New
England area, and Canada. Since it went very well the first year they wanted it to become a
tradition. However, the winter of 1887 did not cooperate. At the beginning of that week it was
quite warm so the ice began to melt making it difficult for the skating events to occur and then at
the end of the week came a blizzard which led to many people leaving Burlington as opposed to
staying to enjoy the carnival. Also, many of the Canadians who had come the year before went to
the one in Montreal as it was back on in 1887. Therefore, the winter carnival did not become a
yearly event in Burlington.57
Controversy in Victorian Burlington
Just like any place where people live Burlington was at times embroiled in controversy.
One issue that sparked debate during the Victorian Era was over the incorporation of Burlington
as a city. Since 1763 Burlington had been a town and had been engaged in the Town Meeting style
of governance. If it became a city, some citizens worried that it would lose its truly democratic
character. This issue emerged in October of 1851 when Burlington’s representative to the
legislature, Henry Stacey, brought forward a bill for the incorporation of Burlington as city. Those
who were supportive of a transition from town to city felt that a different way of governing the
city would be more efficient. However, the bill was unsuccessful. Burlington wouldn’t become a city until after the Civil War.58
Another controversial topic that occupied the minds of Burlington citizens was slavery. In
the 1840s there was quite a bit of support for sending slaves to Africa to solve the problems of
slavery. True abolitionism was not very popular in Burlington but as the 1850s progressed this
began to change. Two of the factors in this change were the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and
61 the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was particularly problematic as it allowed for the possibility of more slave states, which would upset the balance between slave and free states that had existed. “As opposition to slavery grew, Vermont became a key link in the
Underground Railroad, with Burlington being one of its principal ‘stations’ on a route that ran from the South to Canada.”59 Some of those involved in the Underground Railroad in Burlington were George W. Benedict, Tony Anthony, Lucius Bigelow, Rev. Converse, and Rev. Joshua
Young. Feeney stated that “Young’s home on South Willard Street was a stop on the Underground route.”60 In the 1860 election 608 citizens of Burlington voted for Abraham Lincoln, 231 for
Stephen Douglas, and 59 for third party candidates.61
One abolitionist was Andrew Harris. This name may be familiar to you as he graduated from UVM in 1838 and was the first black graduate of UVM.62 Harris was against the colonization solution and pressed for equality among the races in the North.63 He believed that in order for this to be accomplished politics would need to be used, not just morality.
Key Buildings and Individuals in Victorian Burlington
62 A city without a nice hotel lost some of its image. There was a need for a hotel in a prominent city like Burlington. And the Van Ness Hotel was built to meet this need.64 The man responsible for the Van Ness House opening in 1870 was Daniel Barber. However, the man responsible for its success was Urban Woodbury who became the owner in 1881. The hotel that
Barber created had four floors, with rooms with great views. The ground floor of the hotel had “an office, reception desk, and dining room.”65 There were a parlor and meeting rooms on the next level. The other floors were comprised of guest rooms. In the annex “to the main building [there was] a billiard ‘hall,’ a barber shop, and ‘bathrooms.’”66 Thirty people worked for the hotel. The
Van Ness came to be bankrupt as a result of the economic conditions of the 1870s. When
Woodbury came to own the hotel, he made some changes such as two additions. The capacity of his hotel was four hundred guests. With Woodbury in charge, it became the “social center” of
Burlington. He owned the Van Ness for 35 years.67
One individual who had a large impact
on what Burlington looked like in the
Victorian Era was John Purple Howard.
He had spent a lot of time in the New
York City area, so he was interested in
improving the arts experience in
Burlington in the 1870s. One way that he
sought to improve the arts in Burlington
was by building the Howard Opera
House in 1878-1879, which cost
63 $100,000. This opera house was of the Italian Renaissance style and was on the “southwest corner
of Church and Bank streets.”68 This Opera House had an auditorium with enough room for 1100
people upstairs. Howard also paid for the fountain in the Green at UVM, as well as the fountain in
City Hall Park in the 1880s and three fountains in Lake View Cemetery. Some of Howard’s other
contributions to the University were the Lafayette statue on the Green and renovations to Old Mill.
John Quincy Adams Ward made this statue for $25,000. Renovations to Old Mill cost $50,000. As part of these renovations Gothic and Romanesque Revival features were added as were dormers and a more steeply pitched roof. This new roof was seen as problematic to some because a spire- topped cupola replaced the dome. The dome had been a longstanding symbol of Burlington to the city’s inhabitants.69
Edward Wells was not the only one who benefitted from the opportunities both Burlington
and the Industrial Revolution had to offer. The Wells House reflects the wealth and splendor of
the time as well as Edward Wells’ own wealth. The other surviving homes of Burlington’s wealthy
citizens in the late 19th century also point to the economic success that was possible in Burlington.
One cannot remove a house from the historical time within which it was built. However, this
grandeur that seems representative of the time was not enjoyed by all in Burlington nor in the U.S.
as a whole. There were many in America, and Vermont, that did not have the same opportunities
for access, equality, and upward mobility. The Edward Wells House, now Alumni House, stands
as a testament to one small story in a large and complex historical narrative.
64 Photos of Victorian Burlington (Courtesy UVM Special Collections)
Hotel Burlington Stagecoaches The Way People Used to get around! Horses! Oh My!
65
1841 Sketch of Burlington
Mayors of Burlington 1863-1905
66 Key Buildings in Burlington
Burlington Customs House (Interiors)
Main Street, Burlington (Drawing)
Burlington Post Office 67 Gray’s Carriage Factory (Burlington)
Queen City Park Outlook onto Lake Champlain
Fisherman at Red Rocks (Lake Champlain)
68
Advertisement for the Kirmess Show in Burlington Members of the Burlington Kirmess Show
Construction Worker looking onto the Burlington Dockyard People having fun during a Burlington Summer
Burlington Tercentenary Celebration 69
1 Liz Pritchett, Historic Structures Report - Edward Wells House (Montpelier, VT: Liz Pritchett Associates, 2009), 3. 2 Liz Pritchett, Historic Structures Report - Edward Wells House (Montpelier, VT: Liz Pritchett Associates, 2009), 5. 3 Population: 1790 to 1990” Census.gov, https://www.census.gov/population/censusdata/table-4.pdf 4 David H. Bennett “Immigration and Immigrants: Anti-immigrant Sentiment,” Gale https://www.gale.com/binaries/content/assets/gale-us-en/primary- sources/newsvault/gps_newsvault_19thcentury_usnewspapers_immigration_essay.pdf 5 Amy Briggs, “The Know-Nothings: The United States’ first anti-immigrant party,” National Geographic History Magazine, July 2017 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2017/07-08/know- nothings-and-nativism/ 6 James McPherson, “Out of War, A New Nation,” Prologue Magazine National Archives Spring 2010, Vol. 42, No. 1 https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/spring /newnation.html 7 James McPherson, “Out of War, A New Nation,” Prologue Magazine National Archives Spring 2010, Vol. 42, No. 1 https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/spring /newnation.html 8 “Reconstruction,” History.com, last modified August 29, 2018 https://www.history.com /topics/american-civil- war/reconstruction 9 James McPherson, “Out of War, A New Nation,” Prologue Magazine National Archives Spring 2010, Vol. 42, No. 1 https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/spring /newnation.html 10 James McPherson, “Out of War, A New Nation,” Prologue Magazine National Archives Spring 2010, Vol. 42, No. 1 https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/spring /newnation.html 11 James McPherson, “Out of War, A New Nation,” Prologue Magazine National Archives Spring 2010, Vol. 42, No. 1 https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/spring /newnation.html 12 James McPherson, “Out of War, A New Nation,” Prologue Magazine National Archives Spring 2010, Vol. 42, No. 1 https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/spring /newnation.html 13 “Ku Klux Klan,” History.com, last modified March 13, 2019, https://www.history.com/ topics/reconstruction/ku- klux-klan 14 “Industrial Revolution,” History.com, last modified January 10, 2019 https://www.history. com/topics/industrial- revolution/industrial-revolution 15 “Industrial Revolution,” History.com, last modified January 10, 2019 https://www.history. com/topics/industrial- revolution/industrial-revolution 16 “Transcontinental Railroad,” History.com, last modified September 20, 2018 https://www. history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinental-railroad 17 “Transcontinental Railroad,” History.com, last modified September 20, 2018 https://www. history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinental-railroad 18 “Transcontinental Railroad,” History.com, last modified September 20, 2018 https://www. history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinental-railroad 19 “Transcontinental Railroad,” History.com, last modified September 20, 2018 https://www. history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinental-railroad 20 “Transcontinental Railroad,” History.com, last modified September 20, 2018 https://www. history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinental-railroad 21 Jeremy Greenwood and Amanth Seshadri, “The U.S. Demographic Transition,” Economic Development Across Time and Space Vol. 92 No. 2: 153, accessed March 23, 2019. https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdf/10.1257/000282802320189168 22 Jeremy Greenwood and Amanth Seshadri, “The U.S. Demographic Transition,” Economic Development Across Time and Space Vol. 92 No. 2: 153, accessed March 23, 2019. https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdf/10.1257/000282802320189168 23 Vincent E. Feeney, Burlington: A History of Vermont’s Queen City, 120 24 Ibid, 96 25 Ibid, 123
70
26 Ibid, 121 27 Ibid, 121 28 Ibid, 114 29 Ibid, 114 30 “Big Fire in Burlington,” Herald and News, December 29 1898 https://www.newspapers.com/image/464906941/ ?terms=fires%2Bin%2BBurlington 31 “Fire at Burlington,” Bellows Falls Times, April 22, 1899 https://www.newspapers.com/image/365167217/? terms=fires%2Bin%2BBurlington 32 Vincent E. Feeney, Burlington: A History of Vermont’s Queen City, 114 33 Ibid, 114 34 Ibid, 114 35 Ibid, 114 36 Ibid, 115 37 Ibid, 117 38 Ibid, 115 39 Kevin Duffy, “Burlington’s ‘Bloody Third’ Race Is A Close One,” Rutland Daily Herald, September 5, 1980 https://www.newspapers.com/image/533635505/?terms =%22bloody%2Bthird%22 40 Kevin Duffy, “Burlington’s ‘Bloody Third’ Race Is A Close One,” Rutland Daily Herald, September 5, 1980 https://www.newspapers.com/image/533635505/?terms =%22bloody%2Bthird%22 41 Vincent E. Feeney, Burlington: A History of Vermont’s Queen City, 115 42 Ibid, 79, 81-82 43 Ibid, 81 44 Ibid, 116-117 45 Ibid, 83 46 Ibid, 83-84 47 Ibid, 85, 87-88 48 Ibid, 89 49 Ibid, 88-89, 90 50 Ibid, 133 51 Ibid, 133-135 52 Ibid, 131 53 Ibid, 129-131 54 Ibid, 131 55 Ibid, 131 56 Ibid, 136 57 Ibid, 90, 136-137 58 Ibid, 90-91 59 Ibid, 100 60 Ibid, 100 61 Ibid, 102 62 Kevin Pierce Thornton “Andrew Harris, Vermont’s Forgotten Abolitionist” Vermont History Vol. 83, No. 2 (Summer/Fall 2015):119. 2015 https://vermonthistory.org/journal/83/VHS8302 AndrewHarris.pdf 63 Kevin Pierce Thornton “Andrew Harris, Vermont’s Forgotten Abolitionist” Vermont History Vol. 83, No. 2 (Summer/Fall 2015):119. 2015 64 Feeney, Vincent E. Burlington: A History of Vermont’s Queen City, 128 65 Ibid, 128 66 Ibid, 128 67 Ibid, 128-129 68 Ibid, 140 69 Ibid, 142
71 CHAPTER 5
Victorian UVM College Life
What can the history of college life tell us about culture? Why should Victorian college
life at UVM matter to us now, over a hundred years later? The point of this book is to examine the
Alumni House and the culture surrounding it, like the people who lived in the house and what they
did. So why bring in college life? For one thing, the Alumni House first became connected with
UVM when the Delta Psi fraternity, formed at UVM, purchased the house for their use. It has a
direct connection with the people who went to UVM during and immediately following the
Victorian era. Another reason to study college life is to get a more complete picture of life during
the Victorian era as a whole. Studying a single house and the lives of the people who lived there
is very helpful and informative when trying to decipher another culture. It has drawbacks though,
such as only representing a small part of the population and Victorian culture as a whole. Studying
UVM during the Victorian era will help us get a wider picture of the lives of many people and
broaden our understanding of the past, rather than only studying a single home.
The UVM presidents during the Victorian era began with Reverend John Wheeler in 1833.1
The other presidents during the Victorian era were as follows: Reverend Worthington Smith,
elected 1849, Reverend Calvin Pease, elected 1855, Reverend Joseph Torrey, elected 1862, James
Burrill Angell, elected 1866, and Matthew Henry Buckham, elected 1871.2 Some of these
presidents garner more historical importance and will, therefore, be discussed further in the pages to come.
During John Wheeler’s presidency in the early-1830s the faculty at UVM were only 5 strong, and the president, along with other duties, also taught classes.3 John Wheeler became the
president of UVM in 1833 and helped to bring the University out of debt and help bring more
72 students to UVM.4 Wheeler was the president when Andrew Harris, UVM’s first African-
American graduated, was at the University.
Harris was born in New York in 1814. He learned Latin and Greek at the Geneva Lyceum and was born in the heat of the Second Great Awakening, a series of religious revivals in the United
States characterized by fiery and forceful preaching. This may explain the avid interest in religion and priesthood that Harris had later in life. Harris was particularly interesting due to his adoptive white parents’ encouragement of his education and religious inclinations. He applied to multiple colleges before being accepted to UVM in 1835. He graduated from UVM in 1838.
Harris was an active abolitionist during his time away from UVM in Troy, NY. During his time there, he established connections and became something of a community leader during the winter of 1836. After graduating, Harris moved to New York City in 1838 and became acquainted with members of the American Anti-Slavery Society. He quickly became a frequent speaker at various venues in the city and proved that he spoke eloquently enough to be a keynote speaker for various anti-slavery societies. On May 7th, 1839 Harris spoke as a keynote speaker at the New
York Broadway Tabernacle for the American Anti-Slavery Society. Chosen because he
symbolized black intellectual attainment, Harris spoke to a mixed-race crowd of over 5,000 people.
Tragically, Harris died early in 1841 of fever, but his legacy lives on with UVM’s dedication of
the Andrew Harris Commons, a communal green space located between the Davis Cetner and the
Howe Library, in 2018.5
The standard undergraduate curriculum was comprised of ancient studies of rhetoric, basic mathematics, the classics, and philosophy.6 Teaching was mainly focused on memorizing lectures, vocabulary, and reciting facts.7 Academia was the main pursuit of going to a university. Edward
Hungerford brought different methods of learning to UVM during the mid-1850s, including classes
73 in chemistry and geology, with certain aspects of lab sciences.8 President Pease did not find this
amusing, having been quoted as saying “Why aren’t you in your classroom lecturing?”9 It is evident that this was a new and contemporaneously outlandish method of teaching.
Victorian student life was different and similar to contemporary student life in a variety of ways. For fun, students would take walks in the countryside, fish, drink, or bathe.10 There were
literary societies and debate clubs that students were able to take advantage of.11 Students also had
to publicly confess or apologize if they misbehaved, something entirely unheard of in today’s
world.12 Students today have a wide variety of options and things they can do, and not to mention,
the size of the college then was much smaller than it is today. Despite these differences, UVM
students during the Victorian era and now, as with many college students, skipped classes from
time to time, partied, enjoyed outdoor recreation, and relished in the fact that responsibilities were
less than in real life.
There are many hilarious stories of UVM students in the Ariel yearbooks that tell the
modern reader a great deal about life as a college student in the Victorian era. One story comes
from the 1897 edition of The Ariel. There was a freshman named Willie who went on a trip to
Boston one weekend to visit a woman he liked. He was going to eat dinner at her house, with her
family. He had a cane that he really admired and wanted to bring it with him to Boston. The story
in The Ariel was told from the perspective of the cane, which adds to the comedic effect of the
story. Keep in mind that during the Victorian era canes were a sign of high style and wealth.13
Before Willie left for Boston, two of his friends got the idea to prank him. They took his cane from his closet where they knew he kept it, wrapped it up in newspaper and heavy wrapping paper and sent it to the address of the Smythe family in Boston, the same family of the woman Willie made the trip to see. Willie found out that his cane was missing and was hysterically upset and said that
74 if he didn’t have his cane he didn’t want to go. Eventually his roommate convinced him to go on
the trip without his cane, much to Willie’s dismay. When the cane arrived at the Smythe house,
Willie and the family were eating. When Willie saw the return address at UVM he knew it must
have been the cane and ripped open the package in front of the family. He didn’t care, though, he
had his precious cane back!14
What does this hilarious story tell us about
student life during the Victorian era at
UVM? One thing it tells us is that canes were
prized possessions and a symbol of style.
Why would Willie have wanted to take the
cane to the Smythe house if not to impress
the family of the woman he liked? It also
tells us about student life more generally.
The type of hazing that went on in this story
wouldn’t be acceptable by today’s standards 1897 Freshman Cane Story and may be considered theft. In the late-19th century, though, people probably thought of this kind of activity as obnoxious but just a joke. It probably also gave them something to do when they were bored. Remember, people during this time didn’t have iPhones or video games. They had to be more inventive with how they had fun, and so the kind of joke we may consider insane and irrational today would probably be amusing and normal for people during the 19th and early 20th
centuries.
75 Another great story from the riveting year of 1897 at UVM involves a fire escape and a
broken record. A UVM student named Lawrence lived in Converse Hall during his time at UVM
and thought he could break the record for the fastest descent from the fourth floor Converse fire
escape. The account in the 1897 yearbook claimed that the old record was 12 seconds and
Lawrence was determined to prove his guts and do it faster. To do this, he used a simple rope tied into the room opening onto the fourth-floor fire escape. Various other students watched in fear and amusement as Lawrence made his way down in only 3 seconds! As he was descending, the
yearbook humorously noted the increasing temperature of his hands as he rapidly slid down the
rope. The temperature of his hands climbed from average to 147 degrees all the way to 212 degrees,
according to the account. When he hit the ground he fell flat on his back and was shaken up but apparently in one piece. Lawrence was thrilled with his success, and nobody doubted that his record would never be broken.15
Student life can also be counted based on how
many students are from out-of-state and how
many are in-state. In a copy of the UVM alumni
records from 1791-1900, the 1880s and 1890s
records suggest that about half of the students at
UVM were in-state students, and about half
were from out-of-state.16 Most out-of-state
students during this time were from other states
in the Northeastern United States, such as New
York City, Upstate New York, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, and elsewhere.17
1897 Ariel Cover Art
76 There are also a few students listed from places like Chicago, Illinois and Washington, DC.18 In contrast, most UVM students today are from out-of-state. Only 20% of all 2,400 students in the class of 2019 are in-state Vermont students.19 There are a few main factors that probably accounted
for this shift. One of them would be the transportation revolution during the Victorian era. During
the 1880s and 1890s, there were railroads and roads, but most people rode on horseback to get
places, or by means of a horse-drawn buggy.20 Now, modern transportation methods allow easy
transportation of people, so in-state Vermont students probably choose to travel to other schools outside of Vermont today because transportation allows for this.
Each senior class had a color and a yell. In 1890, the senior class color was gold and their class yell was “Rah! Rah! Rah!”21 The Senior class of 1891’s class colors were black and yellow.22
The 1892 senior class had colors of straw and wine. The class yell was Yah zee, Yah zee, evax,
whoo, U.V.M. ’92.23 The 1893 senior class colors were crimson and white. Three and three times ten, times three, U.V.M., ’93, ’93.24 Each subsequent class had class colors and a class yell, but
there are far too many to mention all of them. There are some really interesting pages from the
Ariel with senior class members, poems and more class colors.
It took a long time for sciences to become an established academic discipline at the
university level, and UVM was no exception. The sciences at UVM, as with many other
institutions, didn’t get very much attention. The sciences were underfunded, so many professors
before George Perkins ended up leaving UVM, frustrated at the lack of science classes and the
lack of funding.25 George Perkins came to UVM in 1870, after earning his Ph.D. from the Sheffield
Scientific School at Yale.26 Perkins was among the first generation of scholars to learn about
Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection. Well respected as a professor at UVM, he was a proponent
of Christian Darwinism. He argued that Darwin’s theory wasn’t an argument against God and the
77 two could coexist.27 The religion versus science issue was at the forefront of many debates but
Perkins was able to reconcile their coexistence and teach effectively. Perkins brought scientific inquiry to UVM, but not in the way we think of scientific inquiry now. There was much less emphasis on experimentation and the scientific method and more on speculation of the facts presented.28 Darwinism was also used to propagate scientific racism and the eugenics movement, and George Perkins helped establish this idea at UVM.
Inevitably, mathematical and engineering sciences gained a hold at UVM and by around
1911 they started to become more abundant than arts degrees. With the second industrial revolution during the early 20th century, this shift away from the arts and towards a more scientific and rationally based education made sense. The majority of degree-earning students at UVM, though, were students of medicine. Medicine at UVM was not always a popular subject. Before the
University funded a medical education program in the mid-19th century, many individuals aspiring to be doctors had to pay doctors directly to be trained medically, and even this wasn’t a recognized degree.29 This type of education was very informal and could vary depending on who the doctor was one would work under.30 Eventually, the medical program became accredited at UVM when people began seeing the medical field as a more distinguished and respectable area of study and practice.31 The result was the vast increase in medical students, more than any other type of student, studying at UVM.
UVM didn’t have any connection with the Wells House for most of the Victorian era, as it was constructed in 1891, late in the period. The first real interaction UVM had with the Wells
House was when the Delta Psi fraternity acquired the house in 1924 as their new meeting and living location. The Delta Psi fraternity was founded at UVM in 1850 by John Ellsworth Goodrich.
John Dewey was the most well-known member of the Delta Psi fraternity at UVM. Dewey was
78 born in 1859 and graduated from UVM in 1879. He was a philosopher and psychologist and most
of his work throughout his life focused on pragmatism, especially with regards to education.
Dewey believed that a democracy with people who were informed on issues and actively
participated was the best system for human progress. Dewey died in 1952.32
Then and Now: UVM Today
What were the main differences between UVM during the Victorian era and UVM
currently? There are size differences in terms of space, amount of buildings, and the number of
students who attend. In the 1895 UVM student yearbook, for example, there were 212 students in
the whole university.33 Compare that with UVM’s student body today of around 10,000 students.
UVM has also grown vastly in terms of buildings owned as well as the amount of land. In the
Victorian era, all of UVM’s classes were in buildings on University Place, and other than dorms these were the only buildings under UVM ownership. Between the Victorian era and now UVM has added many academic buildings including Marsh science, Morrill Hall, Discovery, and Aiken, among many others.
UVM’s campus today is markedly different than what it once was. The culture of UVM during the Victorian era is easily distinguishable from today. Despite this difference, college life is very similar in a number of ways, including students breaking rules and trying to find their place in the world. It seems that this is what young adulthood is all about and UVM has always been dedicated to helping students accomplish this goal of self-discovery.
79 Then and now pictures are below.
Old Mill (Victorian Era) Old Mill (Today)
Billings Library (Victorian Era) Billings Library (Today)
80
1 Robert V. Daniels et al. The University of Vermont the First Two-hundred Years (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1991), 80. 2 Daniels et al. UVM First Two-hundred Years, 81-86. 3 Ibid, 80. 4 Ibid, 80. 5 Kevin Thornton, Andrew Harris, Vermont’s Forgotten Abolitionist, (Burlington, VT: Vermont Historical Society, 2015), https://vermonthistory.org/journal/83/VHS8302AndrewHarris.pdf. 6 Daniels et al. UVM First Two-hundred Years, 80. 7 Daniels et al. UVM First Two-hundred Years, 82. 8 Ibid, 82. 9 Ibid, 82. 10 Ibid, 82. 11 Ibid, 82. 12 Ibid, 83. 13 Jacob Trost, Clothing as Distinctions of Social Class: Victorian Secrets, Nov. 12, 2014, https://c19.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2014/11/12/clothing-as-distinctions-of-social-class-victorian-secrets/. 14 UVM Class of 1897, Ariel 97’ (Burlington, VT: Free Press Association, 1897), 198-200. 15 UVM Class of 1897, Ariel 97’ (Burlington, VT: Free Press Association, 1897), 206-208. 16 General Catalogue of the University of Vermont (Burlington, VT: Burlington Free Press Association, 1901), 144- 196. 17 General Catalogue of the University of Vermont (Burlington, VT: Burlington Free Press Association, 1901), 144- 196. 18 Ibid, 144-196. 19 Zach Despart, “UVM’s Incoming Class Has Fewer Vermonters” Burlington Free Press, Sept. 28, 2015, https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/education/2015/09/28/uvms-incoming-class-has-fewer- vermonters/72566076/. 20 Thomas J. Schlereth, Victorian America: Transformations in Everyday Life (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991), 20. 21 UVM Junior Class, Ariel 1891 (Rome, NY: Beers and Kessinger, 1891), 33. 22 UVM Junior Class, Ariel 1892 (Glens Falls, NY: Chas. H. Possons, Expert Printer, 1892), 19. 23 UVM Junior Class, Ariel 1893 (Glens Falls, NY: Chas. H. Possons Printer and Publisher, 1893), 22. 24 UVM Junior Class, Ariel 1894 (Glens Falls, NY: Chas. H. Possons Printer and Publisher, 1894), 25. 25 Daniels et al. UVM First Two-hundred Years, 138. 26 Daniels et al. UVM First Two-hundred Years, 138. 27 Ibid, 142. 28 Ibid, 139. 29 Ibid, 161. 30 Ibid, 161. 31 Ibid, 166. 32 James Gouinlock, “John Dewey American Philosopher and Educator” Encyclopedia Britannica, July 20, 1998 https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Dewey. 33 UVM Junior Class, Ariel 1895 (Glens Falls, NY: Chas. H. Possons Printer and Publisher), 23-42.
81 Epilogue
History is not one story, but a compilation of the stories of many. Not all of these stories have been preserved in their entirety or at all, but they exist – and through the study of history are made tangible to modern scholars. Stories are preserved in the photos, newspapers, diaries, and homes that remain from whatever era it is that one is observing. Therefore, this project was a great opportunity to delve into what we love best about history by exploring stories of the Victorian Era in Burlington, honing in on that of the Wells family.
For over a century the Wells House has served a variety of functions, from that of a private home to a fraternity to its current capacity as an Alumni House. Edward Wells could surely never have imagined what his house would someday become. The purpose of a home is to bring joy to those who walk within its walls. The Alumni House does just that with events like weddings, where so many excited people are here to celebrate a couple’s love. By utilizing the house in a more public way, a greater number of people can enjoy all of the wonderful Victorian features it has to offer, including the beautiful woodwork all around the building and the magnificent fireplaces. When people come to visit UVM’s Alumni House they often ask “what was this building before?” and now, hopefully, they will have an answer with this book.
One thing that the Wells House and our UVM alumni have in common are memories. Part of having a space dedicated to welcoming alumni is for them to be able to come back and rehash their college memories. When you’re in the Wells House you can really sense the history that is there; you can almost hear the voices of those long since passed. It seems apropos to have utilized such a historic building for an Alumni House. Alumni ought to have a building that has a good deal of history and stories, just as they do. As people, we cannot live in the past and must adapt: one way to do this is to revitalize historical buildings and give them a purpose in the modern world.
82 Alumni House does just that with the Wells House. It is a space that is a testament to the past but also a promise to the future: that history will be preserved in such a way that people of today, tomorrow, and generations to come can enjoy it.
83 Bibliography
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“Big Fire in Burlington.” Herald and News. December 29, 1898. https://www.newspapers.com /image/464906941/?terms=fires%2Bin%2BBurlington
“Eminent Architect Arrives in this City.” The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. January 12, 1901. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1901-01-12/ed-1/seq-3/.
“Famous Architect Dead Here.” The Honolulu Advertiser. November 11, 1923. https://www.newspapers.com/image/258500839/?terms=Edgar+Allen+Poe+Newcomb
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“Jury Sustains Will Making H. L. Ward Residuary Legatee” Burlington Daily News, May 26, 1920. https://www.newspapers.com/image/355464671/?terms=anna%2Bwells.
“Possibilities Lie in Block of Wood.” Burlington Free Press. November 20, 1935. https://www. newspapers.com/clip/13143861/the_burlington_free_press/.
“Testimony Opened in Wells Will Case.” The Burlington Free Press. March 31, 1920. https://www.newspapers.com/image/197914275/?terms=anna%2Bwells.
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Bennett, David H. “Immigration and Immigrants: Anti-immigrant Sentiment.” Gale. https://www.gale.com/binaries/content/assets/gale-us-en/primary-sources/newsvault/gps_ newsvault_19thcentury_usnewspapers_immigration_essay.pdf
Briggs, Amy. “The Know-Nothings: The United States’ first anti-immigrant party.” National Geographic History Magazine, July 2017. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/ archaeology-and-history/magazine/2017/07-08/know-nothings-and-nativism/
Carlisle, Lilian B. Chittenden County Historical Society Bulletin Vol. 9, No. 3. Burlington, VT: Chittenden County Historical Society. April 1974.
Garvin, James L. “Mail-Order House Plans and American Victorian Architecture.” Winterthur Portfolio Vol. 16, No. 4 (1981): 314, accessed March 12, 2019. https://www-jstor -org.ezproxy.uvm.edu/stable/pdf/1180871.pdf?ab_segments=0%252Ftbsub- 1%252Frelevance_config_with_tbsub&refreqid=excelsior%3A17c084a6508f45dee6dab4 8331af0c9f.
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85 Library of Congress. Catalogue of Copyright Entries Part 3: Musical Compositions. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1919, 567.
Greenwood, Jeremy and Amanth Seshadri. “The U.S. Demographic Transition.” Economic Development Across Time and Space Vol. 92 No. 2: 153. accessed March 23, 2019.
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Schlereth, Thomas J. Victorian America Transformations in Everyday Life 1876-1915. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.
Wilson, G.H. The Boston Musical Yearbook Vol. I. Boston: Geo. H. Ellis, 1884, 49. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044040443590;view=1up;seq=111
86 What was life like in 1890s Burlington? We may imagine a simpler time: steamboats, horse-drawn carriages, cobblestone streets, and evenings by candlelight. However, this historical period – known commonly as the Victorian Era – was a vibrant, fast-paced, and exciting time to be alive. The UVM Alumni House, constructed by Edward Wells in 1892, stands now as a testament to this bygone era and the value of historical memory. By exploring the history of Alumni House, this book will also guide you through the concurrent histories of Burlington and the University of Vermont during the late nineteenth century.
This book was researched and written by our 2019 Alumni House Historical Research Interns.
Dan Brainerd ’21 is a sophomore at the University of Vermont majoring in history and psychology. His primary academic interests lie behavioral biology, evolution, psychology, and genetics. With this lens, Dan has been drawn to the study of social and cultural history; Dan loves to tackle the questions of everyday life in various historical periods. His historical perspective was shaped in large part by a course called “Love and Death in Modern Europe,” taught by History Professor Steven Zdatny.
In addition to his academic work, Dan is an avid runner and loves to play the guitar. Some of his favorite bands are Nirvana, the Beatles, Green Day, and Pink Floyd.
Emma LaRose ’21 is a UVM sophomore double-majoring in history and political science. Emma’s interest in history is rooted in her childhood experience listening to her grandparents share stories about growing up during the Great Depression. History captivates Emma’s imagination. Her favorite historical time periods are the late nineteenth century in the United States and Medieval England. Emma’s favorite courses at UVM have been history courses. One, in particular, that has influenced her education was “Canadian American Relations,” taught by History Professor David Massell.
Emma is originally from Brooklyn, New York. In her free time, she loves to bake, cross-country ski, and – of course – read about history.
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