Brooks House (Brattleboro, Vermont) facts for kids
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Brooks House
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U.S. Historic district
Contributing property |
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(2012)
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| Location | 128 Main Street (4 High Street) Brattleboro, Vermont |
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| Built | 1871 |
| Architect | E. Boyden & Son |
| Architectural style | provincial Second Empire |
| Part of | Brattleboro Downtown Historic District (ID83003225) |
| NRHP reference No. | 80000343 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | February 1, 1980 |
| Designated CP | February 17, 1983 |
The Brooks House, also known as the Hotel Brooks, is a really old and important building in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont. It's located right at the corner of Main Street and High Street.
This building was finished in 1871. It was designed by a company called E. Boyden & Son from Worcester, Massachusetts. They built it for George Brooks. The new building replaced an older hotel on the same spot that had burned down.
When it was new, the Brooks House was a fancy hotel with 80 rooms. These rooms were decorated in a very grand way. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. This means it's recognized as a special historic place.
Contents
What Does the Brooks House Look Like?
The Brooks House has a unique look. It was built in the Second Empire style. This style was popular for big buildings in the late 1800s.
The Grand Entrance
Along Main Street, the building had a long iron entrance and a veranda. A veranda is like a large porch. This one was 40 feet long and two stories high!
Strong cast-iron columns held up the building's weight. These columns had granite blocks on top of them. The Brooks House was, and still is, the biggest commercial building in Brattleboro.
A Popular Spot for Summer Fun
In its early days, the Brooks House was one of the largest hotels in New England. It might even have been the biggest Second Empire style building outside of New York City.
A Vacation Destination
The hotel was a very popular place for summer vacations. People from big cities like New York and Boston knew about it. The veranda was often used as a special viewing spot for parades.
Meetings were held at the hotel all year long. The large ballroom was famous for hosting many fancy parties. The Second Empire style was often chosen for hotels back then. Another hotel, the Towsley House Hotel in Waterloo, New York, looked very similar to the Brooks House. This made people wonder if the design was copied.
Changes Over Time
The inside of the Brooks House was changed a lot between 1970 and 1972. These changes were made to help the building stay in business. They also helped stop it from being torn down.
New Uses for Old Spaces
The hotel used to have a huge ballroom. It was 50 feet by 50 feet and took up parts of the second and third floors. This ballroom had no columns or posts inside, making it a wide-open space.
This large ballroom was divided into office spaces. Other parts of those floors also became offices. The next three floors were turned into 59 modern apartments. The main lobby of the building became a bank. The original entrance was replaced with a new, modern one. Because of these changes, none of the original inside of the building remains.
Also, some columns on the outside were removed. This allowed for bigger windows for shops on the ground floor.
Fire and Rebuilding
On April 17, 2011, a fire caused a lot of damage to the third and fourth floors of the building.
A Community Effort to Rebuild
The owner, Jonathan Chase, spent almost $2 million to start fixing and redeveloping the building. But he couldn't get all the money needed to finish the job.
On April 4, 2012, he announced he was selling the building. The Brattleboro Town Manager, Barbara Sondag, said the Brooks House was "vitally important to downtown." A new group of local investors bought the building. They planned to raise about $14 million to finish the project. They thought it would take 18 to 24 months.
Mesabi LLC is a group of five local investors. They are now working to redevelop the Brooks House. On July 9, 2013, the group officially bought the building. Construction began at the end of that month. The whole project is estimated to cost $24 million. Money for the project has come from different places. This includes loans from the Town of Brattleboro and federal tax credits.
When the Brooks House is finished, it will have a new downtown campus. This campus will be for the Community College of Vermont and Vermont Technical College (Vermont Tech).
