Town Bites
by Edd Merritt

Spring produces a crop of historic markers.



Lake Champlain Byways, the Lake Champlain Basin Project and the Town of Charlotte, with financial assistance from the Federal Highway Commission, are also in the partnership. When approached by Senecal-Albrecht, the Selectboard formed a local committee to help research historical data and design the plaques. Charlotte’s markers offer a brief written and pictorial history of their sites. The Senior Center plaque is a good starting point for Charlotte history. Entitled “Charlotta,” the plaque describes the naming of the town by King George of England in 1762 when he granted 23,060 acres in the Champlain Valley for incorporation into a township named after his German-born wife, Charlotta von Mecklinburg-Strelitz. When it was finally incorporated, the last syllable of the name was dropped, but the German pronunciation retained emphasis on the “lotte” (charLOTTE which over the years was further reduced to chLOTTE). As a primarily agricultural community, Charlotte never had a single large village center. The Lakeview Seminary, an early school, was located south of the four-corners of Ferry and Greenbush Roads. Renowned philosopher and educator, John Dewey, was the Seminary’s first principal from 1880-1882. The building served as a school until 1949 when it became a private home. The plaque also contains pictures of the Old Brick Store taken sometime in the early 20th century, a view looking east along Ferry Road shot around 1915, plus an early map of Charlotte. Baptist Corner was named for the Calvinist Baptist Church built there around 1807. The original wooden church burned in 1839, and the intersection of Spear Street and the Charlotte/Hinesburg Road grew into a major crossroad in colonial times. The local Grange, #398, was formed in 1897, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church building (circa earlt 1800s) was moved here after serving as a Quaker Meeting House in Ferrisburgh. The plaque shows a picture of the original store at the Corner, the Lyceum Hall prior to its purchase by the Grange, and the modern-day tractor parade. The Quinlan School House plaque outlines the building’s history as one of 13 one-room schoolhouses in Charlotte. It was built in 1850 and remained as a school for the next 100 years. Named for the Quinlan family who owned a farm on Spear Street, it was disassembled and moved to its current site in 1996. Its marker contains old pictures of the school’s interior, scraps of attendance records that were being used as wall insulation, and a shot of students from the 1926-1927 school year – 12 students in all.

Collegiate cyclists hit the roads of Charlotte.
UVM student bicyclists sponsored a collegiate race through Charlotte on April 19. The event drew teams from at least 40 eastern U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities. In true Ivy spirit, the Yale team arrived in its own bus. McGill University sent a contingent from Montreal; Drexel up from Philadelphia joined locals from Dartmouth, UNH, Vermont Technical College, Northeastern University, Harvard, MIT, University of Connecticut, Tufts, and a large contingent from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and others. Over 250 riders participated, starting at Charlotte Central School and completing 14-mile loops in a series of heats. The event is one of a number of collegiate races run throughout the spring. The riders congregated in Hanover, New Hampshire, for the Dartmouth version the following week.

Pizzagalli volunteers build bridges in Williams Woods.
As part of their annual meeting, and marking the company’s 50th anniversary, about 30 volunteers from Pizzagalli Construction Company, headquartered in South Burlington, donated their time and skills to building bridges and posts for trails through Williams Woods last Friday. The volunteers came to Charlotte from company sites and offices across the eastern seaboard to work on the project that was sponsored by the United Way’s Day of Caring. They built about a dozen bridges designed to float over muddy spots in the preserve. While the 30-person crew attacked the task in Charlotte, an equal number framed walls for Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity in the company’s warehouse on San Remo Drive. These will be used in a Habitat house scheduled to be built this summer in Milton. Several volunteers said they were happy to follow a morning of meetings with some good, old-fashioned physical labor.

Cow goes belly up off Thompson’s Point.
“Yes, Virginia, that is a cow in the lake, and I don’t think it’s sailing.” A Holstein was sighted belly to the sky off Thompson’s Point recently, according to Selectboard Chair Charles Russell. After checking with the local farmers and attempting to get pictures of its computer tag, Russell feels quite confident that it belongs to a Weybridge farm. How it traversed miles of land and water to park its body off Thompson’s Point is still in the barn-talk stage.

Car break-ins at Mt. Philo are unsettling.
According to state police, several cars parked in the lot at the foot of Mt. Philo have been broken into and vandalized recently. Purses were taken in two of the break-ins. Anyone with information should contact Trooper Paul Badger or Corporal Kevin Scott at 878-7111.