Walloomsac Inn (formerly Dewey Tavern), Bennington, Vermont
For Restoration Obscura
This building began its life in 1771 as the Dewey Tavern, erected along the road that followed the Walloomsac River just east of Bennington village. Only a few years later the surrounding fields became part of the landscape of the Battle of Bennington, fought nearby in August of 1777. Taverns like this served as more than roadside lodging. They were gathering places where travelers, militia, farmers, and merchants exchanged news and information as the young republic took shape.
Ownership and names changed with the generations. The tavern later became known as Hicks Tavern, continuing its role as a stopping place for travelers moving between the Hudson Valley and the Green Mountains. As the nineteenth century progressed and tourism began to expand across southern Vermont, the building evolved into a larger hotel operation that came to be known as the Walloomsac Inn.
It is often confused with the Mount Anthony House, though the two were separate establishments. The Mount Anthony House stood in downtown Bennington on the corner of Main and South Streets and was originally known as the Putnam Hotel. The Walloomsac Inn occupied a quieter site east of the village along the river road, serving travelers who arrived from the countryside rather than the town center.
Today the structure remains as a weathered survivor of that long transition. The clapboards bow outward, dormer windows lean toward the sky, and a later metal fire escape clings to the façade. Long exposure photographs stretch the clouds overhead into streaks of motion, compressing time above a building that has already witnessed more than two and a half centuries of it.
Places like this become quiet historical archives. Long after the travelers have disappeared and the tavern doors have closed, the structure remains, keeping watch over the valley where roads, wars, and generations of movement once passed.
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