EXPLORING ST. JOHNSBURY, VERMONT — 13 AUGUST 2026

As you read this 481st published writing and sharing here the “take-away” I wish to impart is to visit St. Johnsbury, Vermont (the only St. Johnsbury in the world). In my last post I provided my trip up and back with a two night stay, but from Walpole, scooting up and back on I-91, you can make this a long day-trip, at least for your first visit. I do plan to get back. Wish I had spent time here years ago.

My “full day in between” was spent with the major points of interest in St. Johnsbury: the St. Johnsbury History and Heritage Center; the Fairbanks Museum; and the St. Johnsbury Atheneum: Library and Art Gallery.

Everything is close by in this fascinating city of about 7,300 which I learned includes outlying rural areas. To help with background information I have included PDFs of history and a map – click the links below.

St Johnsbury History
St. Johnsbury Map with points of interest

I was at the History and Heritage center when it opened at 10 am. Originally housed for many years at the Fairbanks Museum, a separate entity was established in 2010 to provide a dedicated organization to care for and interpret the town’s history. In 2014 a permanent home on Summer Street was purchased featuring an Italianate-style house and carriage barn.

I found these time-line panels interesting, not just for the words but in presentation. Rods hung from the ceiling and moveable clips then held each panel on a rod – thus allowing additions easily (well moving panels down the line)

Here are two panels – note Walpole’s William Gage supervised the making of brick, and of great importance is the Fairbanks scale business and the prosperity and philanthropy the family brought to the town. (remember you may click my galleries for larger views)

I found this history of a Civil War soldiers “rest stop” in Philadelphia of interest. Having been stationed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard three times, I never knew of this facility before, even though 113 years before I first arrived there.

Remember seeing all the over the road large tractor trailer trucks emblazoned with ST. JOHNSBURY TRUCKING? This exhibit shared the company’s history from establishment in 1918 to bankruptcy in 1993.

I had to share this band history.

And — why St. Johnsbury is what it is, the family establishing the St. Johnsbury Academy, the Fairbanks Museum, and the Atheneum.

One of the early scales shown here weighing a Fairbanks wagon of hemp – uniform weight measurements driving their inventions and success.

A model of a scale for rail cars.

And another important aspect to the area.

And, then I saw this display, and “flipped out” with excitement. Trust you know my backstory here – POPCORNMAN RAY.

Obviously homemade saving the expense of buying a Cretor’s sidewalk unit, but just as effective. Kerosene tank gravity feeding a burner, but instead of heating a kettle a campfire corn popper was hung over the flame and could be pushed back and forth. Above a teapot held melting butter. Ingenious.

On Eastern Avenue, across from where I ate the first night, I saw an Octagon House – I am always fascinated by them, and once stayed in one in New Bedford, Massachusetts. I asked a docent about what I saw on Eastern Avenue, and he told me of another close by the museum — I headed off, and below one of the most impressive Octogon Houses I have seen – this on the way to Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.

Below the Octagon Houses on Eastern Avenue

and finding it hard to believe two Octagon buildings together – wow – to the rear a third smaller one with “normal” wings coming off.

It was then over to the Fairbanks Museum – the museum itself a museum of 19th century collecting and exhibition. Franklin Fairbanks was the last Fairbanks to head the E & T Fairbanks company. Throughout his life he collected and studied rocks and birds, flowers and mammals. In time his collection became known as a “cabinet of curiosities”. Building such collections was quite the craze in the late 19th century. He shared his collection in his mansion, but out growing that space hired an architect to draw plans for his new museum to become a natural history teaching institution. In 1891 this building was dedicated.

Below the grand hall – ground floor, and then from the second floor gallery.

Just what you would see in a 19th century “Cabinet of Curiosity” collection – many of the animal specimens preserved from that time.

Some of the exhibits were collected from elsewhere – below a dinosaur exhibit first seen the the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1854.

So much to see, so much I could share – but finding the below about tea, thought this perfect to share.

Also a MUST VISIT is the St. Johnsbury Atheneum and Library. Horace Fairbanks presented the St. Johnsbury Athenæum to the people of St. Johnsbury in 1871. He was a partner and later president of the E. and T. Fairbanks Company. Just a note – all these museums are in easy walking distance of each other (well maybe not for my worn out joints).

I could live in this building easily.

And, in a rear room is the Art Gallery which Time magazine noted in 1965 is “the United States’ oldest unaltered art gallery still standing.”

Featuring ahead of you as you enter – Albert Bierstadt’s “Domes of Yosemite”

Why the image below Ray? Read on. “Domes of Yosemite” was commissioned for $25,000 by New York financier LeGrand Lockwood. This 9.5 x 15-foot oil-on-canvas, completed in 1867, is considered one of Albert Bierstadt’s masterpieces. The Lockwood Mansion is on US Route 7, just north of I-95 in Norwalk, Connecticut. Norwalk south of my hometown of Wilton, and going shopping in Norwalk, or to the orthodontist, we would pass the mansion, now a museum and park. Sold at auction in 1872 for $5050, the painting was gifted to the Atheneum in 1873 — WORTH THE DRIVE TO ST. JOHNSBURY.

And, on my second night for dinner I went to 98 MILL and asked for a table on the riverfront deck. Below my river view – dinner (with leftovers brought home for two more meals), and its location on the map downtown.