Abandoned Vermont
Abandoned, neglected, forgotten buildings call my name. They have probably been seen my thousands of people or more, but who is the last person who lived there? Who cares about the building? What if no one else is paying attention? Will those stories and those descriptions be forgotten? As much as I love stories of saving historic buildings, it is a reality that not everything will be saved and restored and loved. Some are just deteriorating on the side of the road or back in the woods or down a quiet country road.
I love living in Vermont and driving in the beautiful warm weather. There is always something intriguing to see. Often I want to take a photograph of a building; but I don’t always stop. Usually I regret the decision not to stop because it might be a long time before I’m traveling the same route. In order to remedy that, I’m going to do my best to stop and photograph the abandoned, neglected, overgrown and forgotten historic buildings (or even those that are just old but look interesting) or roadside attractions.
Thus, I bring to Preservation in Pink, an “Abandoned Vermont” category. This page will serve as an index for the category, as I intend to make it a regular feature on PiP. You can also find the posts in the category section on the sidebar.
Abandoned Vermont Posts
Elgin Springs House
Walloomsac Inn
Log Cabin Motel
Sap Shack
House on Route 107
Route 9 Gas Station
Hogback Mountain Ski Area
Wheelock Schoolhouse
Charleston Schoolhouse
Taplin School
Rockingham House
Putney Stone Arch Bridge
Story House
Fair Haven Depot
Hancock House
Windsor House
Clarendon Church
Clarendon House
Weathersfield House
Sudbury House
Weathersfield Store
South Ryegate Church
Bakersfield House
Chelsea House
Weathersfield House #2
Granville Inn
Chester Depot Inn
Simonsville Meeting House
Roxbury House
Dover Schoolhouse
This 1790 schoolhouse was updated with large windows to meet new school standards, likely in the early decades of the 20th century.
Vergennes House
Barre House
Closer view. You can see the windows were once boarded up, but now have mostly been removed.
Wolcott House
Long Meadow Inn
The main brick block with ell and frame additions.
Warren Mill
Bloomfield Church
Putney Schoolhouse
Enosburg Falls Factory
Front facade of the factory.
Manchester Inn
On the front porch.
Brandon High School.
The trailer sitting in front of the high school adds to the abandoned feel.
Randolph Coal & Ice.
The building sitting trackside.
Brandon House.
White house in the white winter snow. The windows look dark and cold, and the house immediately seemed to have that abandoned lure.
Highgate Falls Church.
Constructed in 1834.
Hubbardton Church.
Rupert House
Middlesex Schoolhouse
South Hero Farmhouse
South Hero Stables
Reading House.
Hyde Manor
Henrysburg Methodist Church, 1861.
Greek Revival columns and front pedimented gable.
The box cornice, pilaster, gable returns, and lintels are typical of Greek Revival architecture.
Ferrisburgh Farm House
Preservation in Pink 
Do you know about this site?
http://www.uvm.edu/landscape/menu.php
Peter in Mapping.
Nice blog.
What an interesting blog idea. I too, am facinated with abandoned structures and always wonder about them. Thanks for let me know that I am not the only one out there worrying about them. š I love forward to more!
l “look” forward to more
I visited Vermont for the first time in my life last week. What a beautiful state! I was traveling North on route 30 from Lake George. I was wondering if you could give me any details about a huge white/green house that was abandoned?
I might be able to – send me some pictures and information. Was the house in New York or Vermont?
If you were going north on rt 30 you must have passed Hyde manor which is north of bomoseen in sudbury
Great idea Kaitlin. Next time I’m on Route 7 I’ll stop and take a shot of my favorite abandoned house š
Please send them along!
I love this idea, I live in NH where I sometimes come across long forgotten buildings. I often wonder who walked away from them and why, did they love them and care for them once upon a time?
Thanks, Ellen. If you want to feature a NH house, let me know.
These are some great, albeit sad, pictures. We also love the architecture in Northern New England and are working toward the same goal of making sure our heritage does not end up in the “abandoned” bin. You can check out our town picture galleries (which we are always expanding) here: http://northernnewenglandvillages.com/gallery-pictures/
Thanks! And I agree – while abandoned buildings are fascinating, they’d be better off not abandoned. I’ll head over to your site and check it out.
You could take a pic of the old Maple Gift Shop on Rt7 just south of St. Albans city
limits. I loved going in there as a kid. Great gifts and maple products. It closed many
years ago. And now that heavy snow we had a couple years ago collapsed the roof.
It’s still there in ruins. So sad…
Thanks for the tip; though how sad to hear of another building collapse due to snow.
This is such a cool idea to postulate the fact, through photos, that this era actually did exist once.
thank you!
Michele Gibson – I believe you are referring to Hyde Manor in Sudbury, VT.
Actually, it probably will appear on one of these abandoned properties sites soon as I saw someone there just a few weeks ago taking pictures of Hyde Manor in Sudbury, VT. It is on the left (east side) of Rt 30 and it is truly amazing that it is still standing, or seemingly so from the front. Descendant of the Hyde Family lives (in warm months) in one of the two remaining Hyde cottages just to the north of this once splendid building. Many pictures of this building in its hey day were displayed at the Bicentennial Event for the Sudbury Meeting House, held in July 2007. These were donated by this descendant for purposes
of display. The current owner of this building lives next door, to the south of it, believe it or not!
Hi Beth, Yes, I’ve seen Hyde Manor. What a sad story and a beautiful property.
Kaitlin – I’ve been enjoying your blog as a fellow Vermonter and one with an interest in the forgotten (and interesting) local past, marked by structures and their remnants. I have a thing for railroads in particular, which fits in nicely to that theme… I thought you might find my post today interesting! http://richholschuh.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/depot-discoveries-part-one/
Thanks for your own explorations and the stories you uncover around them. I’ll keep checking in.
Thank you! I love railroad depots, too. I’ll check our your blog. Keep it up!
I’m sure I will; I tend to move in small circles when exploring (it makes for a personal challenge, to find things even one’s neighbors haven’t noticed); occasionally I go a bit farther afield. I’ll run out of “depots” quickly, but there’s a world of related structures into which I can segue! Thanks for the peek. Keep it up yourself…
So many beautiful properties, it’s a shame they are abandoned for me the sadest is the churches, some of the properties really need to be bought and restored.
Wow! Great list of structures. Facebook has a lot of cool “abandoned” pages. Sherman Cahal has some great photos from all over the Midwest also: abandonedonline.net
Neat! Thanks. The Midwest always seems to have great abandoned buildings (so sad, however).
In between two very dilapidated barns in front of the Shelburne, VT teddy bear factory there is an abandoned white farmhouse. My dad and I checked it out today, but I want to know more about it. I also think you should see it.
Hello, I am a young Vermont photographer and am planning on creating a horror film. I am looking for a good abandoned building to film in, as my base for the film. It will take place at night. I was looking at the Brandon High School, the Warren Mill, the Sudbury house, or the Weatherfield House, though the High school is my top choice. Do you have any suggestions for me? I am looking for it to be safe to go in and legal to go in. Please contact me soon.
Hello, I am also a Vermont photographer looking for an old, expansive, abandoned location to do a photo project. Safe and legal entry is also a concern of mine. I was just wondering if you found a good place to do your film. Please let me know!
in the woods in putney on the landmark college campus theres an abandoned building of some type do you know anything about that
Jenn, I’ve not heard anything about it. Let me know if you find out anything.
I used to live in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, and would head west from Plymouth on 25C to cross into Vermont. Then I would just wander. I also occasionally go to the Plattsburgh, NY area via I-89 and the Champlain Ferry, sometimes taking a side trip off the interstate for funsies. It is incredible how many of your abandoned buildings I have seen in my travels; some of them even decades before you started your blog. I am so happy that you have made a point of preserving their memories and stories and images in this format. Thank you for that!
Wow, it’s amazing that some of these properties have been abandoned for so long. They must have looked much better a few decades ago (such as the Elgin Springs House near Addison on 22A). If you know of any others you’d like me to check, I’m happy to add it to my list for my travels. Thank you!
Back in the 1970’s my sister rented an incredibly old house near Montpellier Vt. I believe it was called the old Rollins Farm, or something like that. It was very close to being an abandoned building when she rented it. It was in terrible condition. I believe it belonged to Rock of Ages or some granite company back then. The barn was attached to the house. I wonder if it is still standing. I can honestly tell you that we had many uncomfortable paranormal experiences while she lived there. I wish I could give you more specific details as to location but I simply cannot remember.
I bet you could find the house in the State Register of Historic Places (www.orc.vermont.gov). I’ll see if I can find it.
I spoke with my sister this morning, she lives in California now. The house was in East or West Montpelier but she cannot remember the name of the street it was on. David Pitkin did a short essay about this house in the Ghosts of the North East. It was a very frightening house to live in. I always slept with my dog under the covers with me when I visited. It was owned by a granite company because they started depositing sludge near the house while she lived there.
I kind of got lost in that website. But I did have the David Pitkin book New England Ghosts and looked up my sister’s story on page 288. the house was or is on Route 14 in East Montpelier.
The website can get a bit confusing, but once you know how to use it, it’s great. To start, type in East Montpelier in the search box. Then under “File Type” choose “State Register”. Download the link. It might take a few minutes depending on your connection speed. The document that comes up will have all of the properties included in State Register in East Montpelier. If that works, pull up page 335 – is that the house? It’s listed as the old rooming house, but was burned in 1981 as a fire training exercise. š¦ Browse through the pages, let me know if you find anything! (There is a map on page 5 of the PDF).
Click to access EastMontpelier_StateRegister__NominationForm_00000019.pdf
We need to establish a revolving fund to buy, stabilize and resell abandoned and endangered Vermont buildings. ‘Preservation, North Carolina,’ is a remarkable organization that is a great model for what to do and how to do it. They have stabilized and offered for resale all sorts of important historic buildings that they bought as ruinous wrecks.
They have a wonderful website:
https://www.presnc.org/
This is so lovely. It pulls on my heart that such beautiful buildings are left. I always wonder at what point someone just walked away with no plans to return. Seems like such a shame!
WEATHERSFIELD HOUSE ABANDONED NO MORE, NOW OWNED BY VERMONT ARTIST RAY SOUSA RTS 1254 RT 5 WEATHERSFIELD BOW VT. WE APPRECIATE YOUR DONATIONS FOR THE PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION OF THIS IMPORTANT PART OF VERMONTS HISTORY. YOU MAY CONTACT OWNER AT 802-379-5384 FOR A PERSONAL TOUR. BE A PART OF HISTORY
Kaitlin…just thought you would like to know that the descendent of Hyde Manor or rather both Hyde girls have sadly passed away. I am the daughter in law of the one that lived in the cottage in the summer months,we are up here now. Sadly Hyde Manor has fallen on hard times a very lovely place in its heyday.
Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that they have passed away. My condolences to you and your family. Thank you for letting me know. No doubt it was a special place.
Resurrecting the old – oh! the stories those old buildings tell – love these pic’s
Sudbury House burned down 2+ years ago, but is being rebuilt.
Please stay away from Hyde manor it has had a partial collapse and is extremely dangerous to get close to. Admit from a far is the safest bet
What an amazing blog! I am thirty years old and grew up in Vermont. Was born at the Log Cabin Motel in 1991. My parents moved from Connecticut and owned it for a few years. Then we moved into a school house (which was turned into a regular house to live in) sadly I can’t remember the name or address of that one. I still have images in my head from my childhood in Vermont. Looking at these buildings brings back so many memories! I might even remember visiting that tiny gas station. Thanks for sharing with us.
Thank you so much for your thoughts, Jessica. š And for sharing your story!