The Hotel Windham, Two Centuries & Counting

Here's hoping you're enjoying another Vermont summer!

We've taken some time off from our series of posts (now in our fourth year!) exploring the historic bridges and buildings of Bellows Falls while the Depot Street Bridge Project itself has been in somewhat of a holding pattern pending federal sign-off on an environmental impact assessment. That sign-off is now in hand, and we expect to have a full update on the project and its timeline this Fall.

For now, let's dig deeper into the history of the Hotel Windham, that historic cornerstone of downtown Bellows Falls and the focus of our most recent blog, "Hotel Windham at a Crossroads."

A Transportation Hub Needs a Hotel

Did you know that forerunners of today's Hotel Windham have occupied the southeast corner of The Square for more than two centuries?

It all started in 1816 when local developer (and member of the Vermont militia) Colonel Ethan Baldwin Webb, sizing up the need for temporary lodging and a meeting place in Bellows Falls now that the town, boasting both a bridge and a canal, had emerged as a transportation gateway, partnered with Solomon Snow to build what became known, not surprisingly, as Webb's Hotel.

Four years later, Webb and Snow sold the hotel to John Robertson (not the John Robertson of the paper manufacturing company, he came later), with the hotel briefly taking on his surname before becoming the Bellows Falls Stage House, in a nod to the pre-railroad importance of the stagecoach, for the next 40 years. That hotel (and its two-story wraparound porch) is shown in the undated photograph below.

A Series of Devastating Fires

In July 1859 the hotel was purchased by one Charles W. Towns. Just eight months later, the building, along with much of the downtown area, was severely damaged in the Great Bellows Falls Downtown Fire, an event we covered last year in our three-part blog post on the firefighters of Bellows Falls.

Towns, who also owned the Island House property, eventually rebuilt the four-story brick building in 1873, and the Towns Hotel, shown in the photograph above across the unpaved "Square" from a storefront featuring Gents Fine Furnishings, became the model for today's Hotel Windham.

In the photograph above, we see the Towns Hotel on the left, while to the rear of the horse and carriage sits the first Rockingham Town Hall, built in 1887.

After a 26-year run, the Towns Hotel was destroyed by fire in April 1899. We can see the resulting devastation captured in the following photograph.

A New Name, But More Fires

Rebuilt in 1902, when it acquired its current name, the Hotel Windham was heavily damaged by fire again in 1912. You can read about the 1912 fire and see additional photographs in the first of our three posts honoring the firefighters of Bellows Falls here.

Those with an eye for architectural detail will note in the photographs above and below that the belvederes that crowned the rooftop of the Towns Hotel no longer feature in the structures that were rebuilt in 1902 and again in 1912. In the photo below, the neighboring building has lost its flat roof and arched windows. Today, that building still proudly wears 1912 stamped on its the peak, sitting high above The Square.

As the hotel moved into its second century during the depths of the Great Depression, the building, along with much of The Square, was heavily damaged yet again in an April 1932 fire. Within a year, however, the Hotel Windham was rebuilt as a three-story brick Georgian Revival structure that today still marks the southeast corner of The Square and Bridge Street.

Looking Ahead

In our next blog post, we'll look at the second century of the hotel's journey and offer some observations on what its third century might bring. Our thanks to the Rockingham Free Public Library and the Bellows Falls Historical Society for the photographs of the hotel shown above.

Questions?

You can email us at any time with questions about the Depot Street Bridge replacement project at developmentassist@rockbf.org.  You can also send us information on the history of the area, which we'll be happy to share with the community through this blog.