BY ANITA RAFAEL
PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIMOTHY PETERS
to two cow lane and back
a short stroll on bonnet street
The terrain on Bonnet
Street is level; the
pace is easy and the
sidewalks are paved,
although uneven in
places. Allow about 20
minutes; the loop is a
half-mile. Be careful
at intersections and
especially crossing
driveways. Respect
private property at all
times. There is parking
on the street and
nearby. On your GPS,
this is Route VT-30.
H
ere is a wonderful walk to take in Manchester Center—
something to enjoy after your shopping and your gallery
hopping, after you are done exploring along the Riverwalk at
the Town Green, and after you have had a bite to eat in town. This is
a short, self-guided stroll on Bonnet Street, the perfect block or two to
see what adds to Manchester’s charm.
In hundreds of towns throughout New England, the earliest churches
were erected at the edges of measured and typically rectangular
town commons, or village greens. Here, the Gothic revival-style First
Baptist Church, 1833, and with additions from 1870, overlooks one of
the busiest intersections in town. If you can picture a dozen or more
mills and manufacturers within a couple of blocks of the church, with
their hundreds of workers, their daily deliveries of raw materials in-
bound and their shipments of finished goods out-bound, someone or
something always coming and going, plus nearby inns, taverns, shops,
and banks, then you can imagine that this corner would have been as
full of activity then as it is now.
Begin this walking tour at the intersection of Main Street and Bonnet Street
at the First Baptist Church. Walk along the right-hand side (eastern side) of
the street.
Bonnet Street is a good example of how a town grows and changes
over time. After you have walked a short distance past the church
and the new Manchester Medical Center, stretch out your right arm
sideways and point—had you done that a century ago, you would have
been looking out across many acres of open farmland down to the
banks of the Batten Kill, the trout-famous river that winds through
town. Early maps show no houses on the northbound (eastern) side
of the street, while on the opposite side, the buildings appear close
together on small lots. Before this side of the street was built up
beginning in the 1880s, you would have had a clear view of the bucolic
countryside, with glimpses of the river, too, and livestock grazing in
the far-off pastures.
102 manchester life | manchesterlifemagazine.com