[GrnMtnFire]

Originally Posted by casualobserver

So, just to make sure I understand this.........Waterbury, as a town, has a village within it also called Waterbury and another village within it called Colbyville?

Colbyville is in Waterbury, but is nothing more than an intersection really. Its kind of like Chelsea or SoHo in Manhattan/New York City. Part of the town but nothing more.

[harry chickpea]

OK. Colbyville. When Waterbury was smaller, there was Waterbury (village), Mill Village, Colbyville, Kneeland Flats, Waterbury Center, the Blush Hill area, Little River, and a bunch of other areas within the town of Waterbury.

Colbyville was called that because the Colby bros. had a factory there that made, among other things, wicker baby buggies, a patented wringer for clothes, butter tubs, and other woodenware. The willow for the wicker came partly from a swampy area north of Colbyville.

Mill Village is the area from the currrent restaurant under the interstate to the intersection with the north end of the interstate ramp leading towards Stowe. There was more than one dam on Thatcher Brook, and the Sewards had the primary mill there, where the restaurant is now.

I have scans of some rare photos of the area. FWIW, there was an electric railroad leading from the depot in Waterbury, through Colbyville, and on up to Stowe, terminating at a building in the village.

Main Street in Waterbury is the main east west drag, and encompasses part of U.S. Route 2. The west end starts at about where the old reform school for boys was, and continues to the bridge across the Winooski at the east end of town, which is just after the intersection of the old road to the famous dump (actually, there were two, the first one was filled up and decommisioned before the early 1960s).

In case you haven't figured out by now, I can tell you way more about the history of Waterbury than you need to know.

Schools are good there, although the teens get to take a longish bus ride to Harwood Union in Moretown. There is a new supermarket on a filled area just east of the historical Colbyville.

If I thought long enough, I could give you the names of the customers of my old paper route in the area.

The trip to Montpelier is a breeze (other than whatever ruts are in the interstate) and the trip to Williston and Burlington is very do-able. I used to commute.

[vermont08]

Thanks for all the info, I love finding out this kind of history about places.

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

OK. Colbyville. When Waterbury was smaller, there was Waterbury (village), Mill Village, Colbyville, Kneeland Flats, Waterbury Center, the Blush Hill area, Little River, and a bunch of other areas within the town of Waterbury.

Colbyville was called that because the Colby bros. had a factory there that made, among other things, wicker baby buggies, a patented wringer for clothes, butter tubs, and other woodenware. The willow for the wicker came partly from a swampy area north of Colbyville.

Mill Village is the area from the currrent restaurant under the interstate to the intersection with the north end of the interstate ramp leading towards Stowe. There was more than one dam on Thatcher Brook, and the Sewards had the primary mill there, where the restaurant is now.

I have scans of some rare photos of the area. FWIW, there was an electric railroad leading from the depot in Waterbury, through Colbyville, and on up to Stowe, terminating at a building in the village.

Main Street in Waterbury is the main east west drag, and encompasses part of U.S. Route 2. The west end starts at about where the old reform school for boys was, and continues to the bridge across the Winooski at the east end of town, which is just after the intersection of the old road to the famous dump (actually, there were two, the first one was filled up and decommisioned before the early 1960s).

In case you haven't figured out by now, I can tell you way more about the history of Waterbury than you need to know.

Schools are good there, although the teens get to take a longish bus ride to Harwood Union in Moretown. There is a new supermarket on a filled area just east of the historical Colbyville.

If I thought long enough, I could give you the names of the customers of my old paper route in the area.

The trip to Montpelier is a breeze (other than whatever ruts are in the interstate) and the trip to Williston and Burlington is very do-able. I used to commute.

[casualobserver]

Wow, yeah. Sort of like running into a book you never thought would exist!

As to the uses of the reservoir up past Blush Hill, is it motorboat restricted?

[harry chickpea]

The reservoir was pretty much empty the last time I was up there, so the restrictions were pretty severe. You could turn around in the big puddle, after driving across a long rock and clay beach, or drive through the grass to a little swampy area, but that was about it.

There used to be two main boat ramps, one past Keith Wallace's farm on Blush Hill, and the other down by the dam. We brought motorboats there all the time, and water-skiing was a common summertime activity, with the fishermen working the shallower areas where skiing was too dangerous. I'm not sure if there is access now from Blush Hill or the Center.

The dam and area have their own history. The dam was planned by the area power company, which had already bought up most of the farms in the area that would be flooded, when the depression hit and Roosevelt got into dam building in a big way, as a constructive way to get the unemployed men out of the cities, where they might band together and cause civil unrest. The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) took on the task of building the dam as an earthen dam. Although there were core samples taken, and the site of the dam covered a rock outcropping, there was always a seepage issue near the base of the dam. At some point (I forget when exactly - sometime in the 1960s?) the dam was drained, some poking around was done, the seepage pronounced not serious, and the dam refilled. Then, in true government form, further studies were done, and it was determined that concrete needed to be injected into the dam, and it was drained again, at which point the money ran out, and it sat until the funding could be obtained. Is it full now? I don't know, but the job was supposed to be done long ago.

Anyway, Roosevelt was under the impression that no private enterprise was involved in the control of the dam for power, and when he found out that Green Mountain Power was involved, he was reportedly livid. The power company didn't even bother to install generators at the dam until many years later, and allowed it to merely function for flood control and recreational boating.

I think the most recent issue at the dam was a problem with the flood control gates needing to be serviced, which sounded suspiciously like a pork barrel project to me, but could be legit. I can't recall ever seeing the water level high enough to come up onto the gates, and they were left open for most, if not all of the time while I was growing up.

FWIW, I have home movies of my mother and aunts walking across the dam when it was first completed and filled, back in 1938 IIRC.

[tkln]

I think they re-filled the reservoir this past spring, I remember reading about it in the papers...though I am not 100% sure.

[vter]

I'm pretty sure it's been re-filled too.

[GrnMtnFire]

Yep it has been refilled. Although will again be partially emptied to repair the dam. There is some problems with the "flow doors" for lack of a better term.

[MRVphotog]

One of the unique things about Waterbury is the state offices now occupying what used to be the massive state hospital. Many state departments are now headquartered there. I have many friends who work there. I think architechually it's a cool place but some who work there do not share my outlook.

A big change recently is the huge Shaws recently built just north on Rt 100 of the I95 exit. Some refer it to as mini-sprawl.

If your looking for a centrally located place for skiing, Burlington, the MRV or Montpelier to live it works very well.

[Adream]

Originally Posted by vter

Morrisville, up the road, is in the town of Morristown.

This is something that confuses me - I see both names for this town. So, when I go to Hannafords, am I going to MorrisTOWN or MorrisVILLE?

Ditto on the reservoir being filled - as of last September anyway. Gee it's pretty there.