By STEVEN JUPITER
SUDBURY—New England offers some excellent opportunities for time travel. The region is full of historic sites that take you back to days gone by, places where you can get a glimpse of how life was for those who lived here in the earliest years of the United States. And though Vermont may not boast as many of these sites as our neighboring states, we still have enough to provide easy access to anyone looking for a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.
Among the historic sites in our own area is the Vail House in Sudbury, a truly lovely Federal-style home built in 1826 for Barnard and Polly Ketcham on land along the Crown Point Road, which had been laid by the British military in the 1750s and was one of the principal routes by which Europeans came to settle Vermont after the Revolution. The land was also originally part of the “Governor’s Lot,” the portion of land set aside for New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth in each of the towns he chartered in 1761 in what later became known as Vermont.
The house is easy to miss if you aren’t actively looking for it, as it sits at an angle to the road and is largely shielded from view by trees in the summer. But as you approach the brick house, which is mostly isolated from newer structures, you wish you were arriving by horse-drawn carriage. It absolutely has the feel of an era frozen in time.
Gary Bowen is the current Steward of the property. A writer and artist originally from New Hampshire, he’s lived in the house since 1978, when he was 27, and has devoted the greater part of his life to the preservation of the house and its acreage. On a recent afternoon, he was gracious enough to give this writer a tour of the place.
Before we even entered the house, Bowen pointed out the finely carved woodwork surrounding the front door. As was typical of fine homes of its time, the door is flanked by sidelights and with a fanlight above it. But the fineness of the carving was evident, even with centuries of paint obscuring some of the details. The keystone in the arch above the door bears a Masonic inscription—Barnard Ketcham was a Mason—and the Masonic year 5826, which corresponds to the common year 1826. The house was designed by Thomas Dake of Castleton, who is thought to have studied at a school founded by Asher Benjamin, one of the great names of early American home design.
“Imagine the skill it took to do this,” said Bowen, who has studied every nook and cranny of the house for decades now. Though the area was considered fairly remote when the house was built in 1826, there were clearly enough well-trained tradesmen in the region to provide high-quality work. The bricks were fired on site and some of the marble blocks that make up the foundation were quarried on the property as well. The construction of the house keeps it “cool in summer and cold in winter,” according to Bowen. No surprise, then, that the Ketchams (later becoming the Vails through marriage) chose to spend their winters in a warmer abode on Park Street in Brandon.
Past the main door, a staircase curves gracefully to the second floor. The original faux-marble wallpaper remained intact in the front hall until an electrician ripped it down in the 1960s. However, Mr. Bowen and an assistant used their artistic skills to replicate the pattern based on a small remaining section of the original. Those remaining original pieces have been repasted under the curved stairway. Bowen has used those artistic skills to replicate period wallpaper and stenciling in other rooms of the house as well.
Mr. Bowen walked us through several rooms on both floors, pointing out architectural flourishes and pieces of furniture that were either original to the house or were recent acquisitions of some note. For example, the house had just acquired a chest of drawers by Caleb Knowlton, a cabinetmaker who worked out of Brandon for many years (and who once had Stephen A. Douglas as a young apprentice).
The house remained in the Ketcham-Vail family until the late 1960s, when the late Sylvia Keiser purchased it from Angeline Vail Walsh, the last of the original family to be born in the house. Ms. Keiser’s grandfather had owned the Bank of Orwell and she’d grown up admiring the home, according to Bowen, who became a close friend of Ms. Keiser’s. Ms. Keiser was keen on preserving the house, which was once called “the most elegant house in Vermont” by preservationist Ralph Nading Hill, who helped the Shelburne Museum acquire its famous steamship, the Ticonderoga.
Ms. Keiser and her husband had several properties and didn’t live at Vail House full time, so she set up a nonprofit foundation to provide for the maintenance of the house and convinced her good friend, Mr. Bowen, to become the property’s Steward.
“I’d wanted to take on the restoration of a historic house,” said Bowen, and Ms. Keiser managed to persuade him that Vail House was the one. Forty-six years later, it seems she was 100% correct, because Mr. Bowen is still here and is still in love with the place. The foundation supports the maintenance of the house and its property, but there are other benefactors who have helped Bowen acquire period Vermont furniture, such as the Knowlton chest of drawers mentioned earlier.
“Sylvia thought it was important for Vermont treasures to remain here,” said Bowen. “She wanted the best of Vermont to stay in Vermont.”
One of the stipulations of the foundation was that the house be made available for public viewing and Mr. Bowen is happy to accommodate visitors. There is no admission fee and “donations are neither expected nor refused.” Anyone interested in visiting the house can call Mr. Bowen at (802) 623-8481 to schedule an appointment. The house is located at 879 Vail Road in Sudbury. Traveling from Brandon, take Champlain Street (Route 73) to Route 30 and Vail Road is directly opposite at the intersection, a dirt road that seems to cut through a dairy farm.
The house is well worth a visit for anyone interested in early architecture and/or local history. Mr. Bowen is a gracious guide and a repository of knowledge about the house and the styles of its era. And, true enough, even on a hot day, it remained cool inside, an enjoyable leap back in time and a great way to spend a summer afternoon.
