Thirteenth in a series on Brandon’s historic buildings.
By JAMES PECK
1889 Fire
On a cold March evening in 1889, Drs. Fred Hudson and Orrin Gee, were the last to leave the three-story Simonds Block on Central Street. They departed Hudson’s dental office on the second floor that Sunday at about 11 p.m. down the center stairs and out the front door when they thought they smelled smoke.
Outside on the street, they found Norris Grover, the night watchman on his rounds, and together they peered in the plate-glass fronts of each store, but saw nothing and decided all was safe. The dentists walked on home and Grover took a walk around the building, then continued his rounds.
At 1:45 AM, however, flames burst out from the north end clothing store of Ozro Meacham and Grover gave the alarm. Unfortunately, the new fire alarm rope to the bell in the Congregational Church wasn’t working and the scale shop whistle across the street sounded low due to lack of steam. Grover got someone to ring the bell at the Methodist Church by Central Park, then he ran up to open the new hose house (opened less than three months before) by the Town Hall.
The Volunteer Hose Company volunteers came running including Chief Engineer Henry Gipson and their two hand hose carts were pulled down to the fire and they did their best as the fire quickly roared through the building. But the force of the water from the hydrants was very low due to the number of domestic faucets left on to keep from freezing and the men had no high ladders.
Rutland firemen were quickly called by telegraph, but their fire engine and a force of 76 men and equipment didn’t arrive on the express train until almost 4 a.m. By that time, the north and middle sections were gone and only the south side with E. D. Thayer’s dry goods store was left. Thayer himself was there as a volunteer fireman, one of the first on the scene.
The fire was finally under control by 6 a.m., but the building was totally destroyed with only the front façade still standing in the smoke and ruins. As the sun came up, local photographer John O. Phillips was able to take two photos of the eerie ruins from front and back.
The building was totally destroyed and the remaining front wall was taken down the next day. The total damage was estimated to be between $50,000 and $100,000 and was only partially covered by insurance. Some of the merchants on the south end were able to remove some of their merchandise, but those in the middle and north end lost everything. Nine businesses were impacted and three community clubs, including the Masons who lost all their records, were displaced.
Simond’s Block
The building had been built with Brandon bricks in 1867 by Niram Clark for John Simonds. It was the largest and most important business block in town, 104 by 75 feet, three stories high with a basement, it cost $50,000 to construct. Simonds was 73 and had bought the empty lot from Howe Scale the year before. The lot was on the west side of Central Street where a long coal shed had once stood. The shed housed the charcoal used to fire the blast furnace behind it on the Neshobe River. The furnace was originally built for John Conant’s stove business, then used by the Brandon Iron & Car Wheel Company before they sold it and all their buildings there to Howe Scale in 1857. The shed had burned down in 1856, but the furnace and foundry were still used by Howe Scale.
An accompanying 1864 drawing of Central Street shows the location of the lot. Most of the buildings in the drawing are now gone, except the Town Offices building and the Leary Block, the Town Hall, and the Episcopal Church in the background.
Simonds & Osgood dry goods business first occupied the south end and Ozro Meacham’s clothing store the north end. J. C. Haven’s hardware and undertaking was in the middle and in the basement was Segar & Brothers feed store. On the second floor was Dr. Pierce’s dental office. The new Brandon Union newspaper office moved to the third floor in 1873 but was not there in the 1889 fire.
Simonds died in 1878, leaving the block to his two sons, John Jr. and William. William, or “W.C.,” as he was called, soon bought out his brother and ran W. C. Simonds Dry Goods there until he sold his stock to E. D. Thayer in 1888. He retained ownership of the block, however.
Phoenix Rising from the Ashes
Although he was only 56, W. C. Simonds was in poor health and not able to rebuild after the fire. Fortunately, the Briggs brothers, Frank and George, stepped up quickly in July and bought the lot from Simonds. They speedily cleaned up the ruins and hired Roscoe Sanders to erect a new very similar building using over 800,000 Brandon bricks along with Brandon marble for the embellishments.
The Brandon Union described the excitement in town: “The people of Brandon are rejoicing that the unsightly ruins are to be removed and the street again will look inviting. Plans for the new block are now being prepared, and several of the old tenants have already spoken for a room in the new building.”
The building was completed in time for the Christmas holidays and most of the previous tenants did move back in. It was initially called Briggs’ Block.
The building was exactly the same size as the Simonds Block: 104 by 75. One notable change was made, likely for better luck, to increase the number of widows on the second and third floor to 14 from 13! All the wood in the top and middle cornices was also replaced by non-flammable brick and iron.
Smith’s Block
In 1893, Theron B. Smith bought the block for $25,000 out of the bankruptcy estate of the Briggs brothers. Frank had died and George was bankrupt, so Smith got a good deal and renamed it “Smith’s Block.” Today the marble sign carries that name below the 1889 date of its construction, though it was Briggs’ Block the first four years.
Theron Bush Smith was 84 and quite well off, having been very successful in business. As his 1900 obituary says: “Nature endowed him with a good constitution, practical sagacity, and a talent for business, and these he used to good purpose.” Smith lived in a mansion which was where the Hannaford supermarket is today. A stained-glass widow in the Congregational Church is dedicated to him and his wife, Almeda.
After T. B. Smith died in 1900, the block went to his daughter Alma Smith Wright and was then known also as Wright’s Block. It stayed in his family up until one of her sons and three grandchildren sold it in 1979 to Aubuchon Realty. Aubuchon Hardware had then been leasing there already for 21 years.
Through the Years
Smith’s Block has now stood on Center Street for over 132 years, while many stores and occupants have changed over those years. A list of most of them follows:
North (Left) side: E. D Thayer, Huntress & Smith, and George Burnham, all dry goods through 1903; Clifford’s Market (groceries run by Charles then his son Allen) 1903-1958; Aubuchon Hardware (1958-2020); Across the Street (2020-present).
Middle: George Crossman, Z. B. Hopkins, Barker’s, B. M. Parker, G.H. Rolfe, and Center Pharmacy, all drug stores through 1960, Everywear Clothing, Delilah’s Beauty Salon.
South (Right) side: Ozro Meacham, Hetherington and A. J. Ives, all clothiers; Miller & Ketcham Furniture; Charles Foster Chiropractic office, G & J Furniture, Brandon House of Pizza (2011- present).
Second Floor: Fred Hudson, W. H. Marsh, B. A, Holmes, W. H. Wright, George T. Norton, all dentists. The Neshobe Grange. C. C. Bishop, tailor. Various lawyers including Edward S. Marsh and John S. Buttles. The Odd Fellows.
Third Floor: Brandon Mason’s Lodge occupied half the floor until 1960: Many other community groups including Eastern Star and the DAR.
National Historic Register
In 1976, Smith’s Block was entered into the National Historic Register as one of 245 buildings in the Village Historic District. The description of the block is too long to print here, but parts of it read:
“The end unit at the south occupied by the Aubuchon Hardware Store, has been extensively remodeled on the exterior while the three remaining units have retained the original cast iron slender columns and paneled, square engaged columns flanking the large storefront windows. Along those three storefronts is a bracketed cornice with a frieze below consisting of a triglyph-inspired motif, alternating with cast iron floral decorations in the frieze.
Each window is crowned with a triangular, capped marble entablature with a carved floral decoration. The same window treatment appears in the third story. Above the third story windows is a triple stringcourse with the central marble panel reading ‘1889, Smith’s Block’. Crowning the façade is a double row of brick corbelling, alternating with two marble bands.”
In 1980, Aubuchon restored the historical aspects including the cornice and columns on their storefront.
Renovations & Apartments
Over the years, the block continued to fill the four storefronts on the first floor, anchored by Aubuchon. However, the top two floors fell into disuse and were relegated to storage while the roof started to leak and the back wall needed to be stabilized.
In 1987, the town underwent an in-depth historic preservation study, resulting in a number of recommendations to improve the downtown. A new non-profit organization, the Brandon Community Development Corporation, business owners, and other community leaders worked with the town and state preservation experts to seek and get a “downtown designation” by the state which allowed for significant tax credits on building improvements.
With this designation in 2004, along with other historic preservation grants and tax credits, a new private owner, Kevin Elnicki of Pittsford, was able to buy the Block from Aubuchon Realty for $260,000 and begin needed renovations. The leaky roof was fixed and the back wall stabilized.
Aubuchon continued to rent the south two store fronts, but the other two weren’t always leased until the Brandon House of Pizza moved to the north end in 2011 after they were displaced by Hurricane Irene from their original site across Center Street.
In 2016, Elnicki (Neshobe Real Estate LLC) sold the Smith’s Block to Matt Bonner of Cornwall (Smith Block LLC) for $678,000. Town ordinances were changed to allow efficient usage of the building and Bonner set about renovating with help from the town and tax credits. In 2018, the town approved 14 apartments on the second and third floors. Twelve apartments were then built out by Naylor & Breen and completed in 2019. An elevator and stairs were constructed in the rear to meet code requirements and to give tenants easier access.
Bonner says: “Naylor & Breen was a great partner, as was the Town of Brandon, and Bill Moore [Economic Development Officer] in particular.” The apartments have been fully occupied since opening in August of 2019.
Aubuchon out, Across the Street in
In January of 2020, the Aubuchon store abruptly closed, the victim of low sales due to increased competition from Amazon and others, and somewhat due to lost business from the extended Segment Six construction.
In May of 2020, a boutique vintage and antique store, Across the Street, run by Janet and Joel Mondlak, took over the inner storefront abandoned by Aubuchon. The Mondlaks had previously run three popular Brandon businesses, the Gazebo Inn, the Inside Scoop, and Antiques by the Falls, and Janet was the head of the Chamber of Commerce for many years. In 2023, they expanded into the southern most storefront. BHOP also had expanded to take the other two storefronts and the apartments were popular and soon all occupied.
Like many businesses in Brandon’s downtown, with Segment Six and COVID in the rearview mirror, the 132-year-old phoenix-like Smith’s Block is now born again and thriving.
