Seventeenth in a series on Brandon’s historic buildings
By JAMES PECK
Helyn Anderson has lived at 42 Park Street in Brandon for almost 50 years. Located only steps from downtown, it was where John Conant built the first Baptist meeting house in 1800. Then the meetinghouse was removed and replaced in 1850 by the current house by Barzillai Davenport, longtime town clerk and brother of the famous inventor. Since 1852, only three families have owned the property: the Cases, the Wrights, and the Andersons.
Baptist Meetinghouse
In his memoirs, John Conant, the prominent Brandon financier, builder, and landowner, wrote about building the Baptist meetinghouse to replace a log cabin on Grove Street used by parishioners: “In 1800, the church, 12 brethren only who could pay anything, joined their efforts and built a House of God, 40 by 34, of wood, in which the church met for about 33 years, when the present brick church was opened.”
The building was owned by the Baptist Church Society which had bought the lot at what is now 42 Park for $25. Conant was its clerk and the senior deacon most of his life.
In 1832, Deacon Conant and his sons built the current brick Baptist Church on the corner of Grove and Champlain Streets, which was completed in 1833. A wood parsonage was built behind it.
That same year, the Conants also built the Seminary building on Seminary Hill where a new school, the Vermont Literary and Scientific Institution (VLSI) was started for both boys and girls (later the Brandon Graded School, which burned down in 1959).
The plan was to have the girls boarded in the old meeting house on Park Street. There was ample room as the church had bought the land behind it to the Neshobe in 1817, increasing the lot to over an acre. The girls would only be there from 1838 to 1841. How they got to the Seminary building which was just across the river must have been via the Center Street bridge, unless they swam!
In 1841, the Baptists decided to sell the old meetinghouse and lot on Park Street for the benefit of the VLSI. The meetinghouse itself was then removed by oxen purportedly to Center Street just north of the Congregational Cemetery. There it was modified into the two-story Engels Block and used as the town offices downstairs and the Episcopal Church upstairs. Both moved out in 1861 after the Town Hall and the Episcopal Church were built.
The lot on Park Street was then sold for $420 to Barzillai Davenport, the town clerk, who then built the current house around 1850. In 1852, Davenport sold the house to Dr. Chauncey Case for $1,500, removing the east wing further east and building a new house there. That house, which was between 42 and 44, is no longer there as it was moved to Rossiter Street in 1915.
Doctor Case
Chauncey Lee Case was born in Fairfield, Vt. in 1819 and got his medical degree in 1845 at Castleton Medical College. That same year, he married Lydia Harris from Brandon and began his practice here. He also started the first drug store in Brandon in 1850 at 4 Park Street, just past the corner of Center Street.
On the 1860 and 1870 censuses, Dr. Case was recorded as a “druggist” as that was his predominant source of income. In his drug store, C. L. Case’s, he sold all kinds of drugs and medicines, as well as perfumes, candies, soaps, cigars, paints, and even window glass. He ran the drug store until 1877, when he sold to Boynton & Manchester.
Meanwhile, Dr. Case’s other pursuits included an investment in a vineyard along with Dr. Olin G. Dyer which was located in the 1860s through 1880s along what is now East Prospect Street (then Vineyard Street). There is a Case Street still there today.
He was also a sought-after lecturer on many subjects, including music, Latin in schools, and abolition.
In 1880, Chauncey was recorded as a “physician” with a net worth of $25,000, a very comfortable amount for that time.
Dr. Case was a staunch Baptist but often played the Episcopal Church organ. He was also a very accomplished on his seven-octave piano which often could be heard along Park Street
In his childhood in Fairfield, Dr. Case had lived only a quarter of a mile from the boyhood home of Chester A. Arthur, the 21st U.S. President. Case was 9 years older than Arthur, but they went to the same school. Later, Dr. Case’s memories were used by historians who said the following about Dr. Case as a source:
“Dr. Case’s statements deserve particular attention because he is quite clear as to details, and because he is a citizen of high standing in Brandon. His tastes are refined and his mental faculties vigorous. His large library is lined with scientific works, the best fiction, and leading magazines. He is also a man of musical culture, and has studied several works on musical composition and theory.”
Apparently, Chester Arthur would visit with Dr. Case before he became President and Case lived to see him become President in 1881 when James Garfield was assassinated.
Chauncey and Lydia had no children. According to her obituary, Lydia “had a genius for friendship. Her friends—and there were many—were her most prized earthy treasure. She loved children and they were attracted to her. She loved her country and hoped for peace in the whole world.”
Chancey died first at age 64 of pneumonia in 1883. Lydia continued to live at the house until she passed in 1907 six days after her 88th birthday of a cerebral hemorrhage.
The Wrights
In 1907, the house and lot were sold out of Lydia Case’s estate for $3,750 to Alma Wright. The Wright family would own the property for the next 73 years until 1980.
Alma Smith Wright was 59 when she bought the property. She was born in Orwell in 1848, the daughter of Theron B. Smith and Almeda Warren. Theron had become a rich merchant and landowner in Brandon, owning the rebuilt Smith Block from 1893 which would stay in the Wright family until 1979. Alma’s grandfather was the builder David Warren, who built many buildings in Brandon including the Congregational and Baptist churches.
The Wrights wouldn’t live at 42 Park, as they already lived next door at #44. Alma’s husband was a prominent dentist in town, Doctor William H. Wright, whose office was in Smith’s Block. They would stay at 44 and rent 42 over the years.
In 1913, Alma bought the lot between 42 and 44, which had the former east wing of 44, and sold that house, which was the one moved to 7 Rossiter Street. Now she owned all the land of 42 and 44.
Dr. Wright died in 1918 and Alma in 1933, both in the house at 44 Park. Both houses at 42 and 44 Park went to their son William Theron Wright, who lived in Kansas. He and his wife then rented both houses until 1979.
Some of the renters of 42 Park over the years included Henry Bissell, who was the proprietor of the Brandon Inn for many years, and Dr. Frederick Mason, who had his office there from 1932-1939.
Helyn Anderson
In 1980, the Wright grandchildren sold the property at 42 Park to Helyn and Norman Anderson for $25,000. The Andersons then moved from across the street, where they were living at 43 Park, with the help of many in town.
They cleaned up the house, replaced a 1929 boiler, replaced windowsills, put in a functional bathroom, and did other needed structural work.
In the barns, they found a treasure trove of farm implements, horse tack, Brandon signs, shutters, architectural pieces, horse stalls, milking stanchions, and a vintage 1876 Steinway square grand piano.
Norman and Helyn had both been social workers in New York City. Norman worked at the Brandon Training School and Helyn dove into Brandon, volunteering at the Thrift Shop and Neshobe School, serving as President of the Friends of the Brandon Library and the Brandon Area Arts Council (BAAC), which brought Summer Theatre to the Lower Barn of the Brandon Inn.
BAAC sponsored the First Town Hall Ball in 1986, which kicked off the decades-long restoration of the beautiful structure. The first Brandon Library benefit auction took place in the Andersons’ yard. Helyn worked at the Blueberry Hill Inn, Brandon Inn, and Lilac Inn over the years, and as a para-educator at Middlebury Union Middle School.
Their daughter Kate and son Max grew up at 42 Park, attending Neshobe and Otter Valley Union High School.
Over the years, 42 Park became a real community gathering place, with many birthdays and other social gatherings. Son Max was even married in the back yard in 2013. The many handprints on the inside walls of the kitchen and bathroom, traced in marker at Helyn’s invitation over the years, are testimony to the unusual uniqueness of the place. Maybe your handprint is there?
Today Helyn lives alone in the historic house, in her words, “enjoying my home, its woods and our town!”
