GC Hardwick Visits State House in Montpelier, VT

Global Campus Hardwick organized a trip to Montpelier to tour the Statehouse and the Vermont History museum this spring.

Global Campus Hardwick planned a fun, interactive day in Montpelier learning about our state government and history. We gathered on the statehouse steps for lunch and to gather our thoughts before entering into the busy statehouse. The statehouse is quite hectic over the lunch hour and it was neat to see so many people bustling around with clipboards and getting ready for meetings. We met a guide, who walked us through the history of the building and showed us the Senate, House and other important rooms.

We learned that the VT statehouse is the oldest statehouse in the US. The architecture has been preserved inside so that it still looks the way it always has. The carpets have been redone, but the other building structures are the original architecture. Our guide noted that the chandelier in the Senate room was not typical for VT style; all the images on the chandelier have to do with the ocean, including Titan, dolphins, waves and sea creatures. He wondered if there had been a sale on chandeliers…

We learned about the structure of the senate, who sits where, and where the public is allowed to sit. Although the roof looks like it was under the dome, it is only made to look round. The dome is over the center of the building. Debbie told the group that her grandfather had been a part of the crew who worked on the construction of the dome. She was very proud. Next, we moved to the House, a much larger room. We noted that the Green Mountain Boys flag, which Diane had taught us about earlier this term, was flying over some of the desks in the room. It was neat to see all the papers lying about and a PowerPoint presentation on the screen.

We left the statehouse and walked next-door to the Vermont History Museum. We spent some time in a room full of Civil War artifacts. Our guide asked us to each pick an item that we found particularly intriguing, and then share with the group what we found interesting about this object. Annie picked a quilt, which had embroidered bible phrases on the squares. Our guide told us that women quilted hand-made quilts for the soldiers so that they would be warm and feel close to home while they were fighting. We also looked at a grey coat – the coat of the Confederate Soldiers. We learned that a Vermonter had taken the coat from a dead Confederate soldier and brought it back to VT. We saw a leather shoe with a piece of shrapnel shot into the bottom of the shoe. We could only imagine how painful that injury must have been.

We made our way to a milk room and then to a video of the 1927 flood. We learned that in 1927, VT got over 12 inches of rain, which is equivalent to twelve feet of snow. On our way out of town, we stopped to look at the lampposts, which have a red line marking the high water mark of 1927. It was WAY over our heads. And the most interesting part was this storm was in November.