Fifteen years ago, the Burlington Irish Heritage Festival was little more than a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner celebrated on St. Patrick’s Day, but the festival has come a long way since then. It now features more than a dozen events, beginning this Sunday and culminating in a concert at the Flynn Center on St. Patrick’s Day. “We’ve grown rapidly the last few years,” festival chairwoman Cindy Hill said. “We’re trying to set our sights a little larger.” The festival’s mission is to bring a variety of culturally appropriate Irish events to Burlington during the St. Patrick’s Day season.

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Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., brought word Wednesday that the effort to rebuild the Putney General Store will be boosted by another $60,000 in federal historic preservation funds. The latest contribution means reconstruction of the new general store will start in April, said Lyssa Papazian of the Putney Historical Society, which owns the store. The Putney Store burned to the ground twice, the last time the result of arson last November. "What a long, strange trip it's been," Papazian said to Leahy, a Grateful Dead fan.

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When J. Brooks Buxton retired from ConocoPhillips in 2003, he moved back to the town where he started: Jericho. Since then, in an elegant, light-filled home with a valley view, he’s spread out his collection. And he’s established himself as a one-man force to be reckoned with when it comes to preserving material relics and more elusive memories of our state’s rich past.

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Pierce's Hall is ready for its next 180 years. After almost two years of fundraising, and countless hours of volunteer grant writing and labor, East Putney's only public building has a brand new roof. The historic brick building also received work to its internal structure and members of the East Putney Community Club, the group that owns the building, say the hall should be good to go for another century or two.

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Vermont is getting more than $200,000 in 19 matching grants to projects for the restoration and preservation of historic buildings across the state. The grant program, administered by the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, provides owners of historic buildings with matching funding of up to $15,000 for a variety of capital repairs.

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The single biggest construction project that the Granite City has ever seen – the three-year, now-$16 million reconstruction of the half-mile section of North Main Street that runs through the heart of downtown Barre – is literally months away from groundbreaking after years of promises.

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The message woven into the chain-link fence surrounding what used to be the historic Putney General Store says it all: "We Are the General Store." There's also a brightly painted sign of a phoenix, the mythical creature that rises from the ashes. he store burned to the ground Nov. 1, erasing the first community effort to rebuild the landmark after it was damaged in another fire in May 2008.

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A recent federal report ranks Vermont the top state in per capita use of Federal Historic Tax Credits to rehabilitate historic buildings and 10th in the nation overall – rising from 12th overall last year. A total of 34 rehabilitation projects with a total construction value of more than $23 million received $4.6 million in federal tax credits last fiscal year.

State officials credit the decision several years ago to require those seeking state historic Downtown Tax Credits to first get Federal Historic Tax Credits  with putting Vermont to consistently within or just outside the top ten states nationally for use of the credits, despite its small size.  

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Like a lot of Vermont communities, Winooski has many cool old buildings. For anyone who wanted information on those buildings, it meant sifting through dusty records somewhere in City Hall, or schlepping to libraries to see whether any documents were available there.

Now, Winooski is part of a pilot project to get the records online, so historic building buffs can obtain information with a few key strokes on their computer. Link to full article

The Brattleboro Reformer reports that "the Dummerston Historical Society and the town of Londonderry are among the 16 grant recipients from the Vermont Arts Council. Both the historical society and the town have received funding from the 2009 Cultural Facilities Grants, a program administered by the arts council in conjunction with the Vermont Historical Society, the Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance and the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation." Cindy Wilcox, president of the Dummerston Historical Society, explained that the money will support "the construction of cabinetry along the western wall of the old schoolhouse." The town will use its $7,500 grant "to support stage improvements in the town hall."

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Vermont Public Radio reports that the Windsor-based Cornish Colony Museum, which is dedicated to the work of early 20th century artists who worked in the Upper Valley, has "expanded with the donation of 17 works of art." The 17 calendar prints by Maxfield Parrish depict young girls in natural settings and will go on permanent display later this year. Parrish's prints were "mass produced and widely collected in the 1920s and 1930s." His most popular print entitled Daybreak "hung in one-quarter of all American homes in the 1920s.''

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Vermont Public Radio reports that vermont's 16 historic sites could "face major changes as the state grapples with a $66 million budget shortfall." The historic sites currently cost the state "about $1.4 million a year to operate, but only the Bennington Battle Monument makes a profit." Recently, Jim Saudade, deputy secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, outlined four options for saving money with respect to the historic sites. Those options include "reducing staff and the number of days open at each site and restricting capital projects"; "moving the historic sites under the control of the Department of Buildings and General Services, which could maintain them more efficiently"; and or "closing, selling or leasing sites that are not being used."

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Vermont Public Radio reports that the Vermont Historical Society has added a set of 53 Civil War letters to its collections. "The letters were written by James Wilson, a Vermont soldier from East Warren" and "describe daily life with Company B of the 13^th Vermont regiment in 1862 and 1863." Notably, the 13th Vermont regiment "gained fame from its service at the Battle of Gettsyburg." According to Historical Society librarian Paul Carnahan, "The letters are particularly poignant because Wilson's fiancé died a few months after he did." The letters also "add to the understanding of the Vermont troops' service" and "shed light on life in a small village like East Warren in the middle of the 19^th century."

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Vermont Public Radio reports that Mark Mitchell, the chairman of Vermont's Commission on Native American Affairs is "resigning, and blaming the Legislature for failing to set up a mechanism by which groups can become recognized as tribes." Mitchell said " his role as chairman of the commission has become too frustrating" because the Vermont "House failed to take action this year on a bill that would have clarified the process for state tribal recognition." According to "Jason Gibbs, the spokesman for Gov. Jim Douglas, the governor is disappointed to see Mitchell go, but agrees with his frustration about the inaction in the Vermont House"

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Vermont Public Radio reports that "volunteers from the Vermont Archaeological Society are helping study a Colchester site that is believed to have been used by Native Americans thousands of years ago." According to University of Vermont Archaeologist Charles Knight, "Evidence from the current study suggests a temporary hunting camp from the early woodlands period, about 2,000 years ago." Notably, "the site is being studied as part of Vermont's Act 250 land use permit process, which requires an archaeological review be a site can be developed." Link to article