"Riverside Lodge" -- Woodstock, Vermont D81C

"Riverside Lodge" -- Woodstock, Vermont D81C

Image of a mid-19th century clapboard house with a gabled dormer and wrap-around front porch. The house is surrounded by a flat, neatly goomed lawn, marked by a sign hanging from a birch log frame in the side yard. The sign reads: "Riverside Lodge -- Meals Served". A sense of charm, comfort and relaxation is evoked by the rocking chairs on the porch and flower boxes and curtains in the windows. The front yard is simply ornamented by two stone hitching posts and a flower pot suspended from a rustic birch log tripod. Apparently the property was at some point adapted for use as an inn to capitalize on Woodstock's popularity as a year-round vacation destination. The Woodstock Railroad, with a station at nearby White River Junction, brought visitors and tourists to the picturesque and historic town of Woodstock beginning in the late 1870s. The first lodging places would have been houses such as this, which operated alongside larger and more formal inns and hotels as the century wore on. The 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia had sparked an interest in New England Colonial history which would last a long time, especially among some Americans with ancestral roots who felt threatened by the influx of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe later in the century. At the time, Bostonians and New Yorkers with means, seeking relief from summer heat and urban crowding, became interested in visiting the "unspoiled" and "Colonial" towns in the mountain and coastal areas. Woodstock, with its large collection of handsome 18th and early 19th century houses, Congregational and Episcopal churches arrayed along a clear river untouched by large-scale industry (and, by extension, immigrants) was one such place. The town and area would attract the interest and financial investment of the Rockefeller family, who built a resort hotel and restored and placed protections on much of the historic building stock.