Greetings!

Preservationists know that old buildings present a wealth of opportunities for new beginnings.

We've helped communities create new vitality in the buildings and gathering places that they love: places like the historic Woods Library in Bradford, which is now fully accessible to all ages and abilities, or the Champlain Club in Burlington, which was founded as a social club for German immigrants and is now a vibrant dancing and community space for all.

Our field staff have worked on hundreds of projects like these across Vermont, providing advice, connecting people, encouraging communities to take the first step in preserving a sense of place that accommodates the new and endures.

These projects remind us that the chance to create something new in a way that honors and connects us to the past is one of the most inspiring things about our work at the Preservation Trust. Our historic buildings, villages, and downtowns have survived because Vermonters have always possessed the creative imagination and deep commitment to make what is old new, for those who are living here now and for those yet to arrive.

Thank you for caring about this work. Enjoy the Community Preservation stories below!

Best,

Ben Doyle, President
The Granger House at Castleton University, Castleton
The c.1800 Noadiah Granger House isn’t your ordinary house museum. In the geographic center of the Castleton University campus, the Granger House is a living laboratory where university students will be able to do hands-on work designing and curating exhibitions, engaging in history and museum studies, developing 3-D imaging of artifacts, partnering with different museums, and more...
The Woods Library Building, Bradford
“We used to do nothing but lend books,” says librarian Gail Trede, “Today we are an electronic world, and this place is always busy.”

Located between an affordable housing community and the center of town, the Woods Library Building is a 19th-century gem designed by Lambert Packard, complete with spiral staircases, turrets, and a 12-sided reading room with a fireplace flanked by lions. The library still lends books, but on any given day you’ll find people looking for jobs, seeking help with their taxes, getting information about bus routes...
The Champlain Club, Burlington
There was a time around the turn of the 20th century when German immigrants built social halls and support systems all over the country. Burlington’s “Goethe Lodge #592” was constructed on a dead-end street in Burlington’s Old North End in 1905. Over the past century, the lodge’s ownership and use have evolved, and with PTV’s help it has established itself as a nonprofit organization.
Now the “Champlain Club” (renamed in the 1970s) has a newly painted interior and freshly refinished wood ballroom floor (thanks to volunteer efforts). It is popular among dance groups from all over the state...
The Opera House at Enosburg Falls
Built in 1892 by the founder of Kendall’s Spavin Cure, a successful horse liniment company, the Enosburg Opera House was gifted to the town and village and has been the cultural center of this farming community for well over a century. Once the site of town meetings and basketball games, today the range of activities is impressive: improv groups, week-long day camps, the Enosburg Conservation Commission events, Irish rock band performances, community musical theater performances, weddings, celebrations of life, and much more...