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I made this little model of The Ridge Road House almost 50 years ago for a Landscape Design class at UVM.  It is a bit crude but I love it anyway and my granddaughters have played with it a bit, so I am proud that it has ‘held up.’ What attracted me to this house in the first place?  I like the simplicity of a white Vermont farm house perched on a hill.  I like houses without all of the added stuff like ‘Foundation Plantings.’ Give me the one large white Hydrangea or the single purple Lilac on one corner.  It is almost regal to me in its simplicity. Most of all I liked the people who lived here, maybe that’s why I love this house so much.  I feel so lucky to now own this property.  I wish we had a million dollars to fuss with the house, having experts on antique houses come in as advisors, taking years to jack it up, put in a new foundation underneath, work with the old beams, keep what we can, restore it bit by bit in a by-the-book way. Instead we will do the practical thing (still expensive) and try to rebuild a house that matches this as closely as possible.  Prepare yourselves- things will start to come down in about a month, towards the end of February.  First the tree which has grown into the garage will come down, next the metal roof will come off.  I will document this. I have tried to preserve the house through photos and videos.  I would love to have more photos of the house in its prime from family members who can send them to me.  I would share them here. I have tried to keep family informed via this blog so they are prepared.  I know it is a loss.  Ultimately though, the site will be safer and ready for the matching house to go up.  This is my 3-5 year plan though so the reappearance of the house will take longer than the process of it coming down.  Please say your Goodbyes.

Eric Henderson was able to work on the driveway today, despite 12" of new snow 3 days ago. You can see Eric working with his equipment here. Photos thanks to Peter Cooley. Entrance/parking for Peter & Megan: The main section of the southern end of the driveway: And Mazey Cooley modeling to help show us the scale on the south entrance:

My husband knows what this is, I did not. I used them as soft packing to bring home a kerosene lantern from the Ridge Road House. What is it? This one will test your Vermont roots or knowledge.

Can you guess what this little beauty is? I thought I'd add a new fun category to my blog. MYSTERIES! Some will be items, some will be places, some will be historical mysteries. Some I will know the answer to and am testing you...some I need help, suggestions, ideas. Join in!

November 7, 2023 Eric Henderson out of Williamstown (Henderson Hauling & Excavation) does excellent work. He is reliable, careful, efficient and cost effective. Megan & Peter Cooley found him- he put in the new well house for them, helped them with an outside frost-free hydrant, and added gravel to the front driveway to the south. We will continue to use him for removal, excavating, possibly even a new septic system. On 11/7 he removed all of the tires, the old tumbledown shed, trash and debris. So it is starting to look tidy. Also he laid down gravel on the north side of the house to use for heavy equipment. See photos below. The new well house that Megan & Peter had installed earlier in the year:

Any old house has some materials that are considered hazardous waste. Asbestos, once considered a marvel as a fire retardant, is now known to cause health issues if fibers are released- particularly lung damage including cancer. Luckily there are people trained to test for these materials and remove them safely. My husband's brother Peter and his wife Megan, while working with Henderson Excavating & Engineering out of Williamstown, had the house inspected for asbestos by a qualified company up in Burlington, VT, K-D Associates, Inc. in June 2023. Samples were taken and tested from many surfaces (floors, walls, ceilings, window glazing, insulation, building paper, and asphalt roof shingles). The only area found to contain asbestos was the downstairs bedroom which had 9"x 9" tiles. Mid-State Asbestos out of Roxbury, Vermont removed and properly disposed of nine bags of asbestos-containing tiles in July 2023. They were shipped to an approved facility in Ohio. Lucky us, poor Ohio.

Driveway work is our next step. A sound driveway will facilitate the ins and outs of demolition and construction equipment. The driveway is a circular driveway; I always loved that. It has a practicality to it. You can drive in and drive out with no turning around. You can park near the often-used side entrance on the south or you can park around back near the kitchen entrance. I am learning about the expense of a longer driveway. Not surprising…the longer the driveway, the more material is needed. The whole driveway is approximately 350 feet. Eric Henderson from Williamstown will do the work. He has already done the section to the north of the house and he does excellent work. This Google aerial view gives you a picture of how the driveway works. Here's a Google photo taken from Ridge Road, looking up the south entrance to the driveway, house is to the left in the photo, barn is straight ahead at the top of this section. Peter & Megan's abode is on the right. Same view but showing the house. This photo shows you where the barn is in relation to the south driveway entrance (see natural wood building at the top right). Head up the driveway and take a left to the house. Here's a view of where the driveway goes after it passes around the current garage/fireplace room to the back of the house. The main house is on the right here; you can see the kitchen door on the back. And the view along the back from the kitchen door. The well/pump house Peter & Megan installed. Here's the north exit of the circular driveway as it travels back down to Ridge Road, pre-gravel. And the same northerly section post-gravel. And here's a Google view of the same exit (northern section) of the driveway except taken from Ridge Road looking up the driveway. North part of the driveway (far left in this photo) taken from Ridge Road. Here you can see the north driveway section in the foreground and the location of the south entrance near the telephone pole to the far right. Here's to easier access during mud season...Happy January! progress will be made.

Especially important is the SECRET PASSAGEWAY door! It was saved! Part of the metal clasp is still painted onto the door frame (so I have to work on that) but I have the wooden flip knob (my terminology) which looks hand-carved to me. I will try to save as many doors as possible for the new house. How cool to grab a door knob that was handled by relatives long ago and to swing open a door that opens into a newly created replica of a room from 1790 or 1830! I saved this very cool handle, see below... (it was near the top of the stairs on the pine panelling pretending to be a door)...it does look old. I love it. Someone else obviously appreciated it to bother to save it and attach it to the wall. Danny wonders if it was there for Great Gramma Cooley to grab it to help her stability. Here is where it was before I took it off...what do you think? (see handle below)

I got to meet Mark Rosaldo in the town hall in Randolph today. He is the zoning administrator. Picked up the demolition permit and put it on display. OK...so here we go!

Many of my relatives have attended the school at the site just down the road from The Ridge Road House. This school, now Vermont State University, evolved from the Orange County Grammar School (1806) into the Randolph Normal School (1866) into the Aggie School (The Vermont School of Agriculture 1910) into the Vermont Agricultural and Technical Institute (1957) into Vermont Technical College (1962) until its present name change. My first relative who attended this school was my Great Grandmother Josephine (Josie) Farrar Gray Perry. I knew her as Grammy Perry. She went to the Randolph Normal School to become a teacher. I was recently reading a letter she wrote at age 98 to the Normal School after they requested some news from her. She told them about a move from Vermont to Florida when she was a young wife with her husband. This inspired me to do more research using 1907 archived Florida newspapers which led me to new facts about my family during their short-lived move from Vermont. What if they had stayed in Florida? My grandfather might not have met my grandmother in Vermont. I wouldn’t be here today. Harry Cooley and Charles Cooley (both owners of The Ridge Road House) taught at the site- Harry at the Aggie School, as he called it, and Charles at VTC. Photo of The Randolph Normal School ~1894 taken from "Early Photographs of RANDOLPH, VERMONT 1855-1948," by Wes Herwig, 1986, Greenhills Books, Randolph Center, Vermont About the term "Normal School-" in the 1830s the term Normal School was in use for schools that were formerly known as teacher seminaries (today, the modern-day University Education programs for teacher training). The term may come from the French école normale meaning a model school (norma from the Latin meaning a carpenter's square, therefore a rule or model.)[1] Letter from Josie Perry to the Normal School Annual Meeting when she was 98 years old in 1971 [1] Duling, Ennis, “A Persistent and Spirited Controversy: The State Normal Schools and the Education of Vermonters,” Vermont Historical Society, 2022, chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://vermonthistory.org/journal/90/VH90_02_Duling.pdf (31, December, 2023)

I would like to contact the Samuel Day family (ancestors) to let them know about the house. Anyone know them? Please try and pass this information along! Researching on ancestry's website today to see who was living in the Ridge Road house, I could access the 1910, 1920, and 1930 censuses. Fascinating. And to see Harry Cooley (and his parents and family) just down the road on the farm in the census from 1920 onwards...it feels like time travel. 1910: Samuel Day (47), Wife Carrie (Caroline Pray) (36), Ruth (10), Roland (9), Margaret (6), Lester (1) 1920: Samuel Day (56), Wife Carrie passed away in 1917, Ruth (20), Roland (18), Marguerite (16), Lester (11) And ten years later when Lester, the youngest child would have been 21, Sam was remarried and already had three children with his new young wife (40 years his junior): 1930: Samuel Day (67), Wife Elizabeth (27), Mary (9), Russell (7), Dorothy (5), and nephew Robert Pray (his first wife's relation) as a hired man (23) I found a photo of Sam Day in the newspaper when he died in 1953, the same year Harry Cooley bought the Day house. Sam would have been 90. 1910 census: 1920 census: 1930 census:

With all the memories there