Fire destroys Chester landmark

The Stone Village just north of downtown Chester lost a unique piece of its history Tuesday night when a raging fire leveled a large unoccupied home that is believed to have been the oldest structure in the area.

Photo by Lew Waters

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20120927/NEWS02/709279887

Published September 27, 2012 in the Rutland Herald Fire destroys Chester landmark By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT CHESTER — The Stone Village just north of downtown Chester lost a unique piece of its history Tuesday night when a raging fire leveled a large unoccupied home that is believed to have been the oldest structure in the area. Just after 10 p.m. neighbors began calling 911 to report that the “Lackie Brooks House” a short distance north of the Unitarian Universalist Church was ablaze. Responding Chester Police officers immediately reported being able to see a large glow in the sky above the village. The multi-generational home was last lived in during the late 1980s but was still owned by Stuart Lackie who grew up in Chester but has since moved to northern Vermont. “It was built prior to 1806,” explained Chester Historical Society President Ron Patch. “Originally it was a tavern and an inn. Back then the road that is now Route 103 was the Green Mountain Turnpike which connected traffic from Montreal to Boston back in the early days so taverns along that route would have been prosperous.” The Stone Village that surrounds the property today wouldn’t have arrived for another 30 to 40 years beginning in the late 1830s so when it was built it was likely the only building on that stretch of road, Patch said. While present day admirers of the building like to point out its “big old spookiness” because of the broken windows and the brush that had grown up around it giving it a bit of a haunted house feel, Patch said that what made it so interesting architecturally was that at heart it was “a rural copy of an urban Federalist house.” “The main entryway was an elaborate Federal-style doorway with a light over the door and then the two sidelights beside it,” Patch recalled. “It was an interesting blocked manner in which it was done. It was a unique structure. I can’t emphasize that doorway enough. That was a beautiful thing.” It’s uniqueness extended inside to a 20-foot-wide by 51-foot-long room with a special spring-mounted floor with a stage at the far end that was originally built as a ballroom dance hall and which later served for a time as the local Masonic temple. Patch feared that Tuesday night’s fire, which drew firefighters from a dozen Vermont and New Hampshire towns to the scene, consumed not only timbers and boards but also what was likely a treasure trove of documents spanning Chester’s long history. “I can only imagine all the letters and related things that would have been in there from all the years,” Patch said. “It had to be just loaded to the rafters with all that sort of historical stuff and now that of course is gone.” On Wednesday afternoon, Vermont State Police Fire Marshal Sgt. Mark Potter issued a statement saying that both the state police and the Vermont Department of Fire Safety had sent investigators to the scene and that the cause of the fire “is considered undetermined.” Chester Town Manager David Pisha said that in recent months power to the building, which had some broken windows and generally appeared dilapidated from the outside, had been turned back. Pisha and others on Wednesday pointed to the power reconnection as a potential source of the blaze. Chester fire crews were assisted at the scene by an engine and ladder truck from Springfield and additional equipment and manpower from fire departments in Rockingham, Londonderry, South Londonderry, Bellows Falls, Proctorsville, Ludlow, Cavendish, Grafton, and the New Hampshire towns of Walpole and Charlestown. The three-alarm fire was declared under control just before 2:30 a.m. Wednesday and Route 103 North through the Stone Village was closed most of the night. Patch said it was a “long story” as to why the large antique house was never restored. “People in town are going to miss that building. It’s a landmark you’ve always known and you’ve always driven by,” Patch said. “For those of us who grew up with it here it’s a major loss.”