Autumn 2008
Downtowns: Within Walking Distance
Step by step, Bristol builds a community
By Susan Elizabeth Reid
Photographed by Daria Bishop
Bristol is a walking town. People walk to work, stores, the neighborhood brewpub and concerts on the green. They hike up the hill to "the ledges" for views that stretch to Lake Champlain. Children are within walking distance of the elementary school, high school and recreation fields. Even trash removal is done on foot — or hoof. Every Friday morning, Pat Palmer drives his team of horses through the streets of Bristol for garbage and recycling pickup.
Carolyn Ashby, manager of Art on Main, a cooperative artists' gallery on Main Street, said she walks everywhere, including to work. "I almost never have to leave to do anything," Ashby said. "Everything I need is here."
Snug against Deer Leap and South mountains and with the rocky New Haven River by its side, Bristol's inherent advantages — a walkable scale and striking natural beauty — are complemented by a handsome village center where every storefront is occupied. It wasn't always this way. Once a hardscrabble mill town, Bristol (population 3,800) is reaping the rewards of concerted attention by community volunteers and investment by local businesspeople. Its reputation is growing as a great place to do business, visit, shop, dine, listen to music — and live.
Allen Bilson, who opened the Bristol Cliffs Music Center on Main Street almost two years ago, said Bristol is "a town that works." He and his wife Lee arrived in Bristol by mistake one day — "we made a left instead of a right" — and they never wanted to leave, he said. Bilson's music store, which he runs with his wife and teenage son Meyer, has become integral to what people in Bristol consider a local music wave (see box).
The prominence of the arts, and the people of Bristol, keep Justin Bouvier rooted in his hometown. The 27-year-old singer, director and actor said he left to study music at the University of Vermont and came back as soon as he was done. "It's a family," he said. "It's the kind of place where people bring you a casserole when you're sick."
There are many things to like about Bristol, said Bonita Bedard, co-owner of Vermont HoneyLights, a candle-making business on Main Street. She likes to look across the street at Cubbers Restaurant every weekday morning and see the gentlemen who form "The Old Farts Club," sitting at their designated table in the window, "solving all the problems of the world." She likes the way her community rallies around to help others, and she has seen it personally with a successful cystic fibrosis research fundraiser she organizes annually to honor her teenage granddaughter, Kayla Flint.
Local businesses have embraced the concept of community to develop successful ventures that also give back. Through "community-based investment," new businesses have been launched and old buildings have been saved. About eight years ago, the Bristol Downtown Development Associates, a group of local investors, salvaged the Dunshee Block, one of the oldest buildings in town, an Italianate Revival structure dating to about 1871. Located in the heart of downtown, the building was in disrepair but now flourishes with full occupancy. Lawyer Tom Wells, and his wife Carol, executive director of the Bristol Downtown Community Partnership, were instrumental in the project. Tom Wells said the inspiration came from neighboring Vergennes where a group of people bought and refurbished the Basin Block as a way to revitalize their downtown.
The Bobcat Café is another example of community-based investment. The brewpub opened in 2002 to become just what restaurateur Robert Fuller had hoped for — a "third place" outside of home and work for a loyal clientele. The more than 30 community investors who loaned him $5,000 each have been repaid, he said, and The Bobcat — with its exquisite, century-old wooden bar, good food, live music every Thursday night and fresh beer brewed in the basement — has been pivotal in Bristol's blossoming as a dining and entertainment destination.
Timmi Moffi, owner of Mountain Greens Market and Deli, an organic and natural food store, followed a similar model to The Bobcat in 2003, and Snap's Café was right behind her in 2005. The 18 people who each loaned Moffi $5,000 have been paid back, she said, and she now has a profitable business with 11 employees.
Like many Vermont towns, Bristol struggles with the old and the new, the right uses for the land, and finding a balance between the need for a steady paycheck and the desire for a high quality of life. A proposal to mine gravel about a mile from downtown is one of those struggles, involving one of Bristol's oldest families. Some business owners and residents argue that dust and increased truck traffic could degrade Bristol just as it is gaining momentum as a town on the rise.
Linda Hanson remembers Bristol's harder days when she was a child, and she is grateful that they are largely in the past. Hanson returned to Bristol five years ago to be near her family after living in California for about 20 years. She is one of four women who started Almost Home, a deli, kitchen supply and catering business that markets itself as a "country store for the 21st century," with such offerings as lattes, fresh fruit scones and tabbouleh.
Hanson said she has been pleasantly surprised by what she sees in Bristol today, compared to what she experienced growing up. "That was the 1950s, and everyone was battling to make a living and bring their families up," she said. "I see huge changes. There's a lot more community involvement and growth."
For Catherine Palmer, there's not much that she would change about Bristol. The local artist and co-owner of Thornapple Farm enjoys being part of the artists' cooperative, and she and her husband Pat are the proud owners of Chief, Spud, Butch and Buster, the horses that are so familiar as the trash collectors. As Palmer sat in the sunny front window of Art on Main, she used colored pencils to draw the horses on their route. Her goal, she said, is to sketch them on every one of the 17 streets where they provide service. As she drew, Palmer finally settled on one thing that would make Bristol better: "Bristol needs a hitching rail," she said.
Music to their ears
"The music thing is exploding in Bristol," according to Art on Main manager Carolyn Ashby.
Bristol has live music three nights a week — Thursday night at The Bobcat Café, Friday night at The Bristol Bakery and Café and Saturday night at Dan's Place. In summer, there are also Wednesday night concerts on the green that have been going on since the Civil War.
Lonny Edwards, a teacher who plays the calabash in the local band Barika Ensemble, said there's "a real music scene" in Bristol now. "The amount of talent here is frightening — in a good way."
Edwards remembers getting musicians together to play in the park 10 years ago and being shooed away. Now they are in demand, and people pay to hear them.
Bristol Cliffs Music Center has become popular as a place for local musicians and high school students to meet and try new instruments. Allen Bilson, a percussionist with a degree from The Academy of Music in Philadelphia, encourages his customers to hang out on the futon in the center of the store and sample the merchandise. "There's no ‘Please ask for assistance' sign," Bilson said. "We say, ‘Pick up a guitar and try it out.'"
His son, Meyer, a formidable musician at age 14, helps out in the store and reflects his parents' philosophy on the business. Meyer has been known to restring a guitar and refuse payment, saying simply, "Just come back when you need something else."
Slideshow: Downtown Bristol
Bristol's strong community makes for a vibrant downtown. Watch a slideshow from this walkable, music-loving town.
