Cornwall Town Hall

The Cornwall Town Hall is significant as a well-preserved Italianate public building in a Vermont agricultural community with only several vernacular residential examples of the style. Its architectural components resemble details on structures attributed to architect/builder, Clinton G. Smith, of nearby Middlebury, VT, and may have been manufactured at the Smith and Allen Mill there. Early referred to as the 'Town House', since 1903 it has also been well known as the home of the Cornwall Grange. It achieves further significance from its association with this rural fraternity, which was responsible for organizing a regional grange, the C.J. Bell Pomona Grange, in 1904.

Cornwall, located in the center of the western portion of the state of Vermont, was chartered in 1761 and settled first mostly by persons from Litchfield County, Connecticut. The town was organized in 1784 and grew quickly into a prosperous farming community due to its relatively level terrain and fertile soil that was easy to cultivate. Cornwall was well known for its flocks of Spanish Merino sheep by the time the Town Hall was built in 1880 for a cost of $2,600. The early association of the hall with the grange marks this as a period in Vermont history when the shift in agriculture from self-sufficiency to specialized commercial farming (e.g. sheep breeding) and increased competition from western markets made necessary an organization of farmers to influence agricultural policy at the state and national levels. Vermont granges were established beginning in the 1870s and state grange history at this time was marked by movements to regulate railroad rates and by the battle to establish a separate agricultural college.

Cornwall's first grange was organized in 1874 but lasted only a short while. Consequently, although the grange later had much to do with improving the town hall structure, its influence was not immediately evident. The first improvements were carried out by the town. In 1881, a place was prepared for the town hearse underneath the Hall, and on January 5, 1882, the parcel of land with the right of way for the hearse was deeded by farmer Charles Benedict to the town of Cornwall. The structure was improved with seats, a stove, and a table in the lower hall in 1884-85. A town meeting was first held there on March 10, 1881. In 1892, voting booths that are still in use were purchased from C.E. Sampson for $15.90.

Cornwall Grange no. 304 was organized in 1903 and it is this group that appears to have been instrumental in maintaining and improving the Town Hall as a community center during the first part of the twentieth century. Cornwall Grange was responsible for the organization of the C.J. Bell Pomona Grange #13 in October 1904, which served as a regional association of farmers and which presumably met in the Town Hall. The grange was built on the rear kitchen ell c. 1905 and provided kitchen equipment, banquet tables in the dining hall, kerosene chandeliers, and later, electric lights. Later, an electric warming oven was provided for the kitchen and folding chairs were purchased for the dining room. The Cornwall Granger redecorated the stage, purchased a piano, and provided window drapes, as well as splitting with the town the cost of the furnace which is still present in the upstairs hall. The grange continued to support the building after it was reorganized as Cornwall Grange no. 550 in 1946. In 1950 it donated $50, to repair the Hall after a hurricane and in 1960 it donated $250 toward its repair.

The detailing of fenestration and the principal entrance, while not specifically Italianate, closely resembles architectural elements on documented structures of Clinton G. Smith, a nearby Middlebury architect, and builder. The Smith and Allen Mill in Middlebury was built in 1880, the same year as the Town Hall was constructed. The mill may have furnished the regionally singular enframements, the peaked lintels, and the crossing-lozenge motif elements used on the building.11 However, Smith and Allen had been partners since 1877 and presumably had means of turning out architectural components prior to 1880. A list of documented works of Clinton Smith compiled from local papers by Robert Jones does not list the Cornwall Town Hall as one of Smith's works, however. Hence, at the present time, it is merely conjectural that the town of Cornwall purchased the components for their town hall from the partners in nearby Middlebury.

The Cornwall Town Hall is presently being renovated on the interior and restored on the exterior. It remains a significant architectural testament to the history of the grange in Cornwall and its vicinity and to local architectural influences resulting from the practice of Smith and Allen based in nearby Middlebury, Vermont.