Brattleboro still thrives on retail

Vermont Business Magazine, Apr 01, 1997 by Marcel, Joyce

People are passionate about Brattleboro. They talk about the natural beauty of the place, the creativity of its residents, its thriving downtown, and most of all, about an indefinable something which Brattleboro has and much of the country seems to want: a sense of community.

But first of all, when people say they live in "Brattleboro," they could mean anywhere in the unwieldy entity known as "the greater Brattleboro area." That includes Brattleboro, itself, close-in towns like Putney, Dummerston, Vernon and Newfane, and further-away towns like Windham, Marlboro and Saxton's River. In fact, it could be anywhere in the Windham County region.

There's no better illustration of the true meaning of "market town" or, if you're a planning buff, "regional growth center," than Brattleboro. It has had pretty much the same population -- around 12,000 -- for over two decades. But while the population of "Bran," as it is known, remains constant, the surrounding towns have mushroomed well past their ability to float new school construction bonds. (see demographics chart)

The surrounding towns mutter about becoming bedroom communities and paying the education bills for Brattleboro's workforce, while Brattleboro sputters about its high property taxes, paying for a fire and police department which are available to surroundings towns, and the high cost of maintaining the town's roads and infrastructure.

People may eat, sleep, watch television and pay property taxes in the surrounding towns, but they come to Brattleboro to work, shop, see doctors, dentists, movies and blues bands, have operations (Brattleboro Memorial Hospital), eat in one of the town's many interesting restaurants, and leave Vermont. (The town has three exits onto I-91 and wants another one so that ski resort (traffic can bypass its residential areas.)

Although it has two ugly and successful strip development areas, Putney Road and Canal Street, Brattleboro is mainly admired for its thriving brick-fronted Main Street, where 100-year-old-plus buildings are filled with interesting shops, services and galleries, and where area residents are sure to meet people they know on the street and in the shops.

Even with a Wal-Mart within sight across the Connecticut River in New Hampshire, Main Street storefronts are never empty for long.

The town watches with amusement as retailers play a game of musical stores, piggybacking out of the equally thriving side streets just as soon as locations become available on the main drag. For example, when, just recently, Mann's Department Store went out of business after 95 years, Vermont Artisans jumped into the space from across the street, and the store it left behind was soon filled as well. Businesses do fail, as an ice cream store recently discovered, but there always seem to be new, and mainly independent, retailers waiting in the wings.

Traffic congestion, lack of sufficient parking, and dwindling basic services are the biggest problems downtown. For example, while the town has a successful and beloved hardware store, its only shoe repair place was replaced by a coffee bar.

The two stores on Main Street which everybody loves to hate are Dunkin' Donuts and Rite-Aid. They are the only national chains downtown, and their strip-mall architecture and signage disrupt the dignified brick-front unity of the street. The local hero is architect Leo Berman, who has restored several of the town's most important buildings, including the old Paramount Theatre, which was an eyesore even before it was gutted by fire.

Many Brattleboro stores are unique and creative, selling upscale clothing, imports, beads, breads and cakes, natural foods, natural cosmetics and fragrances, hand-made chocolates, CDs (four stores), musical instruments (two stores), flowers, luxurious fabrics, art prints, oriental rugs, toys, tie-dye (two stores), and books (six stores counting new and used). Retail creativity is not surprising, because the town and its surrounding area has long been a haven for artists, writers and musicians.

Serving the cultural community are a first-rate small art museum, galleries, crafts and antique shops, several coffee shops and bars, two excellent micro-breweries, one of the oldest organic cooperative restaurants in the country, and a club which offers live music four nights a week. The town has two movie theaters with nine screens between them which compete to show independent as well as mainstream films.

Brattleboro is unusually cosmopolitan in that it offers Korean, Chinese (four restaurants), Thai and Indian food. Downtown has two upscale places for fine cuisine, and in general, the town seems to have as many pizza restaurants as families. Fine restaurants abound in the surrounding area.

In town, three general supermarkets, one "dented food" store, and a natural foods cooperative supermarket, among others, service those who cook at home.

Politically, Brattleboro, long called "the Banana Belt" by those in the north, has been largely ignored for many years. So it must be a surprise right now to most of the state, and certainly to Montpelier, that the Speaker of the House (Mike Obuchowski), the President Pro Tem of the Senate (Peter Shumlin) and the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee (Sean Campbell) are all from Windham County.