The Neighborhood of the Barefoot Boys
Upper Elm Street
“In the mornings of a summer of more than fifty years ago, Dave, Jim, Chip, Hen and I drove the cows from our several family barnyards down Elm Street in Woodstock, Vermont, across the old Red Bridge and into Charles Marsh’s pasture through a rather febrile pair of bars; and in the evening drove them back. Usually we were all barefoot.”
George P. Marsh, 1820 by John Cotton Dana. Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, July 1920
The “old Red Bridge”, as mentioned by John Cotton Dana, can be seen on the left of this photo. Elm Street continues up the road to Charles Marsh’s house. The pasture is above the house.
“The low flat-topped stone wall, built in 1874, that curves round toward the bridge was once the finest runway ever known for barefoot boys…”
George P. Marsh, 1820 by John Cotton Dana. Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, July 1920
“the finest runway ever known for barefoot boys…”
The “old Red Bridge” on Elm Street
Detail of the upper part of Elm Street including Charles Marsh’s houses. The railroad track on the map was never completed. Windsor County Map. 1869. F.W. Beers & Co.
Behind the Dana House
“…The roadway widened out into a grand yard when it passed the house. On the left was the back store and the store-barn, on the right, The Barn, huge and red, for horses, a cow, pigs, buggies, sleighs, winter’s wood supply, a great hay mow and above the wood-shed end a room just exactly right for circuses, games and juvenile congregations of any desired kind.”
The two barns behind the Dana House (now Woodstock History Center) and the New York Dry Goods store (now Phlox).
“exactly right for circuses, games and juvenile congregations of any desired kind.”
Aerial view of the Woodstock History Center.