BENNINGTON — The state Division for Historic Preservation has canceled a vote next month on whether to recommend that the Paper Mill Village covered bridge be deleted from the National Register of Historic Places.
Historic Preservation Officer Laura Trieschmann said a notice the town received of a scheduled Jan. 19 vote by the Vermont Advisory Council on Historic Preservation was sent prematurely. She said notice to the town should have followed solicitation of feedback from town and state officials and others who were involved in a 1999-2000 project to restore the bridge.
Devin Colman, state architectural historian with the division, had based his recommendation to the council primarily on the fact most of the original materials in the 1889 structure had been replaced during the restoration.
Town officials reacted with dismay when discussing the written notification from Colman during a Bennington Historic Preservation Commission meeting Dec. 8. They resolved to write a letter of protest, contending in part that the reconstruction project was undertaken in consultation with state historic preservation officials.
However, Trieschmann said Wednesday that “the bridge is not going to be delisted,” based on her decision. The council won’t vote on whether to recommend delisting, she said.
She made the determination “for multiple reasons,” Trieschmann said. “First and foremost, the outreach which should have been done initially” was inadequate, she said, and “didn’t explain enough.”
She said the division has since heard from town officials, people who were involved in the restoration and Vermont Agency of Transportation officials familiar with the project, and she is satisfied the covered bridge should remain on the National Register.
Bennington Economic and Community Development Director Michael Harrington said the town was told of the decision Wednesday morning. “From our perspective, we obviously always thought it should remain on the registry,” he said. “To finally have it come to this result was welcome.”
While the materials were in large part replaced, Trieschmann said, the bridge more than meets other criteria used in determining whether a structure should be listed on the register — most notably the design, which was preserved, the location within a section of Bennington with historic mills and two other covered bridges over the Walloomsac River, and its retention of the feel or appearance of a wooden covered bridge built in 1889.
“The materials were replaced, but the original design was respected,” she said, adding that if the 19th-century builders were alive they might believe it was their own work.
The division is charged by the federal government with periodically reviewing structures in Vermont that are on the National Register, Trieschmann said, but the state has lagged behind other states in performing those reviews. “We only did our first three delistings over the past year,” she said. “We’re coming late to the game.”
“Delisting is not an easy decision, and we take very seriously input from the towns,” she said. “I’m sorry for the confusion.”
She said the three Vermont structures that have been delisted upon recommendation by state officials are the Brooksville Advent Church in New Haven, which was moved and substantially enlarged and altered; Dog Team Tavern in New Haven, which was destroyed by fire; and the Chittenden County Courthouse, formerly on Main Street in Burlington, which was demolished after a fire in 1982.
“To be honest,” Trieschmann said, “I don’t think covered bridges should be our first (structure type reviewed). They are iconic.”
In addition, bridges are a difficult category to assess, she said, as they often still are functional and carry heavy vehicle traffic over waterways, meaning repairs and materials replacement over time involve public safety issues.
“We are now trying to put together a group of people to help determine where the line is when a bridge loses its (historical) integrity,” she said.
The group will involve transportation and preservation officials and people working in related fields.
In a related matter, Trieschmann said a Transportation Agency cultural resource team is working with department engineers to determine whether more appropriate guardrails might be used in approaches to historic bridges. The guardrails leading up to the Paper Mill Village bridge, for instance, are strikingly modern with a wide metal barrier linking the posts.
The Paper Mill Village bridge, also known as the Bennington Falls covered bridge, was placed on the National Register in 1973.
