History Talk in Bennington: How Route 7 Explains 20th Century Vermont

In 1957, Governor Joseph Johnson promised the citizens of southwestern Vermont that the state would rebuild the region’s main north-south highway, Route 7, “to standards comparable with the interstate system.” In the two decades that followed the question of what to do with Route 7 became a topic of bitter dispute in the region.

Northern Vermont University History Professor Paul Searls will discuss how the debate over what to do with southwestern Vermont’s major roads between the 1950s and the 1990s is, in many ways, a metaphor for the transition Vermont as a whole underwent in those decades.

A discussion will follow in which audience members are encouraged to share their memories and feelings about the history of the area’s major roads, and the evolution of southwestern Vermont as a whole.

Presented by the Bennington Historical Society.