A New (Barn) Door
Opens Saturday

On Vt. History

This Saturday, June 30, at 2 p.m. Vermont Gov. James Douglas will join University of Vermont Provost John Hughes, the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation and the Friends of the Morrill Homestead to dedicate a new education and programming center at the Justin S. Morrill State Historic Site in Strafford.

In 1849 Justin Smith Morrill of Strafford designed and constructed his Gothic Revival house in Strafford. The design included a fully landscaped estate with a picturesque and ornamental lawn surrounding his house, and the carriage and horse barns.

Justin Morrill later became Vermont’s U.S. Congressman and Senator and is primarily known as the chief sponsor and author of the 1862 and 1890 Land Grant College Acts, which some call the most significant act passed by Congress in the 19th century.

The Morrill estate is now one of Vermont’s Historic Sites.

Sen. Morrill’s son relocated the historic horse barn in the early twentieth century, and the barn has now been reconstructed on its original site and Justin Morrill’s original landscape design is now under restoration.

The building is an exterior reconstruction of the Gothic Revival 1849 horse barn but has been designed with a modern interior to be a year-round education and program center for the historic site.

The building also houses and displays Sen. Morrill’s important library, which belongs to the town of Strafford. Architects for the project were Gossens Bachman of Montpelier and the general contractor was Wright Construction of Mount Holly. The building was funded by two federal grants, obtained through the Vermont Agency of Transportation, and three Vermont capital budget appropriations.

"The new facility will meet the needs of the traveling public and also expand the potential for educational offerings at the Morrill Homestead which was Vermont’s first National Historic Landmark," said John P. Dumville, Historic Sites Operations Chief.