City guide

architecture in Montpelier.

3 buildings worth a detour, each with what to look for. Open them on the map, or walk them with the iPhone app, which collects each one you photograph.

Styles you'll see Greek Revival Gothic Revival

Landmarks

The buildings that define the city's architecture.

Greek Revival

Vermont State House

Thomas Silloway · 1833

The Vermont State House is the state capitol in Montpelier and seat of the Vermont General Assembly. This Greek Revival structure, designed by Thomas Silloway and occupied in 1859, is the third building on the same site to serve as the State House. It is the smallest state house in the United States and stands on State Street on the western edge of downtown, a block north of the Winooski River, set against a wooded hillside.

Photo: The original uploader was Decumanus at English Wikipedia. , CC BY-SA 3.0

Greek Revival

Washington County Courthouse

1844

The Washington County Courthouse in downtown Montpelier is a Greek Revival civic building dating to 1844.

Photo: AlexiusHoratius , CC BY-SA 3.0

Hidden gems

Fine buildings that fewer people seek out.

Gothic Revival

Athenwood and the Thomas W. Wood Studio

Thomas Waterman Wood

Athenwood and the Thomas W. Wood Studio are a pair of Carpenter Gothic buildings at 39 and 41 Northfield Street, built in 1850-1851 as the home and studio of Montpelier-born painter Thomas Waterman Wood. Wood designed the house himself, naming it Athenwood for his wife Minerva Robinson Wood, and likely drew on pattern books circulated by Alexander Jackson Davis and Andrew Jackson Downing. The buildings, now private residences, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.