Vermont Humanities

Our Home

Rep. John Lewis and Andrew Aydin with students in front of a schoolbus

Our History

When former Vermont Humanities Executive Director Peter Gilbert first saw the Victorian building, he knew he’d found the future home for Vermont Humanities.

It had plenty of office space, a basement big enough to hold thousands of books, large rooms for public humanities gatherings — and it was in downtown Montpelier. Additionally, the character and history of the nineteenth-century Victorian provided an appropriate setting for the state’s humanities council. It was just the building and location to make the Vermont Humanities more accessible to the entire state of Vermont.

Image of 11 Loomis Street exterior

Over Columbus Day Weekend 2005, Vermont Humanities moved from rented space in Morrisville to this handsome building at 11 Loomis Street. To pay for the building’s purchase and renovation, Vermont Humanities launched “Humanities at the Center” — its first capital campaign. The campaign raised $800,000.

The Victorian Italianate building is close to Montpelier’s center, just two blocks behind the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. Built as a residence prior to 1873 for a prominent merchant, George W. Scott, the building has been used as an office since the early 1970s.

Vermont Humanities restored the building, including refinishing floors, repapering walls, improving lighting, painting the façade, installing energy-efficient heating and air systems, and making the first floor handicapped-accessible.

The house is on the National Register of Historic Places. The State Office of Historic Preservation approved and endorsed the renovation. Vermont Humanities won an award from the Preservation Trust of Vermont for outstanding work preserving Vermont’s architecture.

Vermont Humanities*** January 7, 2022

Poet Sarah Audsley in a black dress in front of a large gray rock.

Poet Sarah Audsley joined us at the Taconic Mountains Ramble State Park for Words in the Woods.

Group of students walking on a boardwalk into the woods

Humanities Camps are filled with reading and writing projects, field trips, and outdoor activities.

Rep. John Lewis and Andrew Aydin with students in front of a schoolbus

We won a 2020 Schwartz Prize for best public humanities programming in the U.S. for Vermont Reads 2019: “March: Book One.”

Group on tour in snowy Burlington

We supported Historic New England’s “More than a Market” project that explored the experiences of new Americans through food markets.

Woman raising her hand during a public event

Our free public events help bring the power of the humanities to communities across Vermont.