JOHNSON: A HAVEN FOR ARTISTS
By Virginia Lindauer Simmon
Driving into Johnson, it's easy to be deceived into thinking
it's much like any other small mountain community in the Green
Mountain State. But you'd be wrong. This plucky town of just over
3,100 population has experienced an intriguing set of circumstances
over the years that have combined to give it an edge. While agriculture
and industry have shaped the destinies ofmany such rural towns,
Johnson has also had the cultural benefit of astrong educational
community reinforced by an active arts community.
At 516 feet elevation, Johnson sits on Route 15 in the center of Lamoille County, at the edge of the Green Mountains where the foothills begin to roll into Vermont's piedmont. The Long Trail, an offshoot of theAppalachian Trail, runs right through the town. The Lamoille and Gihon rivers meet there. Two of the town's original covered bridges, remain in active use today.
There's plenty to do in Johnson for the entire family. The
Gihon and Lamoille Rivers are stocked with trout, which brings
fishing enthusiasts and canoists in spring and summer. Each July,
Johnson is home to Lamoille County Field Days with horse and pony
pulls, oxen and tractor pulls, horse shows and a 4H and Dairy
Barn. The town has an active recreation program, which includes
T-ball through Senior League for Johnson children and activities
such as weekly swim trips to Lake Eden, daily educational and
cultural craft and interactive activities and field trips. There's
also the Johnson State College Swim Program, a soccer program,
basketball cross-country and downhill ski programs and a huge
Halloween party. There are places for visitors to rent bicycles
or horses for trail rides, and Johnson's annual Foliage Festival
is an old-fashioned community fair complete with crafts, country
music, a farmers' market, hayrides, horseshoes and kids' activities.
In winter, it's an easy trip to prime skiing at Stowe, Smuggler's
Notch and Jay Peak.
Johnson was almost called Brownton, after a man named Joseph Brown who, according to an early history of the town, is said to have brought his family from Jericho in 1780. But they were soon captured by Indians and taken to Canada as prisoners of war, where they were kept by the British for three years. When their fees for the town's charter remained unpaid, government officials decided Brown was dead and made a new grant of the township in 1782.
While the land inspired farming, the rivers and their waterfalls inspired saw mills, grist mills, even a linseed oil mill, so the village of Johnson grew at the same time as the town, attracting commercial activity.
One of Vermont's first woolen mills was founded in Johnson
when sheep were introduced to Vermont in 1811. From that first
enterprise grew Johnson Woolen Mills, which now boasts a factory
and company store on Main Street and employs 50 people during
peak season. The descendants of A.D. Barrows, a man who joined
the original company in 1905 and bought it 12 years later, still
run the establishment.
Johnson's residents have never been known to wait for destiny to come knocking on their doors. The history of Johnson State College is a perfect example. In 1828, a local cobbler, John Chesamore, founded the first education of higher learning in Johnson when he donated his shop for a classroom and rode on horseback to Chelsea to persuade a popular Universalist preacher to come and serve as principal and teacher. When Johnson Academy opened, it had 16 students and offered courses "in mental, moral, and natural philosophy, algebra and geometry, and ... expanded its curriculum late inthe spring of 1828 to offer instruction in pedagogy, or the training of teachers."
Now part of the Vermont State College system, Johnson State College sits on a beautiful 500-acre hilltop campus with a panoramic view of the village and mountains. The college is a true community resource, offering the residents of Johnson plays and concerts; children's performances; benefit concerts; free community swims in the college pool; consultation on working with gifted students; child care center development tools; and workshops on learning disabilities and classroom management. College students and staff work as reading partners and tutors for children through grade four; hold an annual Small Fry Basketball Clinic; and sponsor Kids' Night Out, an annual program spending time with local children while parents have an evening off from family responsibilities.
Even with the college assured and the woolen and saw mills thriving, however, by the 1930s, Johnson had begun to grow seedy. The town was one of the hardest hit by the 1927 flood. The entire downtown had water reaching the second floor and commerce was brought to a standstill; the library's entire collection of books was lost; 300 were left homeless. Even the rise of an artist's colony in the late 1930s, when professional artists were attracted to the hills of neighboring Cambridge and Jeffersonville, failed to help. When Vermont's winter recreation industry began to develop in the1930s, Johnson had no easy access from the south, and resorts grew in Stowe and elsewhere. Town buildings were decaying.
In 1984, the Vermont Studio Center was founded by architect and painter Jonathan Gregg, who had operated a construction firm out of the renovated grist mill on the Gihon River, founded, with his wife, painter Louise von Weise, and Fred Osborne, director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The school began purchasing, leasing and remodeling vacant or under-used buildings and historic homes in the village and turning them into studio space, lecture halls, gallery spaces, offices, faculty housing, student housing and a dining hall. A nonprofit institution, it has grown from a nine-week season serving 75 artists in four buildings with a $100,000 budget to a year-round community serving 525 artists and writers in 20 buildings with a $1,500,000 budget. The Vermont Studio Center now offers a Master of Fine Arts degree through a joint program with Johnson State College.
There's an upbeat mood in Johnson these days. Johnson Elementary School has just opened a new building, and principal Brigid Scheffert says students are doing "pretty darn well." Middle and high school students attend Lamoille Union, located in neighboring Hyde Park. Students score above the national average on achievement tests and Lamoille Union teachers say Johnson students are among the best prepared to meet the challenges of middle school.
Having the college and the Studio Center nearby means better shopping choices. Besides the woolen mills store, there's a new natural foods shop in town that sells bulk items like fresh spices, herbs, grains and beans. It's right next door to the French Press, an airy, delightful cafe, and not the town's only such place. Vermont Rug Makers Gallery creates rugs sold the world over. The Forget-Me-Not Shop has sold off-price clothing and gift items since 1981. And the award-winning Butternut Mountain Farm and its Country Store carry all kinds of maple products and Vermont goods. Johnson also has its share of contractors, hardware stores and services like insurance and real estate companies plus a pharmacy, and there are still a few farms and businesses tied to the land, such as a local turf company.
That the Vermont Studio Center has changed the face of Johnson,
no one will deny. And while there was much trepidation at first,
town residents seem to have made their peace with the school's
presence." The buildings really look nice and kept up",
says Helen Neill, Johnson's Town Clerk."There's more diversity
here, now," says one life-long resident. "And lots of
neat little shops. The college has grown, and we've become a more
eclectic town."