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Rare Early View of The Capital of Vermont -- Possibly Drawn From Owler & Walton's Balloon Trip from Montpelier To Montreal?
This panoramic view of Montpelier, Vermont, published in 1884 by George E. Norris and drawn by Albert F. Poole, presents the capital city in exquisite detail as it appeared in the final decades of the 19th century. Rendered from an imagined aerial vantage point to the south, high above the Winooski River, the print captures the the town nestled among the wooded hills of Washington County. The view is prominently depicts the Vermont State House, with its classical dome commanding the left-central foreground, surrounded by tree-lined lawns and civic buildings.
The view evokes a town both bucolic and industrious, its prosperity rooted in the dual engines of state government and regional commerce. The river winds through the view, its banks dotted with factories, mills, and railway lines, while bridges span the water, connecting the town’s principal thoroughfares. To the right, the Washington County Courthouse is prominently depicted with its rectilinear layout, while other institutions—banks, churches, schools, and hotels—are carefully numbered and indexed in two detailed reference tables.
Among the more notable features is the indication of a recent landslide along Elm Street and an intriguing, unidentified beacon or observatory structure atop a wooded rise north of the town. A small inset at the top center shows a vignette of Montpelier in 1827, offering a counterpoint to the contemporary view and highlighting the city's growth over the intervening decades.
The view was one of a dozen Vermont and New Hampshire town prospects completed during Poole’s 1883–84 collaboration with Norris. Their partnership marked a prolific moment in American pictorial cartography, and this rendering of Montpelier ranks among the most aesthetically and historically significant of its kind. Though an earlier view by Bradford (ca. 1855) is referenced in Reps as having been catalogued by Goodspeed's in 1918 but otherwise unknown), this view is the earliest extant bird’s-eye view of Montpelier documented by Reps.
More Than Coincidence?
The spectacular balloon ascent of July 4, 1884, may have inspired or even directly informed this remarkable view, which was published the same year. During the Capital City’s Independence Day celebration, two local men, Charles A. Owler and George B. Walton, joined the English-born aeronaut Professor Charles Grimley in his hydrogen-filled balloon Columbus for a daring flight that drew a crowd of over 12,000. Ascending from the Union School grounds, the balloon climbed to nearly 13,500 feet, providing an extraordinary panorama of Montpelier and its surrounding valleys and hills. Grimley, who later published a detailed account of the flight, remarked on the singular beauty of the city from above, noting that “every house and building, the river, railways and every prominent object was in view all at once.”
Although undocumented, it is tempting to speculate whether this bird’s-eye view—remarkable for its compositional accuracy and visual coherence—may have drawn as seen from the balloon. The presence of topographic and architectural detail, such as the precise layout of streets, civic buildings, and even a landslide on Elm Street, suggests an intimacy with the terrain that could plausibly have been informed by Grimley’s published narrative or the personal sketches or notes of one of the participants. At the very least, the timing and spirit of the 1884 balloon voyage—its blend of technological novelty, civic pride, and visual spectacle—is quite uncanny, as is the presence of what appears to be a temporary beacon, topped with a flag showing the direction of the wind atop the hill. The presence of the beacon, which is not identified in the key below the map, is further suggestion that it was a temporary structure, possibly erected in connection with the balloon flight.
Rarity
The view is very rare. Reps locates only the examples at the University of Vermont and Vermont Historical Society.
