The silent bandstand at Fuller Park on a late January afternoon.
Toward the southwest corner of Brattleboro, in the center of what was and is known as Esteyville, is a small and somewhat forgotten park. Situated on a triangular lot at the intersection of Estey, Pleasant, and Chestnut Streets, Fuller Park holds a worn bandstand, an empty flagpole, a tired bench, and a half-dozen shade trees. The town’s Grand List has it pegged at .19 acres and the official address is 115 Estey Street; it’s right across the road from the diminutive Esteyville Schoolhouse, another municipal property from another time, but still in use.
The Town of Brattleboro’s facilities map shows the Esteyville properties west of Canal Street.
Also known as the Esteyville Park or Esteyville Common, its heritage as the bequest of Levi K. Fuller to the residents of the neighborhood has faded. A Google search for Fuller Park in Brattleboro turns up only a few scattered references; the other names have usurped its position in the modern landscape – the town itself (the official landholder) catalogs it as Esteyville Park. It’s still available for public use: the half-day fee is $30 or $100 depending on the entity seeking approval.
Historical photo of Estey Street looking southeast toward Maple and Canal Streets (park lot on right) from “Picturesque Brattleboro” 1894.
These residences and quiet streets are part of a large piece of land purchased by Jacob Estey in 1869, parts of the Dickinson and Rufus Clark farms; he subdivided and sold lots to his employees to build themselves homes and create a community adjacent to the organ factory, a short walk just east and downhill. Levi Knight Fuller was Estey’s son-in-law; he had entered his employ in 1860, at the age of 19 years, as a mechanical engineer and rapidly proved his worth, quickly becoming superintendent of manufacturing. He married the boss’s only daughter Abby Emily in 1865 and was made Vice-President of the firm in 1866, forming a family triumvirate with the elder Estey as President and his son, Julius J., who held the office of Treasurer. In June of 1886, Fuller, who was Lieutenant Governor of the State of Vermont by this time, in addition to his many other duties, made his gift to the people of Esteyville. According to Dennis Waring’s fascinating book ‘Manufacturing the Muse: Estey Organs and Consumer Culture in Victorian America’, “…Fuller presented the town with an attractively landscaped park in Esteyville, which included a bandstand for the newly-formed Esteyville Brass Band.”
Fuller Park on Google Maps Streetview for 115 Estey Street, Brattleboro, VT.
The bandstand is one of two in the town of Brattleboro and is still used occasionally for performances. It is hexagonal in shape, with a solid foundation built of rock-faced, or rusticated, concrete block about six feet high – there’s a locked steel door into the interior under the structure’s floor. Several sources make reference to the shelter’s base as housing a fire fighting cart for the safety of the neighborhood’s homes. The smallish door, along with the fact that rock-faced block were used primarily in the early part of the twentieth century, makes one think perhaps the foundation is not original. I have found another reference to the existence of a large cistern, again for fire fighting purposes (the park is uphill from the factory buildings on Birge Street) near or under the bandstand; the disposition of this reservoir has yet to be determined.
The bandstand, flagpole, and bench at Fuller Park in January, 2014.
Oddly enough, there are no stairs leading up to the bandstand’s floor and no breaks in the simple white railing which encloses the six sides, connecting columns which hold up a beaded wood ceiling and the slate and metal roof. A narrow band of dentil molding pairs with the simple Doric columns and a heavy cornice to effect a simple Greek Revival style; empty light bulb sockets punctuate the underside of the cornice – it must have been a cheery, bright sight when they were all lit for an evening concert. The construction is nearly identical to the one other such edifice in town, the Blanche Honegger Moyse Bandstand on the Town Common, just north of the downtown district; this begs the speculation that perhaps the Fuller Park bandstand was substantially rebuilt at the same time the other was erected. Any further information will be added here as it’s uncovered! And there will be more on Esteyville, I am sure, as well as many other interesting encounters in Brattleboro history and the life of Levi Knight Fuller.
Fuller Steam Division 