From Historical Rutland: an illustrated history of Rutland, Vermont, from the granting of the charter in 1761 to 1911 by Rev. F. E. Davison, Rutland, Vt.: P.H. Brehmer, 1911, page 18:
The Bardwell House was built by Otis Bardwell and E. Foster Cook and opened in 1852. John W. Cramton purchased it in 1864. For sixty years this hotel has been famous. Jay Gould made his home here when he obtained his first railroad holdings, and it was at this hotel he made the acquaintance of Jim Fish, with whom he was afterward to clinch in those struggles that made history. It is now conducted by Lalor Bros.
Besides these hostelries Rutland possesses several smaller but. well managed and homelike hotels, among which are the St. James and the Elmore Houses on West Street.
[19]
Of these old-time taverns it has been said: "The first and chief aim and purpose of the keepers of these houses was that they should be kept for the acccommodation of the traveling public, and that their main support should be derived from this source." No allurements were held out by them to entice the idle or the vicious of the neighhborhood or the surrounding country; cards and the dice were allmost universally tabooed; a billiiard table would have been deemed a disreputable acquisition and a bowling alley as an adjunct to a reputable old-time tavern was very rarely or never thought of. Singularly enough, however, all these taverns had each its ball room, while the occasion of a ball or dance in one of them was an occurence about as rare as the visitation of Encke's comet." * * * At the times referred to the use of spirituous liquors was, as may be said, universal, that while the innkeeper dispensed it from his bar, the merchant passed it over his counter, that it was always to be found on the side board, and in the cupboard of the rich and poor alike, and that it was not deemed immoral or derogatory to the character even of the parish clergyman to be seen, on occasions, sitting on the tavern porch or the store platform (perhaps watching a game of quoits or an interesting ball play) while sipping his glass of wine, or, perchance, a more potent beverage. In this state of society it is highly creditable to the keepers of the respectable public houses of the time that it can be said in truth that they gave no encouragement to excess in that direction."
The village of Rutland down to about the year 1846 was built almost entirely on Main and West Streets. With the exception of Green Street (now Killington Avenue) and Woodstock Avenue all the present streets have been opened since the year mentioned. Previous to that time there were only four houses–three Ruggles houses and Chipman Thrall's–from the summit of the hill on West Street to East Creek. The business of the place was all on Main Street. There were several brick buildings there, among which were James Porter's store, Robert Temple's house, Orel Cook's house, D. Butler's house, William Butman's house. J. C. Burdick's house, and the Eleazer Wheelock Hotel (now the Brock House) . There were three other hotels, the Grove House, which stood next north of Knowlton & Carver's store, the latter adjoining the old court house, the Franklin Hotel and the Reed Hotel; another public house kept by Abel Page was loocated on West Street.
In 1850, Melzar Edson and Marcus P. Norton purchased of William Hall the "lot adjoining the depot grounds on the east and fronting on the main road leading to the village from the west", on which it was intended to layout streets. They did this "in view of the prospective increase of business in our village consequent upon the completion of the Rutland and Burlington railroad", and the pheenomenal development of the village between 1850 [20] and the end of the war of the Rebellion abundantly justified their foresight. Real estate business enjoyed a boom. Lands were purchased on the neglected flats, in spite of the dire forebodings of the faithless, by far sighted men who readily saw that the influence of a railroad is invariably to draw business around their depots, and to make streets and commercial establishments necessary.
In 1851, the farm of one hundred and fifty acres, embracing a large portion of the flat included in the local designation "Nebraska", originally owned by Moses Strong, was sold to a syndicate of six men, called the "Rutland Land Company", who cut it up and sold it in lots to purchasers. To get a view of the remarkable extension of the village in the ten years between 1850 and 1860, it is only necessary to note the dates of street openings. These were as follows: Grove Street, laid out 1848; Cottage Street, opened in 1852 and extended in 1858; Madison Street, Pleasant Street and Prospect Street, opened in 1852; Evelyn Street, opened in 1853 and extended in 1866; Forest Street, opened in 1853; Wales Street. opened in 1853 and extended in 1862; Spring Street, opened in 1853 and extended in 1868; Meadow River. Franklin, Meechanic, South and School Streets, opened in 1854; Court and Center Streets, opened in 1856, and Nickwackett in 1860. Some opposition arose against the rapid progress of the village down the hillside and out upon the flats, particularly when [21] the post office was removed to the building on Center and Court Streets in the year 1854, but time and the logic of events have proven that the movement was inevitable.
Additional streets were opened after 1860 as follows: Strongs Avenue in 1861; South Street extension, Maple. Summer and Church Streets, in1864; Merchants Row extension, in 1866; Linncoln Avenue in 1867; East Street, Pearl, Baxter, Garden and North Streets in 1869; Temple Street in 1 870 and Washington Street extended the same year. State Street was opened in 1879.