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Winooski: Where It's Been And Where It's Headed

First-time visitors to Vermont could be excused for thinking Winooski was settled by natives of Poland. But the name comes from the Abenaki word "winoskitegw," meaning “land of the wild onion.”

Archeologists have found one of the largest Native American dwelling sites in Winooski. It was once home of Ira Allen. Woolen mills proved a steady source of employment in the city for over a century. And for a time, there was a fleeting possibility that the city would be domed.

About a decade ago, the city underwent another massive transformation to its downtown with a traffic circle being installed. It has since become a culinary destination, and home to internet companies and a campus of CCV. Young, hip Vermonters and New Americans have found it a welcoming place to reside.

But Winooski also faces the challenges of other cities in Vermont: poverty, drug use and growth.

Vermont Edition broadcast live from the Block Gallery and Coffeehouse and heard the voices of Winooski reflect on the history of the city, discuss the current conditions and chart out plans for its future.

History

The Abenaki, the earliest known settlers in Winooski, first settled along the Winooski River as early as 400 A.D. But when Europeans began moving into North America in the 1700s, bringing diseases such as smallpox, Native American populations started to decline in the Winooski River Valley. Soon after, wars between the French and the English spurred the Abenaki to retreat northward, leaving behind the land on which they had lived for so long.

Vince Feeney is a Vermont historian and the author of a book about Winooski’s past titled “The Great Falls on Onion River.” He described the moment Ira Allen, the “great developer of the Onion River Valley, ” first laid eyes on Winooski in the late 1700s. “Ira saw this land and said ‘this was the land my heart delighted in.’”  

What really sparked his interest were the "Great Falls" of Winooski, which in his eyes meant one thing: water power for sawmills and gristmills, sources of food and aids to housing construction.

Here, Allen was referring to the old, partially overgrown corn and squash fields left unattended by the Abenaki. But what really sparked his interest were the “Great Falls” of Winooski, which in his eyes meant one thing: water power for sawmills and gristmills, sources of food and aids to housing construction.

In the 1830s, a group of investors led by Timothy Follett built the Winooski Mills, a six-story brick building that housed the city’s leading textile manufacturing center.

The Winooski Mills became the city’s economic backbone “right down to their closing.” They were the biggest private employer in the area, at times employing upwards of 2,000 to 3,000 people. The mills especially flourished during war times when textile products were in higher demand. Occasionally during peacetime these mills would suffer a lack of demand, but during war, the mills in Winooski “just boomed,” Feeney said. “The football team at the high school in Winooski had to cut back their season because so many of the young boys, as soon as classes were over at three o’clock, went down to work at the mills.”

When the last mill closed in the mid-1950s, the effect was “disastrous,” he said.  “The whole area suffered. If one reads the newspapers in 1954-1955, what one saw was local businesses going out. You saw homes being sold for practically nothing, rents collapsing. It was not just a catastrophe for Winooski, it was a catastrophe for Burlington.”

“It was really the coming of IBM that revived the whole area,” Feeney noted.

"If one reads the newspapers in 1954-1955, what one saw was local businesses going out. You saw homes being sold for practically nothing, rents collapsing... It was not just a catastrophe for Winooski, it was a catastrophe for Burlington," explained author and historian Vince Feeney.

Today, the city is again a vibrant city, home to job creators like MyWebGrocer, with a growing population. Visitors can still visit the Heritage Mill Museum, which commemorates this textile mill era, according to the city website.

A Dome For Winooski?

One of the quirkiest ideas in Winooski’s history was floated in 1979: to build a dome over the city of Winooski. Dom Casavant,  the mayor of Winooski at that time, said that he “thought it would be a good idea... in terms of looking at the sociological, psychological, governmental, environmental problems that would be associated with such a dome.”

“Such domes of one square mile [are] not unfeasible,” Casavant said.

Although the dome was never built, the idea “generated a lot of interest in just what domes could be about,” Feeney said. It even inspired a song, “Dome Over Winooski”, by Al Boright.

“It was a very exciting time, and the dome was simply a part of that,” Feeney said.  

City Issues

In recent years, the city has undergone a renaissance, attracting new job creators like MyWebGrocer, a vibrant restaurant and bar scene, and new residents in recently renovated condominium complexes. Winooski is also home to a large immigrant and refugee population.

But Winooski is not without big issues to grapple with. Nearly a quarter of Winooski residents are below the poverty line, according to the 2013 U.S. Census. In the school district, more than 80 percent of the students are considered “low income” and qualify for free and reduced school lunch.

In those schools, more than 20 languages are spoken, which Mayor Michael O’Brien calls both a “challenge and a real positive. You can’t say enough about the Winooski schools. They get a bad rap, but [it is] a good school system.”

"I think this has always been kind of an underdog place, but, you know, underdogs can be very powerful," Winooski City Manager Kathy Decarreau said. "We're willing to take chances, 'cause when you're number two, you can."

Winooski City Manager Kathy “Deac” Decarreau said the city is “talking about developing our community services to group people who are not black or white or rich or poor, but gardeners, or cooks or book readers. We’re working hard at developing community. The relationships are what get you past all those other things, and if we get to know each other, it works.”

While writing the zoning code, Decarreau says the city takes into account the issue of affordability.

“We don’t want to lose our diverse populations; not just in color, race and ethnicity, but also in class,” she said.

Winooski used to be seen by people living outside of the city as a rough-and-tumble place—Burlington’s poorer neighbor. That is not the case today, Decarreau notes. “Every time I wrestle with a parking problem, I smile a little bit because I can guarantee you in the ‘70s that was not the issue we would have been dealing with.”

She attributes the city’s turnaround to investment and dreaming.

“A lot of folks dreamed up that Winooski could be unique,” she said. “I think this has always been kind of an underdog place, but, you know, underdogs can be very powerful. We’re willing to take chances, ‘cause when you’re number two, you can.”

Winooski’s livability has also improved over the past several years, and the city has seen a rise in new residents, says Mayor O’Brien.

“One of the things that we love about Winooski is it’s so convenient. I can walk to my office which is in Burlington in half an hour, forty minutes,” he said. “We call our neighbor ‘the neighborhood grocery store’ because when we need sugar or milk or something, we go over and borrow from our neighbor.”

The restaurant scene is also making a comeback in Winooski. “I remember in the ‘70s and ‘80s when the restaurant scene was a big thing, and it kind of dissipated. Now it’s back again.”

But one thing is still missing in Winooski: grocery stores. This is because grocery stores are built in the middle of a large, open area for greater accessibility, but such spaces are hard to come by in Winooski. However, as the city goes through a rewriting of the zoning code, it is looking into finding a location for one.

New Americans

The refugee and immigrant population in Vermont is growing. Winooski is significantly more ethnically diverse than the rest of the state, and many in Winooski say that adds to the city’s appeal. Harka Khadka, a Winooski resident originally from Bhutan, first came to Burlington as a refugee in 2008. After four years, he and his family decided to buy a house in Winooski.

“I had already developed relations when I was working for the refugee resettlement program as a case manager with Winooski city officials,” Khadka said.

The community in Winooski is “very diverse,” according to Khadka. “There are a lot of people who are great, very friendly, and good neighbors. We have a lot of amenities that are close to where we live—we have great restaurants here. We love going to them as a family for dinner and lunch.”

For many New Americans, “our favorite sport is soccer—we call it football,” Khadka said. But most of the time, he says it is hard to access soccer fields. “People would love to have that.”

One of the things he has seen the New American population take interest in is fishing in the summer. But even innocent activities like fishing can lead to misunderstanding, and pose a challenge to New Americans. “The posts on the areas that are prohibited for fishing are just in English, and sometimes people get in trouble [when] they go and fish there, and they are fined.”

Ric was a producer for Vermont Edition and host of the VPR Cafe.
Jane Lindholm is the host, executive producer and creator of But Why: A Podcast For Curious Kids. In addition to her work on our international kids show, she produces special projects for Vermont Public. Until March 2021, she was host and editor of the award-winning Vermont Public program Vermont Edition.
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