Today we took a trip to St. Johnsbury, Vermont. It was a time warp. The entire town is pretty much frozen in the 19th century. There is Edwardian and Victorian architecture everywhere from commercial buildings, to churches to private homes.
Thadeus Fairbanks invented the platform scale, and those scales are still manufactured here. (Those scales at the exercise club or the old ones in the doctor's office are examples of platform scales.) His family made tons of $$$$ which they used to improve St. Johnsbury. His grandson, Erastus, expanded the company, and was also governor of Vermont during the Civil War. Erastus' son was an Edwardian collector - an amateur natural scientist. he built a museum, endowed it, and donated his collection to fill it. Today, it houses not only his collection, but also a weather forecasting center, a planetarium, a photographic art gallery for nature pictures, and a science center for kids. The pictures tell the story today:
https://picasaweb.google.com/jalyss1/2011VermontTour1StJohnsbury?authkey=Gv1sRgCJSI2fenpqCypQE#
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