Page 2 - Taverns Stands in Woodstock - for Flipbook_Neat

By 1797, the General Assembly of the State of Vermont created “The Act Directing the Mode of Obtaining Li-
censes and regulating Inn and House of Public entertainment.” By 1798, the Legislature chartered the Windsor
and Woodstock Turnpike; and in 1800 the charter for the Royalton and Woodstock Turnpike was issued. By
the time the turnpikes were established, Woodstock would have several well-established taverns that catered to
the traveling public, having business at the County Court, or just passing through the area. An early sketch of
the Richardson’s Tavern illustrates what may be considered a typical two-story wood frame tavern facility of the
period—of simple colonial era architecture, very utilitarian, and completely unadorned with any exterior embel-
lishment. A single-story ell structure, probably housing a woodshed and a kitchen extended from the rear of the
building.

Tavern, inn and hotel were all used to describe a place of business where people gathered to drink alcoholic bev-
erages and be served food, and where travelers received lodging. Since the earliest days in New England, taverns
were licensed usually by both provincial and local officials. The holders of tavern licenses were mostly men well
respected within the community, and often prominently served in a leadership position within the local militia.
Much of what is now the Village of Woodstock was encompassed in a conveyance by Oliver Willard of 400 acres
to Major Joab Hoisington in 1772. Hoisington built a log cabin on his purchase on the site now occupied by
Peoples United Bank. The same year as his purchase of land, he also received a license as a tavern-keeper so that
he could take in the occasional traveler who passed through Woodstock. Joab Hoisington’s log cabin was Wood-
stock’s first tavern and he was a typical tavern license holder of the time. “In Vermont, as elsewhere, public
houses reflected the changing society and surroundings in which they existed. In the beginning, in the settle-
ment period, a tavern was generally no more than a log cabin home, made available to the traveling public by an
enterprising or accommodating family. Travel was on foot or by horseback, along narrow blazed trails, and few
people were on the road.”