Honestly, I did not plan to go to Brattleboro, VA when I was staying in the area — I only wanted to stop by at one of the used book shops. But what I saw was a delight: a quaint, creative, openly liberal downtown with 3 used bookstores, restaurants, maker spaces, galleries, and shops.
A restored advertising mural from 1935Brattleboro Books has occupied the same spot on Elliot Street since 1988 and offers some 25,000 books on every subjectMY BOOK FINDS: Specimens by Stevens-Nelson Paper Corporation, 1953 ($50), and Japanese Food by Kaneko Tezuka, 1936 ($25)One of many bulletin boards in townWVEW 107.7 FM station runs entirely on volunteers — more than 50 local DJs a week — spinning an eclectic mix: indie pop, folk, alt-country, experimental sounds, and local Vermont music.Vermont’s largest photography nonprofit VCP offers a darkroom, digital lab, lighting studio, photography library, bookshop, and a used equipment thrift store.First Proof Press is a community printmaking studio offering intaglio, screen printing, relief printing, letterpress, photopolymer, and monotypes
Lost Time Books offers a curated selection of used and rare books with a focus on art books.MY BOOK FINDS: Jacques Henri Lartigue: A Sporting Life, 2013 ($35), and The Romance of Park Avenue, 1930 ($20)The Latchis Hotel and Theatre, built in 1938, is one of only two Art Deco buildings left standing in Vermont. Today the building houses a 750-seat theater showing both Hollywood and independent films, a hotel, and a pub — all under one roof, all still open.Twice Upon a Time, a local antique shop featuring close to 100 dealers on 3 floors.Turn It Up! opened in 2003 and features an extensive collection of CDs and LPs as well as movies on DVD an Blu-RayMY RECORD FINDS: I Loves You Porgy by Nina Simone, 1977 ($20), Whitney by Whitney Houston, 1987 ($9), Tracy Chapman Crossroads, 1989 ($28), Quiet Fire by Roberta Flack, 1971 ($15), Control by Janet Jackson, 1986 ($9)
