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- The Herald, Randolph, VT newspaper reports on fire training, March 14, 2024
https://www.ourherald.com/articles/historic-homes-demolition-helps-local-fire-depts/ Firefighters from Randolph Center, East Randolph, Randolph Village, and Brookfield train at a house on Ridge Road, which was scheduled for demolition and donated to the department for exercises by Dan and Sylvia Cooley. (Provided / Ruth Tucker)
- Front Porch Forum brings neighbors together
I got the idea to share this site on Front Porch Forum from my writers’ group with Sara Tucker. https://www.korongobooks.com/ Great idea! So far, I have heard from at least three neighbors, life-long residents of Ridge Road as well as newer folks, plus many more (maybe 100 visitors) have looked at this website because of that notice. Thank you for getting in touch. It makes me feel very welcomed. Thank you to Wayside Farm for reaching out. My husband remembers the Abbot farm well. We think this is a photo of Hartwell Abbot on one of his fields off Ridge Road. Followup- (Good questions in the comments below Sara. So, to answer those questions to the best of my ability, see below. I really should just be asking Chet Abbot from Wayside Farm but I like trying to solve mysteries the hard way.) Dan Cooley says: this is from a slide (most likely in an older family collection of slides). The color is real (a Kodachrome slide), not colorized. Dan thinks either his grandfather Harry or his father Charles Cooley took it. Dan did a bunch of scanning of old family slides and saved this along with the others. We have it in our digitized collection of photos. Kodachrome was invented in 1935 and used for slides starting in 1936 (used by many Americans after WWII around 1945). Maybe if I look for the original slide it has a date on it. Or maybe I can see which other slides were scanned around the same time and infer a date from that. When I research Hartwell Abbot there was a Hartwell Brown Abbot Sr., which made me wonder...is this Hartwell Abbot Sr. or Jr.? Dan says Hartwell's son was Brownie Abbot (so maybe Brownie was Hartwell Jr.? But Dan is sure this is not a photo of Brownie Abbot). Hartwell Abbot Sr. lived from 1912-1977. Most horse-drawn equipment was replaced by tractors in the 1940s. It could be a photo just before horses were replaced by tractors on their farm (except Hartwell looks older than his 30s in this photo). Or it could be a photo of someone who had access to tractors but was very versed in horse-drawn farm equipment. So it's a photo taken via a Kodachrome slide film sometime after the 1940s (and before 1977 when Hartwell passed away). It's a field of corn with a beautiful team of white horses, one who is listening to the team driver, and one who has one ear towards the photographer, one ear to the driver. I can't imagine the team driver would be just doing this as a photo op, so real work was being done. The fields are open with a border of trees along the edges. Almost looks like a huge Elm tree in the left background. Many Elms were wiped out by Dutch Elm disease by the 1950s but a few were resistant. https://vermonthistory.org/vermont-elm-trees-history Now I hope Chester Abbot can comment and confirm or correct.
- An Empty Building Comes to Life
I wrote this as an assignment from a prompt for a writers group run by Sara Tucker https://www.korongobooks.com/ An Empty Building Comes to Life February 25, 2024, 462 Ridge Road, Randolph Center, Vermont Smoke was oozing out of cracks in the house. I wasn’t surprised. I knew the firefighters would have started training first thing in the morning and it was already 10 a.m. when I pulled into the driveway of the Ridge Road house. Poof, a giant cloud of smoke obscured the front of the house and traveled across the road towards the farm fields below. Soon, very orange flames were flowing out of downstairs windows (but flowing out and upward, defying gravity). Orange flames started emerging from a gap where the two houses are joined together on the south side. I don’t think I have ever seen anything that orange. More orange than a pumpkin. More orange than the most orange fall leaves. Oh! I know! It was as orange as those close-up pictures I’ve seen of the sun spewing up solar flares. I hadn’t expected this much fire until about noon. But I’ve never been to a controlled burn of a house before, so how would I really know what to expect?! Suddenly there was an eerie sounding alarm…almost like a fog horn at an ocean lighthouse. I somehow knew this meant “everybody out!” As I passed Chief Williams, he said, “the fire got away from us a little faster than we’d hoped.” But it’s a house with wood over 200 years old. Dry, thin, friable, lighting up like dry twigs in a campfire. They would have liked to have conducted even more inside training (they’d already done 3 hours), but safety is their top priority. Everybody out. You might expect all of the pumper trucks with hoses on all sides of the house would spring to life, shooting out gallons of water at the house in giant arcs. Many firefighters were surrounding the house. Helmets on, labels on the back of khaki coats RCFD (Randolph Center) or BROOKFIELD, or black coats with ERFD (East Randolph), or finally, some red/some black coats reading RVFD (Randolph Village). But no, this was not a firefighting situation. This was just a let-it-burn-but keep-the-fire-under-control situation. In fact, the chief wanted it to burn hot, the hotter the fire, the less smoke is produced. And it was hot. The February day was 19 degrees with snow on the ground but you could feel the heat all the way across Ridge Road almost 100’ away. There were some streams of water, firefighters aiming hoses up at trees near the house, helping the old Maples make it through this. We’ll know if they leaf out in the spring. As I watched and took photos, I could start to see the insides of rooms I had gotten to know so well in the months before the event. It was surreal to see these intense orange flames now filling the house and shooting out of windows. Rooms where I could imagine the contents, the sunshine coming through windows while standing inside, looking out at the view. It was especially weird to shoot videos and zoom in on the house…almost like traveling into the fire and into the rooms with flames. You could start to see the structure of beams and supporting rafters. The main house was now all lit up, the roof a general mass of orange flames, with the upstairs windows seeming to direct flames out of the openings. The 2nd house, the saltbox house with the fireplace room and its two upstairs bedrooms, caught last but when it did, it became an even bigger conflagration than the main house. I could see right through the main house to the other side- from south bedrooms to north bedrooms which were once separated by cozy walls. From time to time a section of the house would collapse with a beam left over, tilting at a strange angle. Like snapping photos at a basketball game I’d “awwww” when my bad timing missed catching an especially dramatic event. It didn’t take long, after being there a little more than a couple hours, only the barest of frames of the bottom floor was standing, charred gray and black corners posts that had been huge beams back in 1790. Most of the leftover fire was in the cellar hole. The excavator driver started working on pushing everything into the hole. Firefighters helped him by dousing his shovel with water to protect the electrical connections. Was I sad? Yes, a little. But this didn’t seem real, despite all the planning and reading and imagining. It was like watching a movie; yes, it was really hot, but you wouldn’t get hurt. One firefighter smiled at me as I took his photo so he could send it to his mom. People were casually standing around, starting to eat burgers that one of the younger volunteers was cooking on a gas grill. And when I think of the house, it is still there.
- It's a Wonderful Life
I am lucky to be a Cooley. When I got married to Daniel R. Cooley back in 1974 I was (already) a feminist but I also thought it would be fun to change my name. You don’t get to do that every day. So to honor my father who had four girls I kept his name as my middle name and dutifully sign everything Sylvia Shepard Cooley. I have known the Cooleys for 52 years and the Tuckers (Idora Cooley married Ransom Tucker) for 58 years. My son is Alex, Alexander Shepard Cooley and he has another Charlie Cooley in the next generation (aka Charlotte). Here are four generations of the Cooleys, from left to right: Daniel (2nd gen.), Charles (1st gen.), Charlotte (4th gen.) and Alex (3rd gen.): If something happens to me tomorrow, I want to go on the record as having had the most wonderful life with the Cooleys. Harry H. Cooley at his book signing in 1978 with his grandson Daniel R. Cooley (my husband) and his son Charles H. Cooley (my father-in-law). We believe the woman talking with them is Margaret Hodgson (wife of Bill Hodgson who taught horticulture at the Aggie school). Harry and his son Charles as a baby away from the farm in Randolph Center and visiting the in-laws (Smalls) in Claremont, N.H. 1927 Charles H. Cooley as a young man. Charles visiting at our place in Western Mass working on the tractor (it was his and he gave it to us...a treasure). Harry Cooley was just so nice to me, as was Charles. I was truly welcomed into the family and treated with a lot of respect. Getting to know them was wonderful. Both such intelligent, interesting people. Their Bios could fill a book, but suffice it to say: farmers, Vermonters, educated, well-read, life-long learners, politically active Democrats, Secretary of State in Vermont (Harry), High School and then college math teacher (Charles), military member (Charles, Navy and Army), fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, long-lived (Harry a couple weeks shy of 93, Charles 91), lovely men. Hard to describe time with them but it gives me a warm, comfortable feeling...they were engaging but were also interested in what you had to say. Thank you for this house at Ridge Road. <3
- Who are the best builders?
Tim Cooley, a cousin, made a good case for using a builder (vs. a prefabricated house, even if it is a high-quality prefabrication company). For ex., I can easily add in the original home's doors with odd sizes, whereas with a pre-fab house I might be limited. I can also have a closer match to the original house's size (most of the pre-fab plans I was looking at are bit smaller footprint). I want a simple home but not too squeezed in. With a prefabricated Huntington Home I have heard you might be able to get "more house for the money." And one big benefit (at least this is how they promote it) is you can get more of a set price, without increases as the build goes on. Peace of mind. The seemingly more 'instant house' of a prefab is not something I need. We have time. We have a house here in western Mass that we love and enjoy and since Danny is retiring in September of this year, I want to give him time to enjoy this min-farm. You can never plan enough, think things through enough, and you can add to your design as you give yourself time. So I am starting that design process. Taking input! You may have seen my earlier posts where I describe what I'd like to do- keep as close to the original house design as possible. Especially from the front, I want it to look like that same white Cape section of house with balanced windows on each side of a stately front door. I love the unique upside down V dormer upstair on the front with its two windows. So all of that I am sure of. I also want the flow of the house to be the same. If you are a guest, you can enter where the dining room area is (with the kitchen visible just beyond that) and the living room towards the front of the house. If you live there, you can enter from the back, straight into the kitchen. There will be one bedroom downstairs on the front/NW side. And of course a bathroom. There will be two bedrooms upstairs on each side with a bathroom in between. So that is all the same. Changes: Biggest change- no saltbox house that had the fireplace living room and garage. I wish I could keep it, strictly from an aesthetic point of view from the outside of the house; to keep it with that same '2-house look,' along with the nostalgia of those rooms. But we can't afford and don't need two houses. So the house will just be the front Cape house. We most likely (but maybe not right away) add a garage but push it way towards the north (on the east side), rather than have it on the south/east side like it is now. The south is too important to have a garage steal sunlight, etc. Move the kitchen back into that shed area just to use the space (the room that could only be entered from outside the house and was wasted space before). Have the downstairs as open as possible...we'll see what suits it and what works engineering-wise. I was thinking to have the stairwell and the front entrance more open to the living room could be nice. It's a big wide hallway there now (oh gosh, I just realized I am still picturing the house as being there). Why not have it be part of the living room, see the stairway and see that beautiful front door and allow the light to enter the living room. The wood stove will not be in the way of the cellar door & bathroom door like it was in the kitchen, instead most likely in the living room or dining room. I am also reusing some of the old wavy glass from original windows. I have pictured two transom windows for some reason (long, narrow, horizontal with about 10 panes each). They don't open, they just in light and keep the view through the wavy glass. They would need to be framed by a new wooden window frame with the wooden grid separating each pane. I am trying to decide where to put those. Definitely not in the front (I don't want to change that view of the house from the road). Though I could potentially use them for each side of the front door, the so-called sidelites that the original door had (and I definitely want to maintain). That could be a very appropriate spot for them. I could also use them on the north to let in more light without letting in more heat from the sun. Sara has connected me with the artist Phil Godenschwager from Randolph. I will get his advice on these windows. http://www.philgodenschwager.com/home-1.html After looking at his website, I was inspired to imagine these two transom windows, one set above the other with a narrow black etched line running through them from left to right to represent the shape of the ridge line of the hills out in front, and, since he does amazing stained glass, I thought maybe a hint of sunset color along the top middle of the mountain line. But Danny vetoed that saying, "I like simple." So still taking input on reusing the wavy glass. Any input or advice on contractors or design is welcome! So far I have written to two recommended contractors: AJ Hoyt from Chelsea and David Aldrighetti from Bethel. Anyone else you'd recommend? The nice part is, I don't have to rush and I don't have to have someone who is free immediately. Just someone reliable, good at what they do, and nice to work with.
- Ridge Road House maps
So if you come up from the village of Randolph, driving up the hill on Rt 66 until you get to Randolph Center, take a left at the main intersection at the top of hill, going north. Go past Floyd's Store, go past the entrance to Lake Champagne. When you reach the point where Rt 66 takes a sharp right up the hill, go straight instead, on Ridge Road. It's about 1/2 mile down the road from there. Here is an overall view of the area: The house site is about a 1/2 mile straight north on Ridge Road (after the Rt 66 turn that goes up the hill to East Randolph). You'll see the barn on the property. The next house north is an A-Frame house.
- Final clean up
A small business in Vermont: Henderson Excavation & Engineering P.O. Box 695 Williamstown, VT 05679 Eric and his father Lev make a great team. Amazing work on cleaning up after the controlled burn. He has removed all metal & ash, filled in the entire saltbox "2nd house" foundation. He will put up a safety fence on Friday. Thank you for the photos Eric.
- Fire training photos February 25, 2024
Note: I updated these photos today (2/28/24) to include six of Peter Cooley's photos. He captured the north side and the back side. Thank you Peter! Photo below, photo credit Peter Cooley Photo below, photo credit Peter Cooley Photo below, photo credit Peter Cooley Photo below, photo credit Peter Cooley Photo below, photo credit Peter Cooley Photo below, photo credit Peter Cooley Note...just a dummy used in training, not a real person in this suit
- Fire Training videos
Fire training, fire starts to flare up Firefighters training, view across the road. Siren sounds Full on fire This was so surreal, it almost didn't seem real, more like in a movie...flames pouring out windows and doors. Firefighters helping to control fire with hoses, wetting down trees The garage was not used for training (too much of an unstable structure) so it is catching on later than main house More hoses, more involvement The house is fully engulfed in orange flames How the pumper trucks work This is hot work You can see right through the upstairs in the main house now Top floors gone Just the big beams standing These corner posts were huge Popcorn? It's done... firefighters seen through waves of heat Packing up, day is done Thank you firefighters
- Fire day
This biggest impression I was left with from this day is how a small community can come together. Fifty firefighters were willing to give up their free time on a Sunday. These are volunteers, some make a very minimal stipend for hours put in, barely past minimum wage, maybe it covers their gas. They don’t do it for the money. The scene- a house over 200 years old had to come down, was going to be demolished anyway. It provided experience in a real house with a real fire but with the added insurance that it was planned, staged, with many helpers there to make sure no one got into trouble. As I got out of my car upon arrival, I walked by a couple of firefighters in full gear who had just come out, red-faced, sweaty on a 19-degree day. They had just been inside, in the dark (windows had been covered to simulate nighttime), in a smoky house with a goal of finding their way to a certain room for a rescue. For some of these firefighting trainees it was their first time in this kind of situation. This is hard to simulate. But here was a real house with stairs, and hallways and doors. This day took months to plan for Fire Chief Dana Williams, Retired Fire Chief Tim Angell, and Joe Angell- in charge of fire training. Many others from the Randolph Center Fire Department along with neighboring departments put in time on previous days setting up the house, arranging some rooms with beds and other furniture, boarding up windows, making stairwells safe, blocking off unsafe structures in sections of the house. I put in time on paperwork for the state and sending out certified notices to 56 neighbors (within a half mile) to inform them of the burn. Eric and Lev from Henderson Excavation were there to help manage the fire using their excavator and to push debris into the cellar hole. Another impression from the day was calm, knowledgeable firefighters keeping a fire contained. No chaos. But there in the background was a blaze so hot you could feel it from 100’ away. Firefighters managed hoses from pumper trucks being filled by what looked like a swimming pool sitting at the base of the driveway. Ultimately the house came down very quickly once it caught. Maybe 2-3 hours and it was gone. Though I am glad to have a safer situation now (instead of a house whose floors could collapse if someone ventured inside without permission), having it gone makes me want to rebuild sooner rather than later. I want that white house back on the hill.
- Randolph Center Fire Department
I have been fortunate to work with the Randolph Center, Vermont firefighters. They have been appreciative of the (rare they say) opportunity to have a house donated for fire training. Being volunteers and busy people in their regular lives, I have appreciated their willingness to work with me. I should go back and count the number of emails we have exchanged when the process started back at the beginning of October 2023. I started by approaching the town of Randolph Fire Department, just because I had seen the fire station in Randolph and assumed that was the one fire department in town. I went to their door and knocked, then sat in their parking lot and called, leaving a message. I have learned a lot since then. Randolph Center’s fire station is on Furnace Road in Randolph Center, so even though they are set back from the main road, just beyond Floyd’s Store, they are very much a fully-functioning fire department. Read this interesting article from the Randolph Herald newspaper to see how the road got the name Furnace Road: https://www.ourherald.com/articles/ye-olde-langevin-house/ I have worked with Tim Angell, now retired Chief (I’m hoping I wasn’t a contributing factor) and his son Joe Angell who is in charge of fire training, and current chief Dana Williams. All wonderful, smart, polite, hard-working fire fighters, as their sign above the station says- “We bust ours to save yours.” They invited me up to one of their Monday night regular meetings at the station. Entering the door at the front, you pass by resting large engines, lockers with firefighter gear, all of the usual stuff I had seen at my son’s station in Greenfield, MA where he is a Captain. It’s still impressive to those of us in the general public. It is still awe-inspiring that there are those who will risk their lives with fire to help others. As a little kid, my son looked up to firefighters, now his daughter does the same. But then again, this is her Daddy. He’d be a hero no matter what. I received a friendly welcome at that meeting in Randolph. We exchanged introductions. Some of the firefighters brought their kids along. This is real life. We sat around a big table and had a chance to ask any questions we might have. How many firefighters will be involved? Fifty! There are trainees from (the former) VTC, including women. Randolph Center, East Randolph, Town of Randolph, and Brookfield will be involved. I provided them with the required paperwork I had filled out for the state agencies thus far, and a floor plan of the house. I forgot to snap a photo, so I barged back in for that. They were nice enough to accommodate me, even though I’m sure it isn’t ‘their thing.’ I headed back down the road towards Massachusetts as they continued on with their general business. In February on a Sunday, I met with a smaller group of the same firefighters to tour the house. I pointed out where the two houses are separating and they agreed that the hidden passageway between the two houses would be off limits. In fact, after discovering a broken beam in the basement under the fireplace room and a floor that can make you seasick, they will make that entire “2nd House” off limits. As they said, “we don’t want anyone getting hurt.” Whereas I was planning on emptying the house completely, they find it more useful for training if there can be some furniture, so the couch along with some beds and other wooden furniture can stay. I have been traveling up to the house about once a week all winter and now I have the very last items out of the house to be saved. I have mostly traveled alone. My husband, the real Cooley, has been busy being a full time professor and Assistant Department Head at UMass, Amherst. Two hours up/two hours back. Stop in Ascutney for decadent treats. I am so excited about these doors having the very same doorknobs on them that many relatives have touched over the years. They will go in the new house. I am looking for someone who knows how to make windows from scratch. I want to create a long narrow eyebrow window with the old wavy glass from these windows for a view to the sunset on the west side of the new house. We'll be looking through the same glass that others in the family looked through. Now, tomorrow is the big day. I am excited as one would be when you have put in a lot of effort and planning, but also dreading it. I don’t want the house to be gone. I don’t want an empty spot there on that sweet little rise in the yard. I'm sorry.
- February 20, 2023 the roof is coming off
Henderson Excavation & Hauling is taking the metal roof off. Before: During: Done with the back side: I am fascinated with the work that an excavator is able to do...it is weirdly fine-motor type of work and yet powerful in its reach and the weight it can handle.
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