Dressedin a crisp blue tuxedo with gold trim, it was Edward Parenteau’s job to caterto the needs of the guests of the Newport House.

 “Ilooked like the Phillips Morris cigarette sales boy,” Parenteau laughed, notingthat the cigarette sales icon wore a similar outfit.

 TheDerby man began work at the hotel located on Main Street in Newport in the1930s when he was 12 or 13 years old. Although he was living in Montgomery, Vermont,located on the other side of the Jay Mountain range in Franklin County at the time, he had family livingin and around Newport,including a relative who worked at the Newport House. His uncle Harland Guyetteworked in the laundry room of the prestigious hotel.

 “Thehotel was a fancy place back then,” Parenteau said. “It was a busy, classyplace.”  During the two summers he workedat the hotel he said he answered to the owner of the hotel, Fred Hall.

 “OldMr. Hall was strict,” Parenteau said. “Every morning he’d check me out to seeif I was clean and my fingernails were clean. I started most mornings polishingthe brass in the hotel.”

 Anotherone of his duties was operating the hotel’s elevator for the guests. This wasin addition to catering to the needs of the guests, including carrying theirluggage when necessary. Sometimes that meant carrying it to and from therailroad station located a few yards down to the bottom of Main Street to a section of the downtowncommonly known until this day as “Railroad Square.”

 Thisis only a short portion of an article titled: “Memories of Being a Hotel BellHop in the 1930s. It is one of the several stories featured in the Decemberissue of VT’s Northland Journal.

 Amongthe other stories in this issue is one written by regular and talentedcontributor to the Journal, Barton native, Dan Taylor of St. Paul, Minnesota.His article, which is titled “Barton Academy and Graded School – A Village IconEnters Its Second Century”, tells the story of this history of the Bartoninstitution. The following is a portion of that article:

 “In 1906, Barton voters finallyaddressed years of overcrowding in the old school, by approving anappropriation of $42,000 to construct a new school.  The following February a building contractwas awarded to A. L. Bragg of St. Johnsbury. The Fuller and Warren Company of Troy, New York and Boston was alsobrought on board to install heating, ventilation and sanitation.  A local committee of tradesmen wasestablished led by G. A. Drew of Barton to install electric lights, windowtreatments, build a fire escape system, and construct the furniture for the newschool.  By spring, lumber was pouring onto the lot at the corner of Water and Church Streets in preparation for thebiggest building project that the town had ever seen.  Ground was broken on April 22, 1907 and $175was donated by local businesses to purchase a corner stone inscribed with thatyear.  A ceremony was held later thatspring to lay the granite stone.”