Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we had the opportunity to take visiting family members to Bridge Street in Waitsfield to visit Artisans’ Gallery as well as All Things Bright and Beautiful. While some of us were looking around, others were chatting with proprietors Bonnie and Gaelic McTigue about their business and the fact that their business had anchored Bridge Street since 1972.
As we left, we told our visitors that they’d moved to Vermont with their mother from Chicago in 1968. That prompted our visitors to ask what other businesses in The Valley had that kind of history and longevity.
We put on our thinking caps and came up with quite a list, with the help of Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce director Eric Friedman.
Here are a few businesses we came up with that have been under the same ownership structure for at least 40-years (including those that transitioned from one generation to the next and those that transitioned to ownership by employees).
Here is our short list: Waitsfield Telecom, Brothers Building, Hall and Holden, A.W. Clark and Son, NorthLand Construction, Mehuron’s, Dick King, attorney, The Valley Reporter, some property management businesses, and other professional services most likely.
Fast forward to last week when we got a foot or so of snow and my 20-year old snowshoes broke, leaving me no way to pack down the de rigueur path in the woods required to walk the dogs. Post-holing is no fun.
A trip to Clearwater Sports was in order. While there I asked owner Barry Bender how long he’d been in business and learned that it’s been 48 years! He started renting canoes in 1975 and never looked back (see story page 15).
This piqued our interest and The Valley Reporter decided to showcase these long-term businesses and the owners in a series of short features highlighting their history and evolution as The Valley changed over the decades.
We know our short list is incomplete. Help us out by sending suggestions to us at
