If you were taking a country drive toward Vermont's Route 5, a highway that traces the path of the Connecticut River, you'd have to choose your direction. Would you go south toward Bellows Falls? Or drive north instead?
For years, Emmette Dunbar, board president of the Downtown Business Alliance, feared people would turn north if they were looking for lunch or a cute town to explore, dissuaded by the dilapidated, concrete building that marked the entrance to Bellows Falls. Known as The Garage, the building was one of the first poured concrete buildings in the country. But while it was interesting, it was also run down.
So when Windham & Windsor Housing Trust picked Bellows Falls as a priority community and tried to determine, with residents, what to do first, the NeighborWorks network organization heard from people across the county: Do something about that building.
The organization investigated refurbishing and preserving it, since it had some historical significance, says Elizabeth Bridgewater, executive director. But in the end, there were too many structural issues. So they started over. The result is a new-and-improved Bellows Falls Garage, which houses 27 apartment units, many of them affordable for low-income residents. But the views, which overlook the river, Fall Mountain and the Bellows Falls canal, are "million-dollar views," Bridgewater says. And the building, which includes nods to historic architecture, changes the whole gateway of the town.
"That building is the gateway," Dunbar said at the Bellows Falls Garage Redevelopment Ceremony. "This building is the piece that was needed."
Windham & Windsor's philosophy, in working with the village, is known in affordable housing and community development industry as "comprehensive community development," an approach that considers the whole community. NeighborWorks America has been a supporter of this approach, offering grants and technical assistance to 39 organizations over the last two fiscal years. Windham & Windsor was awarded a grant during fiscal year 2022.
"This is a huge piece of a broader vision," Bridgewater says of The Garage. "We dealt with one huge problem that had been plaguing this town for decades. We replaced a derelict building with something beautiful." 
While things have changed most obviously for the people living in the new apartments, the community as a whole is drawing more resources because of them. The village is one of four that the Vermont Agency on Commerce and Community Development visited in the fall. "There's a new narrative now, that this town is on the move," Bridgewater says. When they began working with the rural village, she says, they didn't know the whole of how it would unfold. But they'd done their preparation. And when there were opportunities, the organization took them.
A lasting story
While the history of The Garage dates back well over a hundred years, the stories of the land date back much farther. As Windham & Windsor looked at that history, Bridgewater says, they realized that they needed to connect with the Elnu Abenaki tribe, which included descendents who still populate the area. "We had been talking about the history of the town," Bridgewater says. "But the history goes back thousands of years."
"We knew that this area was important," adds Windham and Windsor's Marion Major. "The town was developed at a confluence of rivers with petroglyphs not far from where the village center is today. Although the land has been industrialized and redeveloped time and time again, erasing artifacts over the past centuries, this didn't diminish the fact that this land remains and this water remains and the Abenaki culture, too, remains."
They connected with Rich Holschuh, director of the Atowi Project, a nonprofit that provides cultural education to both mainstream and Native American communities. Holschuh is also chairman of the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs and a spokesperson for the Elnu Abenaki tribe.
The connection, he says, was made not just to better understand the history and relationship with the land but to look for ways to work together to elevate the present-day Elnu Abenaki in this time, in this newly redeveloped space.
"Most folks don't know what has been here for thousands of years – and what continues," says Holschuh. "It's not in the past. Our goal is to help people understand. It's all about our shared relationship with the land."
It's important for people – including people in community development – to think about the land and their relationship with it, he says. "You can't do it without the land. It's all about place. Everything happens somewhere."
The Garage sits on a significant place for the Abenaki. It overlooks the river, which the Abenaki call Kchi Pôntekw – "The Great Falls." "It was the most powerful falls on the upper river," Holschuh says. "Because of that power and energy, it was a significant place and it still is, even though it was modified by today's society. The Garage has a front-row seat."
As Windham & Windsor worked to incorporate the region's histories into The Garage, they consulted with Holschuh. He developed a land acknowledgment to be used at the groundbreaking, "so people can understand what history means in the deepest sense." In the front lobby, Windham & Windsor plans to install Indigenous-made art objects that will be available for residents to enjoy and will be visible from the street, through the front windows. Holschuh is helping the nonprofit figure out "who, where, when and what."
Their relationship led Holschuh consulting on another project in Windsor. "I'm helping them identify plants that belong here, in relationship with people, plants that are important to the Abenaki and not just a standard ornamental out of a nursery."
He speaks often of relationships. "It is the relationality that is important with the land and everyone here, whether plant, animal, human or more than human."
House by House
The Garage wasn't the only dilapidated housing in the community. Victorian homes, once classic and then serving as multifamily apartments, had also fallen into disrepair. And new housing hadn't been constructed in a long time.
Windham & Windsor worked to improve conditions there, too, with a rental rehab grant program. "Every improvement improves the entire village," Bridgewater says.
Rebecca Gagnon, who owns several homes that she rents in Bellows Falls, says electric and plumbing renovations cost more than she could have afforded without a grant. "The grant allowed me to do those renovations, open up those apartments, get the economy going here and support some of the local people that needed housing," she said in a video about the program.
The town's renewed energy is palpable, adds Bridgewater, and it's something that's felt both by entrepreneurs and residents. "I feel we are contributing to a broader conversation," she says.
Sarah Kackar, director of Rural Initiatives for NeighborWorks, says that in rural areas, neighbors may not be right next to each other, but that doesn't mean they don't know each other. They do. And they rely on each other. "They have a strong incentive to work together and solve problems in a way that benefits the whole community."
Adds Elizabeth Druback Celaya, director of Community Initiatives for NeighborWorks, "comprehensive community development happens when residents and those invested in their neighborhoods drive meaningful community change and help solve problems together.
"The story of Bellows Falls really speaks to the power of bringing diverse voices and interests together to solve a common challenge, and how communities become stronger, healthier and more vibrant in many ways as a result," she adds. "NeighborWorks America continues to lead the way in supporting place-based work in communities large and small across the country."
The work continues in Bellows Falls, too, of course, where the town has new T-shirts, sold by the Downtown Alliance. The T-shirts, purple, the team colors for the high school, say "Bellows Falls" on the front. The love for the community is an integral part of the design: The B in Bellows is shaped like a heart.
01/24/2024
