Statehouse a busy tour destination at foliage time

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Foliage season is near peak and it’s a busy time at the Vermont Statehouse. Every day, visitors by the busload come to the capital building for a guided tour. Only a handful of those who take the tour are Vermonters. And to find out what we are missing, we decided to tag along with 81-year-old Jim Murray, a recent transplant to Vermont who loves the Statehouse, its history and his job as a volunteer guide.

Clarification; We have this clarification about a governor’s portrait that is featured in Jim Murray’s tour of the Statehouse. The governor is missing a hand in the portrait.

Guy Page of Cambridge, Vermont writes: “The painting to which he refers is of Gov. Urban Woodbury, elected in the 1890’s. Woodbury was the first Vermont casualty of the Civil War, losing an arm at the first Battle of Bull Run. His lieutenant governor running mate also was a war amputee, and their campaign slogan was something like “two good arms working for you.” He also served as mayor of Burlington. Woodbury and his wife raised a large, happy family in their Pearl Street home across from what is now the Degoesbriand unit of Fletcher Allen Hospital.”

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