About

The Danville His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety is a non-prof­it edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion whose mis­sion is to pro­mote an under­stand­ing of the his­to­ry of Danville, VT, by col­lect­ing, pre­serv­ing, exhibit­ing and inter­pret­ing that his­to­ry and its rela­tion­ship to the region and nation beyond to audi­ences of all ages and interests.

It’s All About Community

Danville has always been a strong and indus­tri­ous com­mu­ni­ty. In 1796 it was the coun­ty seat of Cale­do­nia Coun­ty and host­ed the 1805 Ver­mont leg­isla­tive ses­sion. It had its own week­ly news­pa­per, the North Star and is the birth­place of one of our country’s most not­ed statesman—Thaddeus Stevens. One Ver­mont gov­er­nor came from Danville.

But the real heroes of Danville are its cit­i­zens, liv­ing day in and day out, work­ing the land, build­ing its farms, hous­es, busi­ness­es, church­es, library and schools. Work­ing and liv­ing togeth­er, the peo­ple have woven a cul­ture that is thought­ful and car­ing. It is this cul­ture that the Danville His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety strives to sus­tain. We do this by seek­ing and col­lect­ing arti­facts and records of events as well as the sto­ries of men and women in our past. By doing this, we hon­or the work and lives of those who have gone before us. In hon­or­ing the past, we so hon­or the present, and hope­ful­ly this will help car­ry the cul­ture forward.

In 1961, a group of like-mind­ed peo­ple got togeth­er to form the Danville His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety. The legal orga­ni­za­tion was nec­es­sary to con­serve the Old North Church in North Danville. No longer used by the church that owned it, the beau­ti­ful old meet­ing-house had begun to dete­ri­o­rate. Thus, the Danville His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety was offi­cial­ly formed and the build­ing trans­ferred into hands that would keep its integri­ty intact. The soci­ety then began in earnest to gath­er and keep detailed records of the town’s his­to­ry. Until recent­ly, these records and arti­facts had no home and were stored wher­ev­er space was avail­able and grant­ed. In 2007, a gen­er­ous bene­fac­tor came for­ward to give a per­ma­nent home, which now serves as our cen­ter of activ­i­ty. The Choate-Sias House offi­cial­ly opened for busi­ness in 2009.