According to Dennis Waring’s fascinating book ‘Manufacturing the Muse: Estey Organs and Consumer Culture in Victorian America’, “…Fuller presented the town with an attractively landscaped park in Esteyville, which included a bandstand for the newly-formed Esteyville Brass Band.”įuller Park on Google Maps Streetview for 115 Estey Street, Brattleboro, VT. In June of 1886, Fuller, who was Lieutenant Governor of the State of Vermont by this time, in addition to his many other duties, made his gift to the people of Esteyville.
He married the boss’s only daughter Abby Emily in 1865 and was made Vice-President of the firm in 1866, forming a family triumvirate with the elder Estey as President and his son, Julius J., who held the office of Treasurer. Levi Knight Fuller was Estey’s son-in-law he had entered his employ in 1860, at the age of 19 years, as a mechanical engineer and rapidly proved his worth, quickly becoming superintendent of manufacturing.
These residences and quiet streets are part of a large piece of land purchased by Jacob Estey in 1869, parts of the Dickinson and Rufus Clark farms he subdivided and sold lots to his employees to build themselves homes and create a community adjacent to the organ factory, a short walk just east and downhill. Historical photo of Estey Street looking southeast toward Maple and Canal Streets (park lot on right) from “Picturesque Brattleboro” 1894. It’s still available for public use: the half-day fee is $30 or $100 depending on the entity seeking approval. A Google search for Fuller Park in Brattleboro turns up only a few scattered references the other names have usurped its position in the modern landscape – the town itself (the official landholder) catalogs it as Esteyville Park. Fuller to the residents of the neighborhood has faded. The Town of Brattleboro’s facilities map shows the Esteyville properties west of Canal Street.Īlso known as the Esteyville Park or Esteyville Common, its heritage as the bequest of Levi K. 19 acres and the official address is 115 Estey Street it’s right across the road from the diminutive Esteyville Schoolhouse, another municipal property from another time, but still in use. Situated on a triangular lot at the intersection of Estey, Pleasant, and Chestnut Streets, Fuller Park holds a worn bandstand, an empty flagpole, a tired bench, and a half-dozen shade trees. Toward the southwest corner of Brattleboro, in the center of what was and is known as Esteyville, is a small and somewhat forgotten park. The silent bandstand at Fuller Park on a late January afternoon.
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