Thomas Waterman Wood’s 1875 cityscape, “View of Main Street, Montpelier” presents a view of of the city that looks familiar even today, more than a century after it was painted. It’s a summer view, possibly around the Fourth of July -- the stars and stripes is stretched (forever) across Main Street, billowing in the summer wind.
     Several downtown church steeples are recognizable in Wood’s painting, and many of the buildings that line the streets are easy to identify. In fact, there are only two significant differences that jump to the viewer’s eye: the primary entryway to the city in 1875 was a hulking covered bridge, which Wood painted in detail. (There’s no supermarket to the left of that bridge, of course. Chain supermarkets, such as the one just west of today’s concrete arch bridge are creatures of the 20th Century, not the 19th.) And the hills that surround the city in the painting are universally bare, a reminder that the Vermont of 1875 was more than three-fourths deforested. Today those hills are covered with trees.
     There are other subtler differences that an alert viewer can pick out. Grain elevators and stone sheds that no longer exist rise unconcerned about their future in this detailed view. And the railroad station just east of the big covered bridge in 1875 was still a functioning depot, complete, in the painting, with a huffing black steam engine. The depot building remains today, but it houses a bank, shops and offices, and no trains unload there.
     This painting and several others Wood made in the last quarter of the 19th century epitomize one of the key functions of the gallery he bequeathed to Montpelier: it preserves the visual memory of our town.
     The Wood performs many community services. It has a special educational role, providing gallery space to shows by schools and developing artists and hosting a summer art camp for up to 80 youngsters. It loans its historic paintings to the Vermont State House. The gallery also provides an entertainment venue for local performing groups, and special community functions from the central Vermont area. It regularly presents special shows by important contemporary Vermont artists such as the Azarian family and Sabra Field. And it serves as a meeting place for those interested or active in the arts.
     But valuable as those services are, the Wood’s most profound and long-lasting community service is expressed in the more than 800 works in its permanent collections. They are one of little Montpelier’s strongest ties to a vital aspect of its history, its visual past.
     Not only does the gallery have the visual record of 19th century Vermont that T.W. Wood’s paintings provide, its permanent collections also contain works by local artists deemed important over the past century: paintings by Ray Brown, Ronald Slayton, Phil Osgatharp, John Lillie, Luigi Lucioni, Claire Van Vleit and others constitute an informal artistic history of our town and region. They are an important part of Vermont’s visual iconography.
     The Wood is a repository for art produced in the 1930s under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Gallery officials plan to dedicate one of the Wood’s side rooms as a permanent gallery for the WPA art. It is a fitting testament to this invaluable collection.
     There are also intangible benefits that the community of Central Vermont receives from the Wood Art Gallery. Director Joyce Mandeville touched on one of those in a recent conversation: the quiet oasis the Wood provides, apart from the bustle of everyday life.
     “A gallery is a sort of sanctuary,” Mandeville said. “It’s a really peaceful place where you can simply sit and look at things. It’s nice to have a place where you can be slow…where it’s meant to be quiet and slow.”

Thomas K. Slayton is an author and editor emeritus of Vermont Life magazine and was its editor-in-chief for 21 years. Prior to his association with Vermont Life, he was a reporter and editor for Vermont newspapers for 20 years. Some of his books are: Searching for Thoreau: On the Trails and Shores of Wild New England, 2007; Sabra Field, the Art of Place, 2002; and The Beauty of Vermont, 1998. Slayton is a regular commentator for Vermont Public Radio. He has been awarded honorary doctorates of letters by the University of Vermont, Sterling College, and Southern Vermont College, and is a recipient of the Franklin Fairbanks Award, given annually to a Vermonter who contributes in a significant way to the cultural life of the state. He lives in Montpelier with his wife, Elizabeth.