DANVILLE VT

DANVILLE VT

Danville Village Green

Built - 1965

Danville is located in the north central part of the beautiful state of Vermont just west of the city of St. Johnsbury and is nestled in an area of farmland dotted with streams and rivers with many covered bridges which the state is famous for. Danville is very proud of their own Green Bank Hollow covered bridge built in 1886.

The town's name was suggested by a friend of Ethan Allen's, Michel Guillaume St. Jean de Crovecouer, to honor another Frenchman, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville who had been France's royal mapmaker for more than 60 years, and is considered to have done more to change his trade than any man who ever lived. Under the pseudonym J. Hector St. John, de Crovecouer himself was a well-known writer who wrote one of the best known books in the 1780s called "Letters from an American Farmer." It is for de Crovecouer that St. Johnsbury, Vermont was named.

Danville's bandstand is the second one the town has had with little information available on the first one. This second structure was built in the late 1960s with the wooden base replaced with bricks in the early 70s evidently since the wood had rotted out and the base was deemed unsafe. Originally, before the floor was cemented, there used to be fringed doors whereby handles were pulled up and the doors were placed on legs creating a shelf all around the bandstand and used by vendors.

At Christmas time there is a tree with lights adorning the center of the bandstand with wreaths hung on each post creating a very cheery look during those cold and wintry nights. On the 4th of July, Memorial and Labor Days, the bandstand is adorned with flags.

The St. Johnsbury Band, Danville High School Band and other bands play on Sunday nights during the summer months and the structure is the central point for the Danville Fair Day. The bandstand is thus the focal point of the town being located on the Danville Village Green which is in the center of the town.

INFORMATION PROVIDED BY:
Ann Cochran, Asst Town Clerk