The Town Hall (Intersection of Rt. 7 and Seminary Street)

This classic Greek Revival structure was under construction in 1861 when the war broke out, and Brandon’s soldiers received their equipment and weapons here as they marched off to war.

When Brandon men returned from Gettysburg in July 1863, there was a reception for them here, as well as in the fall of 1864, when many men from the First Vermont Brigade came home. Veterans’ events were held here for decades after the war.

The Leary Building (Center St., now shops next to the Town Office)

The Brandon post of the Civil War veterans’ organization, the Grand Army of the Republic, met upstairs in this building for many decades – at least until the 1920s.

The Civil War Monument (Intersection of Park Street and Rt. 7)

When it was erected in 1886 this fine Vermont granite monument cost more than the town’s annual budget. Listed on it are the names of the fifty-four Brandon dead, categorized by date and means of death. Every Memorial Day since 1902, our first-grade girls perform a touching ceremony where they slowly process around the monument, casting flowers at its base.

 The Brandon Inn (on the town green, just across from the monument)

On this site in 1860, at an earlier version of the inn, the town welcomed native son Stephen A. Douglas and his wife when he returned home during his campaign for president. But with its strong abolitionist views, the town then went on to vote for Lincoln by a ratio of four to one.

 Pine Hill Cemetery (one mile north of town on the east side of Rt. 7)

Many Civil War veterans are buried here (look for flags and G.A.R. markers). There are also monuments to three brothers from Brandon killed in the war, and, just to the left of the entrance, a local man who died in Andersonville prison.