This article is the third in a 30-part series on the historic quilt sewed by the Congregational Women’s Association in 1978. Each article will cover one of the 30 squares, the woman who sewed it, and how each square fits into Brandon’s history.

The quilt was recently hung in the Fellowship Hall of the Congregational Church by the church deacons and Reverend Sara Rossigg. The Hall is open every Sunday from 9-11 a.m. You can also call the church office at 802-247-6121 to arrange for someone to let you in.

Square Three

This week’s history is on square three, in the middle of the upper row of the quilt.

Debbie Kirby

The needle artist was Debbie Kirby who was 41 at the time.

Deborah Short was born in Springfield, Mass., in 1937 and moved to Leicester when she was 10. She lived on a dairy farm there and was active in 4-H, where she first learned to sew. In 1951, after she graduated from eighth grade, the family moved to a rented house at 20 Conant Square. Her mother, Marion, ran the “Little Folks Nursery School” out of their house for many years.

From 1951-1955, she attended Brandon High School (BHS) and walked to school each day, passing the majestic Town Hall as she turned up Seminary Hill.

Debbie was an active member of the Congregational Youth Group, participating in many events, including a radio play called “Let’s Talk About God” on WHWB when she was 16.

In June of 1955, Debbie graduated from BHS at 18 along with 47 other seniors.

That summer, Debbie worked at the Brandon Theater on Park Street, where she met 24-year-old newcomer and Korean War veteran Nelson Richard “Dick” Kirby, when she sold him some popcorn. She said “he had the bluest eyes she’d ever seen,” and they were married in September at the Congregational Parsonage.

They lived in Manchester, Vermont, for a while, then moved to Brandon where Dick built their house at 977 Forest Dale Road. There, they raised three daughters and a son. Both Debbie and Dick were very active in the Congregational Church, and Debbie was a mainstay with the Women’s Association.

By 1978, when the quilt project was proposed, Debbie was just completing a term as a town selectboard member. She chose not to run again when Dick was promoted at CVPS and the family moved to Manchester. But they soon returned to Forest Dale Road and, in 1988, she started rug hooking and raising angora goats.

She named her new business “Happy Hoofers” and was very successful in selling her mohair creations for many years.

The Kirbys joined the new Brandon Artists Guild (BAG) when it was formed in 1999. Dick was a master welder and made many lamps and weather vanes for sale at the BAG, which were real works of art. Debbie’s mohair creations and rugs also were very popular.

In 1999, Debbie teamed up with Warren Kimble to make a beautiful, handcrafted rug. Warren designed it, and Debbie hooked it using a mohair and wool blend. The rug was auctioned off to the highest bidder in the Brandon Library’s Holiday Auction.

That same year, Debbie wrote a walking tour of Brandon in pamphlet form for the Brandon Museum to use as a guide for residents and visitors. That pamphlet is still used today.

Today, Debbie Kirby is 89 and living in Rutland. Sadly, Dick recently passed away at age 94. As Ken McFarland wrote in The Neshobe Current, “On Feb. 8, 2026, our coffee group president-for-life, Dick Kirby, resigned his position.” Dick is sorely missed by his family, the coffee group, and everyone who was blessed to have known him.

Town Hall History

From 1761, when the town of Neshobe was incorporated (renamed Brandon in 1784), town meetings were held in the homes of prominent citizens, usually one of the selectmen. After the Congregational and Baptist Churches were built in 1832 and 1833, the meetings were held in one or the other.

In 1842, a committee appointed to investigate “building a town house” reported in favor of a new building “if this can be done for $600.” However, it was instead decided to use the lower floor of the Hill building used by the Episcopal Church on the west side of Center Street, just north of the Congregational Church.

The Episcopalians had just moved into the building’s second floor in 1841 after it was relocated from 42 Park Street, where it had served as the first Baptist Church meetinghouse.

For the next 19 years, the town held its meetings and functions there despite ongoing problems with inadequate space and disruptions to the Episcopal services upstairs. Neither the church nor the town was happy with the arrangement, and both continually looked for lots in the village center on which to build a permanent church and town hall.

Finally, in 1860, both found their lots, which were near each other — the church at the foot of Prospect Street and the Town Hall at the foot of Seminary Hill near the town offices.

Building the new Town Hall

On March 6, 1860, the town voted to build a new town hall and instructed the selectmen to secure a lot in the center of the village on the west side of the river, belonging to the estate of Doctor Isaac Merriam, at a price not to exceed $800. The Burlington paper said, “The people of Brandon are jubilant at the prospects of having a new building.”

That lot was purchased for $250, and on April 24, 1860, the town voted 171-83 to appropriate $7,500 to build the new hall. It also appointed a committee of three prominent men to carry out the construction: John A. Conant, Rodney V. Marsh and John Jackson, “all solid men of Brandon, who know what it is to build houses.”

By late June, the foundation was under way.

Despite the excavation, an unsuccessful attempt was made in July to change the location, but the committee prevailed and was thanked by the citizens:

Over the next six months, at least 101 local men worked on the construction of the new town hall, including 12 carpenters, 11 masons, 11 teamsters (wagon drivers), 10 painters, five stonecutters, 51 common laborers and one fresco painter. Only one man, 56-year-old Irish teamster Terence “Cherry” Cosgrove, died in a freak accident when a stone fell on the crowbar leaning against his stomach. The record shows he received $26.75 in pay and a free burial.

A detailed record of the materials and costs was kept. From it, we know that 256,031 bricks were used, costing $1,410.39, or about 5½ cents a brick. Even the majestic columns were made of brick, which were all made in Brandon at John A. Conant’s brickyard, located behind what is now 55 Carver Street.

By mid-October, the walls were almost complete, ready for the roof to go on:

By the end of November, 1860, the new hall was up, almost ready for occupancy.

At the town meeting on March 5, 1861, due progress was reported, but funds were proving inadequate and the selectmen were authorized to borrow “not exceeding $2,500 to complete the Town Hall.”

Final Costs

The final cost totaled $10,150, detailed in the 1861 town report by Conant and Jackson. To finance the project, the town took out two loans from the Bellows Falls Savings Institution at 6% interest, which it paid off over the next 10 years. A 1936 Brandon Union article later summarized the costs:

Minority Report

The third building committee member, lawyer Rodney V. Marsh, who lived in the mansion at 11 Pearl Street, complained that Conant and Jackson had not shown him their report. Marsh proceeded to issue a minority report accusing them of acting independently of him, enriching themselves in the process.

Marsh’s report, though not widely published until the 1862 town report, argued that the work should have been put out to bid and would have cost at least $1,000 less. “He charged that purchases had chiefly been made, and accounts kept, by Mr. Conant alone, and objected that the committee had purchased its bricks from Conant & Jackson (the committee themselves) when a better quality had been available in Rutland.”

Marsh had strong objections to the building design, even the Greek-style columns, ironically because his house on Pearl Street had similar ones:

Nevertheless, the new Town Hall was regarded as one of the most unique and beautiful municipal buildings in all of Vermont.

Almost 100 years later, as Debbie Short walked by it on the way to and from school each day, there’s no doubt that “its majestic proportions formed a prominent object of interest and admiration” to her and her schoolmates.

100th Anniversary & Civil War

To make it even more special, the new hall opened in time for Brandon’s 100th anniversary and the nation’s 85th birthday on July 4. John A. Conant was the President of the Day, and many stirring speeches were made in the new hall.

The nation was also embroiled in the Civil War, and the new Town Hall served as as a recruiting station and a place to raise funds for the Allen Greys, Brandon’s fighting unit:

It was also where Brandon’s soldiers received their equipment and weapons before marching off to war. For many years, the second floor housed the town-militia armory, where remnants of the gun racks still remain today.

When the men returned from Gettysburg, there was a reception there, as well as in the fall of 1864, when many men from the Vermont First Brigade came home.

National Historic Register

In 1976, the Town Hall was accepted into the National Register of Historic Places along with 244 other buildings in the Brandon Village Historic District. The description below was included with details on its architecture, “among the most elaborate municipal structures in the state”:

Over the Years

Over its 165-year life, the Town Hall has undergone numerous renovations, thanks more recently to the Friends of the Town Hall (FOTH), led by Dennis Marden and others. The FOTH was formed in 1998 and was instrumental in raising over $1.5 million to repair and renovate the building while revitalizing it into a community center for arts and entertainment.

Thanks to Carrie Kirby and Dennis Marden for information for this article and to Claire Pate for her photos of the quilt.