07/26/2022
Edward Crosby and the Crosby block
You may have heard of the Crosby Block in downtown Brattleboro.
It runs along the west side of Main Street, beginning on the corner of Elliot St and heads north until it runs into the Brooks House.
It was built in 1870 by Edward Crosby. Crosby was born in Brattleboro in 1815.
His father died while he was still a toddler and he grew up with his mother in Marlboro. She was a toll collector on the turnpike from Brattleboro to Bennington and she also braided straw hats.
Young Edward helped his mom and also worked on local farms in the area. He grew up in relative poverty and worked for others as soon as he was able.
When he turned 16 he headed into Brattleboro and worked for a few years as a laborer for local Main Street businesses but returned to Marlboro and went back to working on farms.
He eventually married, bought a farm of his own, had two children and lived in Marlboro until he was 33 years old.
In 1848 he moved to West Brattleboro and began farming there. He also bought into a milling business in Centreville.
By the early 1850’s the milling business was profitable enough that he sold his farm.
For a few years the flour milling business was very successful and Edward traveled to western New York to purchase and transport wheat with oxen, and by canal.
With the coming of the railroads and cheaper, transported flour from the west, profits in local milling operations began to fall and Edward Crosby sold his flour mill and went into the wooden barrel making business. This business was not successful and by 1857 he was bankrupt.
His business failure did not stop him.
He returned to the grain-milling business with his brother-in-law and learned from his mistakes.
He joined partners and bought a large flour mill next to the railroad tracks near Main Street.
He saw that the future was in the transportation of cheap flour shipped by rail from the west and, in 1860, he sold his interest in the local mill.
Edward Crosby became the eastern distributor of flour mills in Ohio, and later; Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois and Canada.
You may have heard of Gold Medal Flour. Crosby was the New England distributor of that flour brand and many others.
He went from selling 20,000 barrels of flour a year to over 190,000 barrels. He also built a large store house near the Brattleboro railroad station to keep his local town in the middle of his profitable flour trade.
In 1869 a devastating fire destroyed the businesses on the west side of Main Street from Elliot to High Streets. Brattleboro’s financial leaders contacted investors throughout New England in hopes of finding someone who might have the capital to revitalize the downtown area but 8 months went by and no one offered to help the town…
In July, 1870 Edward Crosby stepped forward, bought much of the burnt business district along Main St. and placed an order for one million locally produced bricks. His company then proceeded to build the Crosby Block. It was the beginning of the Brattleboro we know today.
