BENNINGTON — The state is laying the foundation for restoration work on the Bennington Battle Monument ahead of the Battle of Bennington’s 250th anniversary in 2027.

Before repair work begins, the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation is  conducting a yearlong assessment of the 306-foot-tall monument’s condition. The process, which started in January, includes an analysis of the historic structure’s stone, steel staircase, electrical systems and elevator.

The monument, the tallest manmade structure in Vermont, was completed in 1889 to commemorate the 1777 Battle of Bennington. The battle was a pivotal victory for colonial forces against British soldiers during the American Revolution.

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The monument is the state’s busiest historic site, with 30,000 visitors ascending the structure between May and October each year, according to its administrator, Marylou Chicote. At least 20,000 more people visit the rest of the year, she said.

For four days last week, project subcontractors rappelled from the top of the monument to examine its external stone and mortar up close. They took photos and made notes on an existing diagram of the monument, augmented with drones' images taken by the Agency of Transportation. 

For several hours, using handheld cameras, they also showed colleagues on the ground a live feed of what they saw at the top.

Among the people hanging from ropes on the monument face was Evan Kopelson, a partner at Vertical Access, a New York-based company that specializes in assessing historic structures. 

“There are obvious signs of deterioration, which you would expect for a building this old,” he said, “but I think the fact that it's such a tall structure — 300 feet — exposed to the weather for so long, it's great to see that it is still here.”

Assessing conditions almost 300 feet up in the air was the “biggest discovery” of the week, said Jamie Duggan, Vermont director of preservation, whose office has operated the monument since 1953.

Inside the structure, workers installed equipment to monitor temperature and humidity, as well as the size of existing cracks in the stone. 

About 25 people were working at the monument last week, most of them hired specifically for the yearlong assessment. They are led by Stevens & Associates, an architecture and engineering consulting firm in Brattleboro. 

This comprehensive assessment — which has a price tag of $250,000 — is the first for any historic structure in the state, Duggan said. 

“We’re taking a whole year to understand the building and observe it through the seasons,” he said. “A study like this has never been done.” 

The state is focused on identifying the root causes of distress on the monument, especially how moisture such as rain and snow affects the structure. The exterior stone is called Sandy Hill dolomite, a blue-gray magnesian limestone quarried in New York, according to the historic preservation division.

Information collected during the assessment will inform the monument’s restoration plan and budget. The division has no detailed timeline yet for the restoration work. 

The monument is set to reopen for the 2022 season on May 28.

Clarification: An earlier version of this story imprecisely described some elements of the timeline for the project. 

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Tiffany Tan is VTDigger's Southern Vermont reporter. Before joining VTDigger, she covered cops and courts for the Bennington Banner from 2018 to 2021. Prior to that, Tiffany worked for the Rapid City Journal in South Dakota and spent more than 10 years working for newspapers and television stations in Manila, Singapore and Beijing.

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