A Picture Perfect Johnson
by Ben Hogwood

JOHNSON  Like many good ideas, this one came from staring at a blank
wall.  Actually, several blank walls.
Johnson Town Historian Linda Jones and selectman Howard Romero decided
that instead of leaving the walls of the town's municipal building
blank, they would decorate them with pictures of Johnson through the
years. The project started shortly after Jones became town historian in
the summer of 2002.
"We're kind of enthusiastic about the whole thing," said Romero.
So far, Romero and Jones have collected over 500 pictures, acquired
mainly from people they know in town, but at least one picture came from
ebay. Jones said she often types in Johnson on the Ebay page and, this
time, up popped a picture of people standing in front of the Johnson
Hotel (now the Hotel Apartments).
"We think we've found most of the easy stuff," said Romero. "Now it's
going to get a lot tougher." Many of the pictures, he said, are easy to
identify as some of the buildings are still standing today. Others are
not so easy. "(With pictures taken) as early as the 1920's, it's pretty
easy to tell... but anything older than that is very difficult," said
Romero. They have found some pictures which state they were taken in
Johnson, Vermont, but nothing in them looks familiar.
 The two want to get "as much as we can get, as soon as we can get it,"
said Romero, so they can provide a visual history of the town and
instill a sense of community and town pride. They hope to have dozens of
the pictures framed and hanging in the school for next year's Johnson
Town Meeting. The pictures will then be put on display in the municipal
building and, hopefully,  at other public buildings in Johnson. In
addition, Romero hopes to have a computer in the offices running a slide
show of all the pictures.
However, the two are not going to taxpayers to fund the project.
Instead, they created a calendar with six of the best pictures from the
collection (including the one of the hotel apartments and a photo of the
1927 Flood, previously printed in "The Transcript," which will be on
sale at the town offices.
 "This will be self-funded or it's not going to happen," said Romero,
who so far has used his own money to get the project where it is.  Each
picture in the calendar is an actual print, so they can be removed at
the end of the year and hung up - even framed. The first edition is
limited to 100 copies, said Romero, but if they become popular they may
produce more. He would like to make it an annual fundraiser.
Many of the pictures in the collection, and some in the calendar, are
from the late Wayland Mills, a former professional photographer in
Johnson. Mills worked in the mills in Johnson, but lost his leg at the
age of 16. He stopped his former job and took up photography. "He had
good equipment and took care of business," said Romero. The pictures
vary from a shot of school kids with their school mistress, to a shot of
people counting ballots after a Town Meeting. One is of Albert Einstein,
sitting next to a group of Johnson school children and the four gallons
of maple syrup they gave him.
Other pictures in the collection range from the heroic (two men running
towards a building engulfed in flames) to the truly bizarre (one man
lying in bed, while another holds a mirror to direct light from a window
onto his face.) Several depict the damage done during the 1927 Flood,
including one of a mill sliding towards the river and another of the
Christmas Dinner, held in the town gym, which St. Albans prepared for
the flood victims.
Romero and Jones hope that this project will renew interest in the town
forming an Historical Society. A problem people have with donating
historical items to the town is that currently there is nowhere for
storage. Romero would like the town to have a place for storing all the
town's treasures.
Romero and Jones are still looking for more photos. They have recently
heard there were two more professional photographers in town and are
looking for information if anyone knows who they were. If you own any
pictures, or even negatives, they would love to copy them. All pictures
can be returned, said Romero, as they are being stored on computer. Call
Howard at 635-2840.
They are not just looking for photos, but any memorabilia of Johnson's
bygone era. Also, they are looking for old picture frames for the
presentation. Anyone who has a frame they would like to donate may drop
it off at the town clerk's office.
"We'll take anything," said Romero.