Early History of Vermont
U.S. General Services Administration
New Deal Art Program
- Stephan J. Belaski painted the six murals on view here in the lobby of the Robert T. Stafford U.S. Courthouse, which originally also housed a Post Office. These murals depict events from Vermont’s history during the American Revolution.
On the lobby’s east wall are three murals that surround the entrance to the former office of the Postmaster. To the left of the doorway, a tall panel depicts Ethan Allen, Leader of the Green Mountain Boys. Beginning in 1770, Allen led a militia group that resisted New York’s attempt to occupy the territory that later became Vermont.
Settlers who received land grants from New Hampshire warded off encroaching New Yorkers, such as the one portrayed in the mural to the right of the doorway. Titled New Yorker Seeking Claim in Vermont, the painting shows a man with a raised fist trying to seize land. Behind the man, the Green Mountain Boys brandish switches to drive him away.
The mural directly above the doorway is titled Assembly of Mountain Fighters in 1775 and portrays the same militia group coming together to fight the British during the Revolutionary War.
The two large murals that fill the arched spaces on the lobby’s south wall are titled Freeing of the First Slave in Vermont by Captain Ebenezer Allen and Benedict Arnold’s Engagement of the First Naval Battle.
The first arched mural shows Dinah Mattis and her daughter, Nancy Mattis, in the center of the painting. Behind them, Captain Ebenezer Allen reads a decree releasing them from the bondage of their British enslavers, whom the Americans defeated in November 1777.
The second arched mural depicts an epic naval battle led by Benedict Arnold during the Revolutionary War. Best known for his future betrayal and defection to the British army, Arnold was previously celebrated for holding off the British fleet during the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in October 1776.
On the lobby’s west wall, above the elevator doors, the final mural in the series shows the Green Mountain Boys Defending the Breckenridge Farm. In 1769, the sheriff of Albany, New York, threatened to evict James Breckenridge from his farm, based on rival land claims. In response, the Green Mountain Boys successfully repelled the New Yorkers on July 19, 1771.
