A. B. Oatman’s General Store

Abraham B. Oatman opened this general store on the corner of North and Pleasant Streets around 1855. Today it is a rare surviving example of the timber-framed commercial buildings that predominated in what is now downtown Bennington in the mid-1800s, when the commercial center of the town shifted down the hill from Old Bennington. Oatman’s dealt in a diverse array of goods, ranging from candy, cigars, and alcohol (though the sale of liquor was prohibited in Vermont between 1852 and 1902) to accordions, dog collars, and fishing tackle. Can you see the fish sitting in the second story window, the creel hanging from the ceiling of the porch, or the large nearly life-sized figure to the left of the door? These were all visual symbols intended to tell passersby the store’s specialties (figures of the type next to the door were commonly used during this period to market tobacco products). Oatman was also a taxidermist. He provided a “Green Mountain Eagle” and “Green Mountain Hedge-Hog” to P. T. Barnum’s Museum in 1860 and advertised his services to stuff recently deceased pets. The building was one of Bennington village’s longest running grocery stores, in operation as such for at least 100 years.