USUALLY WHEN A KID RUNS OFF with the family money, it’s for a nefarious purpose. We expect the kid to come to no good, to crawl back, if he’s lucky, and beg forgiveness. This was not the fate of Peter Latchis. His father, Demetrius, emigrated from Greece to New Hampshire at the start of the last century, operating a pushcart from which to sell produce. He grew his enterprise and did well enough to amass a tantalizing amount of cash. His son suggested that the family invest in the up-and-coming film industry. Dad refused, so Peter took it on his own initiative to help himself to some of that money and build a movie theater, opening it as the country (and the movie business) entered the no-holds-barred 1920s.
In 1938, the Latchis brothers opened a grand memorial to their late father in Brattleboro, Vermont. It was what they termed “A Town within a Town All under One Roof,” including a hotel, restaurant, ballroom, and a lavish 700-plus-seat theater. The first movie shown there was the Sonja Henie comedy “My Lucky Star,” but the theater was designed to host live entertainment as well; among the performers were the Trapp Family (pre-”Sound of Music”), pianist Rudolf Serkin, all the big-name big bands, singers from the Metropolitan Opera, and, more recently, Don McLean, Roger McGuinn, Al Di Meola, the Brattleboro Concert Choir, the Windham Philharmonic, Paula Poundstone, and even operas by Wagner.
Carrying a Greek motif into the theater, the brothers commissioned Hungarian artist Louis Jambor to paint scenes from mythology on canvas-covered walls; the decor also includes a pair of gazebos that flank the stage, each sporting a sculpted figure ringed by Greek columns. Signs of the zodiac decorate the ceiling and glow when the room is darkened; there are similar signs worked into the terrazzo flooring of the lobby.
The Latchis is a wedge-shaped building on a downtown corner. Makayla Aldrich checked us in with little formality and great friendliness. Having done much of the registration business online, we didn’t spend much time at the desk, despite my propensity for boring the daylights out of those who have no choice but to listen to me. We were handed our keys – old-fashioned ones of sturdy metal – and sent to the third floor (according to ordinal terms, the fourth, but this hotel uses the British method, styling the bottom one as the ground floor).
As far as modern conveniences are concerned, you can keep hotel card keys. I like the ones that jingle on a chain. But I do like an en suite lavatory, not to mention a fridge and an ironing board. TVs I can live without, but apparently nobody else in the known universe can do so, so there’s a flat-screen television with basic cable. More civilized entertainment is offered by a record player, and fear not, there’s a selection of LPs (rather worse for wear) in each room and a larger library of vinyl in one of the hallways. Unlike a younger generation, I couldn’t have been happier to welcome the compact disc, having grown weary of scratches and surface noise, and the records we found in our room were nothing if not noisy. But it was fun to revisit an LP of Van Cliburn playing Debussy, something that has been long since supplanted in my own collection by the digital version.
The hotel has thirty rooms in a variety of configurations; we chose a king-sized bed and the “downtown view,” thus overlooking Brattleboro’s Main Street. The “mountain view” rooms are a little more expensive, and we’re, as my wife puts it, budget-minded, or as I look at it, cheap. Rooms with queen beds or two double beds are also available, as is a three-room suite. And, rarity of rarities, the Latchis welcomes your well-behaved dog.
Because of my mobility issues, I carry an electric scooter when we travel. There’s ground-floor handicap access, and a parking space for my scooter inside. The hotel is smack in the middle of Brattleboro, making it very convenient to scoot to the various attractions.
Chief among them is a museum, an easy walk (or scoot), that sported a show featuring prize-winning artwork by students in area high schools – an astonishing display of talent and, no doubt, reassurance when a kid needs that the most.
Across the street is the Brattleboro Food Co-Op, where we stocked up on some cheese and chips and wine in order to have a small party in our room, and also were drawn into a bread tasting by a representative of the Red Hen Baking Co., a Middlesex-based operation that sells its bread at co-ops and other markets throughout the state. I was knocked over by their miche, a heavy loaf made from two types of wheat flour alongside some rye. You don’t need to toast its slices – a drizzle of excellent olive oil sets of its robust flavor, although you truly need nothing but the bread itself. I only regret that we didn’t acquire loaves enough to load the freezer.
Dining options in the city are somewhat limited, at least in scooter range, although we enjoyed dinner at Shin-La, a Korean restaurant that faces the hotel, and brunch at The Works, where the menu features “power bowls,” burritos, bagels, and egg sandwiches. I had one of the last-named, with bacon and cheese enhancing its interior. Order at the counter, then find a seat in the large, airy, coffee-shop-like dining area.
Speaking of coffee shops, there’s a fine one nearby called Mocha Joe’s, to gain access to which you descend a few steps and behold an expansive, cellar-like warren where the tables are occupied by bohemians writing poetry or reading Sartre or, inevitably, staring at their cell phones. But it’s the only place and time in my life where I’ve been approached by an ominous-looking man who bent his beard to my eye level and asked in a low, sonorous voice, “Do you play chess?”
Our second-day dinner was at Kipling’s, a busy side-street pub where we uncharacteristically elected to wait the forecast twenty minutes for a table and – uncharacteristically for me, at least, fell into conversation with those adjacent. Once seated, I was treated to the unique spectacle of my wife actually enjoying several sips of my Guinness! I had a pasta special with shrimp, she her usual “some manner of chicken,” and we stayed long enough to obviate the need for that wine-and-cheese snack in our room. Fear not: it didn’t go to waste.
In 2003, they sold the hotel to the Brattleboro Arts Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to maintaining the place. Hurricane Irene devastated the hotel (and much of the city) in 2011, but you now can’t tell it was ever distressed and repaired. And further restoration took place just over a decade ago.
When we checked in, Makayla noted that a special event was taking place that evening in the theater – would we be interested? It was a performance by the Sirius String Quartet, an ensemble that specializes in performing original works. Having spend some forty years reviewing concerts, a holiday for me is to not see anything. Nevertheless, we went. And I was excited enough by the concert to review it, which you can read here.
The main theater is but one of four, of varying size. All are equipped to screen movies, and there’s a steady offering of first-run and more vintage films. We just missed the last of a Mike Leigh festival, for example.
Executive director Jon Potter met us in the theater lobby on our final morning there, and told us much of the history that I’ve cited above. The wish, which I think they’ve achieved, is to interact with the community on a number of levels, from unusual cultural events like the Sirius Quartet to the birthday party setting up in the smallest of the theaters. We walked in to see the setup and were invited to join the celebration.
We declined; we were on a schedule. But it gave us to understand that the motto “A Town within a Town All under One Roof” describes not just the hotel itself, but its relationship to the families who live and work around it. When you stay at the Latchis, you’re visiting Brattleboro past and present.
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