Seven Homes, Seven Stories - in One Building

In the earliest research for ALL THAT GLITTERS (in progress on Wattpad - click here), I focused on two buildings in Montpelier, Vermont: the gem-like glittering State House on State Street, and the mysterious structure called The Blanchard Block, where Bear Pond Books nestles in one lower Main Street corner. I've fallen in love with the labyrinth of corridors, offices, and purposes within this historic downtown commercial building that also served the town as its Opera House. It really is true that elephants climbed the stairs to the second-floor performance hall, although today there are no signs of their presence (not even a whiff of pachyderm pee).

As you look at the photo that I snapped earlier this week, see the ground-floor doorway with the pale yellow trim? That's the one that teen detective Felicity "Lucky" Franklin enters with her girlfriends, as she races to see whether her mother might be in the family's apartment. In my mind's eye, that apartment is on the second floor, at the rear, in the 1890 addition, where one of my most informative research guides downtown once resided (more on that, later). You need to know that it's possible to reach the roof of the structure. Keep that in mind, as Lucky finds, once again, a bit of birdseed, in spite of the snowy surroundings. What a quandary!

About the title of this post: Lucky's home isn't the only one in this large, elegant structure. Each of the others here has a "story" too. But I also like to count on another number line: over time. Since 1833-1834, when the building was born, I figure there have been at least seven important stories unfurling here. Lucky Franklin's is the eighth.