An excited crowd of people gathered below the balcony of the Berwick Hotel in Rutland on this day in 1912. So many had gathered, in fact, that they spilled off the sidewalk and congested the street.

The occasion? They were waiting to see President William Howard Taft. Taft spoke from the Berwick’s balcony for two minutes before moving on to Main Street Park.

A banner boasting the names Taft and Sherman was suspended across Center Street, and the crowd cheered as Taft passed beneath it.

Taft gave a speech to children in the park, and then the entire presidential campaign party left Rutland headed for Woodstock.

Historic image courtesy Vermont Historical Society from "Rutland in Retrospect" by Robert E. West