Chartered in 1753, Brattleboro is one of Vermont's largest towns and the site of Vermont's first Anglo-Saxon settlement, Fort Drummer, built in 1724 on the Connecticut River. Named for William Brattle, it has long been a transportation center and remains a major junction where the Molly Stark Byway meets the Connecticut River Byway. Brattleboro developed as a vibrant artistic and activist community with a thriving downtown, and each June it hosts the Strolling of the Heifers parade. Among its notable institutions and industries were the Estey Organ Company, Brattleboro's largest employer from 1846 to 1960, the printing trade that flourished from 1790 into the late 20th century, the Brattleboro Retreat founded in 1834 for the scientific treatment of mental illness, and the Brattleboro Hydropathic Institution opened in 1845 by Dr. Robert Wesselhoeft. The Latchis Memorial Building, opened in 1938 by the sons of Demetrius P. Latchis, became a major downtown landmark, while Union Station, first reached by rail from Boston in February 1849, later closed in 1966 and reopened in 1972 as the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center. Local history also includes Larkin G. Mead Jr.'s snow sculpture of 1856 and the legend of Dr. John Wilson. The Molly Stark Byway, following Route 9 across southern Vermont for 48 miles between Brattleboro and Bennington, traces the general course of an old turnpike and earlier roads including the Great Albany Road of 1746 and its 1762 western extension. Used for military patrols and supplies, later operated as the Windham County Turnpike from 1802 to 1836, and then serving freight, travel, and automobile touring, the route was accepted as a state highway in 1931, recognized for historic and tourism values in 1937, officially named the Molly Stark Trail in 1967, and designated a Vermont Scenic Byway in 2003.