West Brattleboro developed as a vibrant Vermont community along the Molly Stark Byway, with a village center of well-preserved 19th-century buildings around a triangular green, a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places, streams including Bonnyvale Brook, Whetstone Brook, and Ames Hill Brook that shaped its landscape and water-powered mills, and landmarks such as Living Memorial Park and the 1879 Creamery Bridge. The community was tied to early winter sports through the Bonnyvale Area ski slope and through Fred Harris, born in Brattleboro in 1887, who introduced ski jumping to Brattleboro, directed construction of Harris Hill, and helped lay the foundation for the modern winter sports industry in the area. West Brattleboro also became known for one of the region's oldest Farmer's Markets, for turkey drovers bringing huge flocks from New York State to Brattleboro, and for a notable school first established in 1801 as Brattleboro Academy and later known as Glenwood Ladies Seminary. The Molly Stark Byway itself follows the Route 9 corridor across southern Vermont for 48 miles between Brattleboro and Bennington, tracing the general path of an old turnpike and earlier military roads. Its route grew from Fort Dummer, built in 1724, to the Great Albany Road laid out in 1746, the western extension built in 1762 to link Wilmington and Bennington, the Windham County Turnpike created in 1802 as a toll and stage road and made public in 1836, and a major freight route later made a state highway in 1931, recognized for historic and tourism value in 1937, officially named the Molly Stark Trail in 1967, and designated a Vermont Scenic Byway in 2003. The road was associated with the Battle of Bennington in 1777 through General John Stark's famed call before victory, with the dawn of automobile pleasure driving through the 1907 Ideal Tour, and with the long movement of travelers, freight, and local life across southern Vermont.