Green Mountain Park

Green Mountain Race Track was sited on a former corn field along the Hoosic River and opened in May, 1964. Used for horse racing between 1964 and 1976 and greyhound racing beginning in 1973, a concession made by the Legislature to improve business. The track was a major employer in the area, bringing people to Pownal as visitors and to settle and paying for 22 percent of the town’s taxes in 1976. Along with the racetrack existed “gasoline filling stations, dairy farmers who delivered their milk and eggs, auto repair shops, restaurants, bars, corner markets and specialty retailers, barber shops, salons, a bank branch, motels, boarding houses, cottages for seasonal workers,” in addition to employment opportunities for “skilled and unskilled laborers, loggers, cooks, farriers, baby sitters, waitresses, meat cutters, and tradesmen.” 

Between the 1970s and 1990s, Pownal was a vibrant and bustling hub. When the racetrack closed in 1992, the supporting businesses experienced economic hardships and many of them wound up going out of business shortly thereafter. Not only were jobs lost from the racetrack itself, but also from the supporting businesses that no longer had the demand afforded by the racetrack. While many of the companies closed or left, many of the people stayed. The racetrack’s influence on communities of Pownal and culture is palpable.

Once decommissioned as a racetrack, the building continued to be used for other community events; Lollapalooza was held there in 1996, and several antique car shows were hosted at the site between 2005 and 2008. After sitting unused for years, the track was destroyed by a devastating fire in 2020, and it is currently under private ownership.

Sources:

Joseph Parks, Pownal: A Vermont Town’s Two Hundred Years And More (Hoosick Falls: A—B Graphic Art Service, 1977).

Town of Pownal Planning Commission et al. “Town Plan.” Bennington County Regional Commission, (April 2019). http://www.bcrcvt.org/uploads/1/1/1/8/111899771/pownal_town_plan_-_adopted_april_25_2019.pdf.

Chad Abramovich, “The Old Green Mountain Racetrack (and Pownal Peculiarities),” Obscure Vermont, February 14, 2021, https://obscurevermont.com/the-old-green-mountain-racetrack-and-pownal-peculiarities/.