The Tip Top Building is a 45,000 square foot (4,200 m²) arts and creative business center located in downtown

White River Junction, Vermont White River Junction is an unincorporated village and census-designated place (CDP) in the New England town, town of Hartford, Vermont, Hartford in Windsor County, Vermont, Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,528 at the 2 ...

. The building is actually a complex of several buildings dating from the 1880s, when the Smith Baking Company operated it as a commercial bakery. In 1910, the Vermont Baking Company purchased Smith Baking Company and erected what is now the center of the complex. Several additions were made over decades, primarily covered loading docks to protect delivery trucks from weather and a garage to repair trucks. Ward Baking company purchased the complex and ran the bakery until 1974 when it closed. The property changed hands several times in the next 25 years as it was used for a variety of industrial purposes, motor rewinding being the final use. In 2000, Matt Bucy, a

resident, purchased the complex with the help of a group of investors. He was a former engineer with

New England Digital New England Digital Corporation (1976–1993) was founded in Norwich, Vermont, and relocated to White River Junction, Vermont. It was best known for its signature product, the Synclavier Synthesizer System, which evolved into the Synclavier Digita ...

(a now-defunct pioneer in the

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

and

digital audio Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical samples in a continuous sequence. For example, in CD audio, sa ...

industries), and a Yale-trained architect. Initially, Bucy envisioned an arts and media center with studios for artists and some larger spaces for internet and media companies. A proposed Dartmouth Media Institute, an offshoot of Dartmouth College, conceived by composer Jon Appleton (who was also the founder of

) and funded by some prominent corporations, was envisioned as the media anchor. The building was located directly across the street from a major Verizon regional switching facility, which made it a desirable location for those in need of high-speed telecommunications links. After September 11 and the collapse of the internet bubble, plans for high tech companies and the Institute dissolved, forcing a replanning of the building into smaller, more affordable spaces that individuals could rent. This strategy worked and by February 2003 most of the building was leased to artists and small creative businesses, including a large number of healing arts practitioners, and a restaurant. In 2004, the building was used as an example of the burgeoning "creative economy" in a conference held in

Woodstock, Vermont Woodstock is the shire town (county seat) of Windsor County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 3,005. It includes the villages of Woodstock, South Woodstock, Taftsville, and West Woodstock. History Chart ...

External links

A directory of the artists and businesses at the Tip Top
{{coord, 43.649350, -72.320375, format=dms, display=title, type:landmark White River Junction, Vermont Buildings and structures in Hartford, Vermont