After a highly successful inaugural season, the University of Vermont launched the second season of its popular historic tour program on July 4. The free, weekly tours, led by UVM emeritus professor William Averyt, will take place Saturdays through Oct. 10, from 9 to 11 a.m. Last year the tour attracted nearly 500 visitors, from 22 states and four foreign countries.

Highlighted on the tour are such architectural treasures as Old Mill, completed in 1829, whose cornerstone was laid by the Marquis de Lafayette, the 1885 Billings Library, which the renowned 19th century architect H.H. Richardson considered his finest building, and the magnificent Grasse Mount, built for a local merchant in 1806 and later the home of the governor.

In addition to its many historic structures — more than a dozen buildings on the university's central campus are on the National Register of Historic Places — the tour also covers the important and colorful people who animate UVM's history.

Founder Ira Allen, for instance, was a visionary Revolutionary War hero and an ambitious, sometimes slippery real estate speculator. Professor Royall Tyler was a member of Vermont's Supreme Court in the 18th century, a playwright credited with writing the first American comedy, and the model for Judge Jaffney Pyncheon, the antagonist in Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of Seven Gables. UVM's third president, James Marsh, inspired Emerson and Thoreau, invented the modern university curriculum, and for a time made Burlington the intellectual capital of America. And 1879 alumnus John Dewey, whose grave is on campus, is considered one of American's greatest philosophers.

"UVM not only has a physically striking campus full of historically significant architecture, but also a history replete with important and intriguing figures, some of whom helped shape modern America," said Daniel Mark Fogel, UVM president. "We hope the tour will be both an entertaining experience for visitors and a means for telling the important story of the University of Vermont."

For more information on the tour and to register, visit www.uvm.edu/historictour.