Spotlight #4: Dr. Grace Sherwood

This photo and the accompanying caption were originally posted to our Facebook page (link to external site) on March 1, 2023.

March is Women's History Month - SAM will highlight some women in our local history you may not be aware of. First, we highlight Grace Sherwood - Medical Doctor and Women's Suffrage activist. Interesting fact, she was a doctor but was not allowed to vote!

Grace Willey Sherwood was born in Newport, VT on Dec. 23, 1878. She attended St. Albans High School, which is now the Saint Albans Museum, and graduated in 1897. She attended medical school at the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia, Pa. and bequeathed that school $17,000 when she passed away in 1948.

Dr. Sherwood returned to St. Albans after medical school and purchased the very large home of Herbert Brainerd on North Main Street. It opened as a medical facility in 1909 and became known as the Sherwood Sanitarium. That building would later become the St. Albans Elks Club and was eventually demolished, along with other residences, to make way for North Main Street shopping center.

In 1916 and 1917, Dr. Sherwood was president of the Vermont Equal Suffrage Association. She is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.