Frederick Squire House Women's Recovery Home

About this Recovery Home

The Frederick Squire House is a women's recovery residence in Bennington, Vermont, the shire town of Bennington County. It sits on North Street in a Queen Anne house built in 1887 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it is operated by Vermont Foundation of Recovery. The main section holds four bedrooms in single and double occupancy with two full bathrooms, and the property adds two transitional apartments for members further along.

A Historic North Street Sober House for Women

The building was office space before it was a home. Its three floors now carry a household of six women in the main section, with kitchen, dining room and living room shared, and two separate apartments for women whose children live with them. Anyone who has looked at recovery housing knows the usual building stock. This is a different kind of address, and a resident walks out of it into downtown Bennington, with the hospital, the recovery center, grocery stores, pharmacies and a gym all inside a short radius.

The First Certified Recovery Home in Bennington County

Before this house opened, the nearest recovery residences to Bennington were in Rutland, Brattleboro and Springfield, each at least an hour away. A woman leaving treatment in the southwest corner of Vermont had to choose between an address far from her family and no address at all. The Squire House ended that. Its certification through the Vermont Alliance for Recovery Residences means a published code of ethics, written disclosure of fees and rules before move-in, a written relapse and discharge policy, and an annual onsite inspection.

Recovery Housing for Women With Children

Most women who enter treatment for substance use disorder are parents, and many are the sole caretaker. Housing that separates a mother from her children asks her to solve two problems at once. The two apartments on the property let a woman keep her kids with her while she works through a phased program, and the arrangement gives her the option to step from the main house into more independence without leaving the address or the people.

Where This Bennington Recovery Residence Sits

Bennington is a shire town of Bennington County and the service center for the southwestern corner of the state. Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, the county courthouse, Bennington College and the Route 7 corridor north toward Rutland all fall within reach of North Street. For a woman rebuilding a routine, that concentration is the practical argument for a downtown address over a rural one.