The Winooski Dome

This page is to supplement my Winooski Dome collectible, part of the Vermont Collectibles series. Here you can find all of the best information and historical resources on the infamous dome, all in one place.

Huge thanks to The Winooski Historical Society and Communications Director for the City of Winooski Paul Sarne for providing some of the high resolution images.

Further educational resources:

VT Digger article by Jenny Koppang – The Winooski Dome: How this mill town was almost sealed in a bubble (a great comprehensive history!)

VPR story on the dome by Jane Lindholm – It (Kind Of) Sounded Great At The Time:

Illustrations of proposed Winooski dome by architect John Anderson, colored pencil on paper, 1979

Click the images below to enlarge

Newspaper Clippings:

To Celebrate Winooski’s Centennial, the Winooski Memorial Library partnered with the Heritage Winooski Mill Museum and local historian, Erica Donnis, to bring you Winooski Dome: Uncovering the Real Story – a virtual presentation…

The back of the Vermont collectible reads as follow:

In 1979, Winooski’s city planners considered one of the most ambitious energy-saving ideas in Vermont history: enclosing the community beneath a giant dome. The futuristic canopy was pitched as a ticket to warmer winters, cheaper energy bills, and the bragging rights of living inside the world’s first “indoor town.”

The idea was endorsed by many, including futurist architect R. Buckminster Fuller. Local proponents formed the Golden Onion Dome Club to drum up support, proudly noting that “Winooski” comes from the Abenaki word for wild onion — a fitting symbol for a city being kept fresh in a Tupperware container. Skeptics, meanwhile, worried about the practicality of maintaining a giant cover and whether residents would slowly cook like a communal casserole.

The dome was, of course, never built. But the idea endures as one of Vermont’s finest flirtations with science fiction.