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A Little About Our Store
Hero's Welcome is
located in N.W.Vermont, on one
of the Hero Islands in the
middle of Lake Champlain. The
century-old building was
originally built by John Tudhope
in 1899. Here it is in the early
1920s. The Tudhope family ran
the Store for ninety
years. That's John himself
standing out on the porch.
Later, hard times fell upon
the place and it closed. The
town of North Hero
wasn't the same without that
store...it had been the honored
gossip spot for so long, the
town rumor mill suffered!
We bought the property in
1993, restored the structures,
and re-named it Hero's
Welcome. There are
three
buildings, resting cheek-by-jowl
at the water's edge. If you pay
us a visit in the summer season,
you'll find thousands of
items...and customers from one
end to the other! It is an
exciting place, even for us.
We also roll out a big summer
dock less
than a hundred feet from the
store, and welcome
lake
travelers from all
points of the compass. You
can get here by car, bike,
horse, ferry, seaplane,
kayak, canoe, water
skis
and even ice skates!
We welcome
thousands of folks every year,
and in our busiest summer
months, might see over 2000
visitors in a single day.
It's not uncommon to step
outside the building and wonder
at the collection of bicycles,
ski boats, Harleys, seaplanes,
SeaDoos, cars and trucks that
have piled up around the store.
My wife
Beverley and I returned to
Vermont in the early 1990's, and
not long after decided to make
it our permanent home.
 With
several decades of retailing
between us, and a famous (but
closed) general
store begging for
new owners, we jumped in.
Fourteen years later, we've come
to look forward to the
summertime thrill of Hero's
Welcome, followed by the chill
of Vermont's famous winters.
Our jackets are warmer these
days, but the ice on the lake
beckons us to venture out.
The Hero
Islands are a true gift of nature,
resting in the North-Center of
the nation's sixth largest lake.
Four very distinct seasons
arrive and depart each year,
tormenting local barn thermometers
to keep up with the 125 degree
swing.
Summer
nights can leave sweat on your
brow. Winter days can pile
frost upon your whiskers!
The stars are almost always
spectacular, thanks to the low
count of resident humans.
The sunrises and sunsets never fail to
encourage photographers.
Somehow,
the Hero Islands have escaped
the crush of year-round
travelers, so often found nearby high
density communities.
 If you
took a piece of string
500-miles long, tied one end to
a pencil and drew a circle
around North Hero Village, you'd
find nearly 40 million folks
dwelling within the circumference.
Lake Champlain is less than a
day's drive from cities such as
Toronto, Montreal, Boston,
Manhattan and Hackensack.
The density of dwellers in those
towns is...well, dense, but the spectacular beauty
of our lake has yet to capture
the imagination of most of them!
 One
day it will happen, but for now
take comfort that you can come
to this place, paddle into the
middle of the lake, and feel
almost like you discovered it
yourself.
ENTER OUR ONLINE STORE
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