Operation as a hotel
The five-story building is a 1971 reconstruction of an 1876 hotel, also called the Pavilion. While a hotel, the Pavilion was colloquially referred to as Vermont's "third house" (after the Senate and House of Representatives) because it was so intertwined with Vermont's political history, and, while a hotel, served as a home for many of Vermont's legislators.
The first hotel on the site was a three-story building built in 1807–1808 by Thomas Davis. This building was designed by Sylvanus Baldwin, representative for Montpelier in the Vermont General Assembly and a self-taught architect-builder who also designed the first Vermont State House sited roughly on the site of the present Vermont Supreme Court. Shortly after construction Davis sold the hotel to Mahlon Cottrill who greatly enlarged the building, rebuilding it in the Greek Revival style. Cottrill established the name The Pavilion, and added piazzas on the south and west sides as in the present building. In 1874 Theron O. Bailey acquired the hotel, razed the second building and erected a new ninety-guestroom Pavilion, adding two full floors, and an attic floor below its fashionable new mansard roof. Steam powered elevators carried guests from the ground to fifth floor. Two new ball rooms, dining rooms, and lounges were added – all lit by gas jet. A large two-story Italianate style piazza was added on the south side facing State Street, and to the west facing the public lawn of the Vermont State House. Bailey's grand new hotel cost $100,000, and opened in time for the 1876 Centennial of American Independence.
For three-quarters of a century the Pavilion remained the grand hotel of Montpelier. An increase in legislators willing to commute, by car, from home to the state house, contributed to the hotel's steady decline. The hotel ceased operation in October 1966.
Reconstruction as a state office
The state of Vermont acquired the property in 1969. Restoration and reuse of the building was briefly considered, but a pressing need for expansion of state offices in the capital complex area, coupled with a lack of sensitivity for historic preservation, led to the complete razing of the building and the subsequent construction of a new Pavilion. The west and south exterior façades are academic copies of the original building, faithful except for the missing chimneys and cast-iron cresting along the mansard roof. A large two-story piazza wraps around the building's south and west sides as in the 1876 building. The entry foyer on State Street and an adjacent reception room recreate the building's original ornate French Second Empire style interiors complete with polychrome stencilling, period artwork, and furnishings.