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Southern Vermont Bennington Vermont’s third largest city (population 9,500),
Bennington is the commercial center of southwestern Vermont. A
Revolutionary War battle is commemorated by the dominating presence of
the 306-foot-high obelisk known as the Bennington Battle Monument,
erected in 1891 and the tallest structure in Vermont. The city lent its
name to Bennington College and the Bennington Potters, whose pottery
yard is at 324 County St. Historic Old Bennington offers fine examples
of Colonial architecture, the Old Academy, the gracious Old First Church
and the Old Burying Ground, where five governors and poet Robert Frost
have been laid to rest. The Bennington Museum,
West Main Street (Route 9). The largest collection of paintings by folk artist
Grandma Moses is displayed in this white-columned edifice in the
historic district. Anna Mary Robertson Moses, who started painting in
1935 at age 75, lived just across the state line in New York but spent
three years in Bennington. In addition to 28 of her paintings, her
tilt-top worktable and other equipment are on display. The schoolhouse
she attended as a child was relocated here and houses personal
belongings, photos and family memorabilia. A military gallery displays
artifacts, uniforms and firearms from every war in which Bennington men
fought. A flag gallery displays the famed Bennington flag, thought to be
the oldest Stars and Stripes in existence. Other highlights are early
American glass, art and furniture, and a luxury 1925 Wasp touring car
designed by local resident Karl Martin. A collection of Bennington
pottery fills two galleries in the museum. (802) 447-1571. www.benningtonmuseum.com. Open daily, 9 to 6, June-October, 9 to 5 rest of year. Adults, $6. ManchesterA year-round resort area in the
shadow of Mount Equinox, Manchester is as favored for skiing today as it
was for golf, fly-fishing and escapes from urban life in the old days.
Mrs. Abraham Lincoln and her sons spent summers at the early Equinox
Hotel as prelude to the family’s adopting Manchester Village as its
summer home. The famous Manchester everyone knows and loves is really
Manchester Village, a mile-long stretch along Route 7A that is vintage
New England: a stately lineup of elegant white, black-shuttered
clapboard homes centered on the Equinox, still the area's premier resort
hotel. These days, Manchester’s Norman Rockwell charm as exemplified
by the village co-exists with designer-outlet chic in the other
Manchesters – Manchester Depot and Manchester Center, home to
increasing numbers of upscale outlet stores as handsome and affluent as
the customers they serve The large, rambling Orvis
headquarters store on Route 7A in the village is just down the road from
where Charles Orvis started his fishing tackle business in 1856. The American
Museum of Fly Fishing on Route 7A displays the beautiful flies of
Mary Orvis Marbury plus more than 1,000 rods and reels owned by such
luminaries as Bing Crosby and Dwight Eisenhower. President Abraham Lincoln’s
descendants lived until 1975 in this 24-room Georgian Revival mansion on
412 acres surrounded by mountains. Named to convey “hill” and
“valley,” Hildene was built in 1905 by Robert Todd Lincoln, the only
one of the president’s four sons to live into adulthood. He had been
drawn to the area by Edward Isham, his Chicago law partner, who had a
summer home named for local Revolutionary War hero Gideon Ormsby in
front of the acreage that Lincoln purchased. Guided tours begin with a
wagon ride to the Carriage Barn visitor center for an orientation slide
show. The fascinating house contains family memorabilia and original
furnishings, including the 1,000-pipe Aeolian organ, said to be the
oldest residential pipe organ with a player attachment still in its
original location and in working order. A tune from one of its 242 rolls
is played on every tour. Among Hildene’s treasures are one of the
president’s last three surviving stovepipe hats, a mirror from the
White House dressing room where the president is believed to have last
glanced at himself before heading out to Ford’s Theater the night he
was assassinated, and a number of volumes from the president's library.
The formal gardens are magnificent, and walking paths lead into
the Battenkill Valley. (802) 362-1788. www.hildrene.org.
Open mid-May through October, daily 9:30 to 4, guided tours on the
half-hour. Adults $10, children $4. Grounds only, adults $5, children
$2. The oldest cultural institution in
Vermont rests high up a mountainside. Inside a 28-room Georgian Colonial
mansion known as Yester House are galleries with changing exhibits, an
expanded performing arts hall seating 400, and the Artist’s Palate
Cafe for lunch. The new Elizabeth deC. Wilson Museum is a stunning
contemporary facility with soaring, skylit spaces in which to display
the center’s 800-piece permanent collection and traveling exhibitions.
The Manchester Garden Club restored and maintains the Boswell Botany
Trail, a three-quarter-mile walk past hundreds of wildflowers and 67
varieties of Vermont ferns, all identified by club members. An hour's
hike through the woods is another attraction, and the sculpture garden
featuring a 285-year-old sugar maple is bordered by amazing vistas. The
Artist’s Palate Café is a fine place for lunch. (802) 362-1405. www.svac.org. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10 to 5, Sunday noon to 5, mid-May to late October; Monday-Saturday 10 to 5, rest of year. Adults, $6. Weston Grafton For some, this postcard-perfect hamlet just north of the West River Valley is a destination in itself. Off the beaten path, it was put on the map by the Windham Foundation, which was launched in 1963 after the town had gone downhill. More than twenty buildings in town have been restored, including the foundation-owned Old Tavern, and Grafton is recognized today as one of New England’s finest 19th-century villages. There are other attractions in this tiny town of 600, where hilly dirt roads pass stately homes, both old and new. We enjoyed watching cheese being made as we bought some Covered Bridge cheddar at the Grafton Village Cheese Co., the foundation-backed cheese factory. Shoppers enjoy the excellent Gallery North Star, the crafts at Grafton Handmade, the bronze sculptures at the seasonal Jud Hartmann Gallery, and the gifts at Tickle Your Fancy and the Daniels House. Also worth a look are the Grafton Village Store, a historical society museum showing area crafts and tools, a demonstration flock of sheep, and some of the marked nature trails at the year-round Grafton Ponds hiking and cross-country ski center. There are two covered bridges, a working blacksmith shop and two landmark churches. As Graftonites proclaim laconically, “there is always nothing to do, plenty of nothing.” Material excerpted from New England's Best, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2002. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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