Middlebury Vermont

A Town Touched by Hollywood

By Fran Folsom

There is nothing middlebrow about Middlebury, a small Vermont college town located on U.S. Route 7 between Rutland and Burlington. The town, chartered in 1761, exudes history with 329 of its buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Middlebury is loaded with museums, charming accommodations, a world renowned horse farm, a brewery, and great shopping. Middlebury College, founded in 1800, hosts 200 performances a year of dance, music and theater at its Center for the Arts.

The town has a bit of Hollywood to it; the Waybury Inn in East Middlebury was used as the model for “Newhart” a popular 1980’s TV sitcom about a Vermont innkeeper and his neighbors.

The best way to explore this quintessential New England town is on foot. Start your walking tour on Main Street at the white clapboard Congregational church, built in 1809. The church’s tiered spire rising high above the town can be seen for miles around.

Across from the church is the village green, its bandstand is the setting for seasonal fairs, flower shows, Fourth of July speeches, and summer band concerts.

The green was not always the picturesque place it is today. In 1790 town father Gamalial Painter deeded the land to the town for its stocks and flogging post. Thieves were flogged, and, if a woman spoke sharply to her husband he could have her placed in the stocks for up to three days. 

Continue walking and you’ll come to the Main Street Bridge, built from marble quarried in Middlebury. The bridge spans Otter Creek, and is an excellent vantage point for viewing Middlebury Falls. The creek and falls were once major power sources for mills that produced marble, cotton, wool, nails, flour and grain, making Middlebury a prosperous town in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

Beyond the bridge is the Henry Sheldon Museum, a Federal style house built in 1829. Docent led tours highlight the history of the house, it furnishings and of Middlebury. 

For more history walk over to the Gamalial Painter house, built in 1802, it now houses the Vermont Folk Life Center with displays showing Vermont life past and present.

The Otter Creek Brewing Company is a great place for a break and to sample some of ale while touring the facility and learning why the company was started in Middlebury – the water – which emanates from a natural reservoir high in the mountains surrounding the town.

When it’s time for shopping head over to the Vermont State Craft Center at Frog Hollow, this artist’s cooperative, housed in a converted red clapboard mill, is full of hand blown glass, jewelry pottery, and finely crafted furniture.

Two miles out of Middlebury is the University of Vermont (UVM) Morgan Horse Farm, a National Historic Site, surrounded by 215 acres of pastures and woodlands. The 18th century Victorian barn is home to 80 Morgans, the state horse of Vermont.   

In 1789 the first Morgan horse, named Figure, was given to Justin Morgan as payment on a debt. The horse weighed less than 1,000 pounds but could do the work of five horses.   His genetics were so strong that no matter what mare he was bred to the offspring had Figure’s characteristics. 

The farm was owned by Colonel Joseph Battell, who, in 1906, turned it over to the U.S. government for the sole purpose of breeding, training, exhibiting and selling Morgans. In 1951 it came under the stewardship of the University of Vermont. Today, guided tours of the barn give visitors a chance to observe the beauty and intelligence of the Morgan horse.

If You Go
Nearest airport – Burlington, Vermont  
Vermont Bureau of Tourism www.vermontvacation.com
Addison Chamber of Commerce www.midvermont.com

Accommodations
The Waybury Inn www.wayburyinn.com
The Middlebury Inn www.middleburyinn.com

Restaurants
Roland’s Place www.rolands1796house.com
The Storm Café www.thestormcafe.com
The Swift House Inn www.swifthouseinn.com

What To Do
Middlebury College Center for the Arts www.middlebury.edu/arts
Sheldon Museum www.henrysheldonmuseum.org
Vermont Folk Life Center www.vermontfolklifecenter.org
Otter Creek Brewing www.wolavers.com
Vermont State Craft Center at Frog Hollow www.froghollow.org
UVM Morgan Horse Farm www.uvm.edu/morgan

courtesy of Addison County Chamber of Commerce