The small town of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, has a rich history and is surrounded by a natural setting ideal for outdoor activities. A small number of settlers, including a member of the Continental Congress, came here in the late 1700s and built homes that still sit in the center of town. One of the town’s most famous residents, Thaddeus Fairbanks, invented the platform scale, and the generosity of the Fairbanks family helped create and fund some of the popular cultural attractions in town.
On Main Street in St. Johnsbury you can find the Victorian building that houses the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium. Inside there are more than 175,000 objects, including artifacts from around the world, the Fairbanks family legacy collection of dolls and a dazzling array of mounted animals. The Naturalists Corner exhibit offers opportunities to learn about bugs, plants and wetlands from resident naturalists. The Lyman Spitzer Jr. Planetarium provides guided tours of the cosmos by astronomy experts.
Go to the Brownington Village Historic District to visit the Old Stone House Museum. This 4-story granite structure has 21 rooms of historical exhibits showcasing life in the 19th century. It sits on a 50-acre parcel along with five other 19th-century buildings: a traditional barn, a blacksmith shop and three historic residences. The Old Stone House Museum was built by Reverend Alexander Twilight in the 1830s. He was the first African-American to be graduated from an American University and the first African-American elected to a state’s legislative body.
The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum is a historic library and museum featuring a sizable fine arts collection displayed in the main gallery and throughout the building. The collection consists primarily of marble statues and oil paintings by American and European artists, with 85 original works of art and 15 copies of known works created between the 1700s and mid-1800s. Featured painters include the father of American landscape painting, Asher B. Durand, as well as the Luminist painter, Sanford Gifford. The library opened in the late 1800s and has thousands of books from the original collection.
Kingdom Trails is about 14 miles away on the hillsides of East Burke. Its maintained and well-marked recreational trails cross over 50 privately owned parcels of land. In the winter, people go snowshoeing, snow biking and cross-country skiing on the Nordic trail network. Warmer weather beckons hikers and mountain bike enthusiasts. Darling Hill is a singletrack trail with portions suitable for novice riders, and Burke mountain trails attract expert riders. Safety gear, such as a full-face helmet, is recommended.
