The cradle of an independent republic
To understand the spirit of Vermont — its independent streak, its reverence for town-hall democracy, its stubborn attachment to agricultural roots — you have to travel to the eastern and western edges of southern Windsor County. Two pivotal moments in American history unfolded here, 146 years and twenty-five miles apart.
In July 1777, in a tavern on the bank of the Connecticut River at Windsor, delegates drafted the constitution that created the independent Republic of Vermont. It was the first government in North America to prohibit adult slavery, the first to extend the vote to all adult men regardless of property ownership, and the first to mandate publicly funded schools. Vermont then operated as a sovereign republic for fourteen years, minting its own currency and running its own postal service, before joining the union as the fourteenth state in 1791.
In August 1923, in a farmhouse parlour high in the hills at Plymouth Notch, a vice president was sworn in as president by the light of a kerosene lamp, by his own father. It remains the enduring image of modest, rural American leadership — and the village where it happened is preserved almost exactly as it stood.
Windsor: the first capital
Windsor calls itself the Birthplace of Vermont, and the claim is literal. Elijah West’s tavern, where the delegates met, survives as the Old Constitution House state historic site — moved a short distance from its original position but otherwise intact.
Inside, you can walk the original meeting rooms and see 18th-century artifacts and reproductions of the 1777 constitution. The context is worth grasping: the convention met under real threat. British forces were advancing from the north, Fort Ticonderoga had just fallen, and the delegates broke off their deliberations when word arrived. That they nonetheless produced a document banning adult slavery — decades before any US state — is the reason the site matters.
A few minutes away, the American Precision Museum occupies the 1846 Robbins & Lawrence Armory, a National Historic Landmark and one of the most important industrial buildings in America. Windsor’s machinists perfected the manufacture of interchangeable parts, the foundation of what Europeans came to call the American System of manufacturing, and exported both the machine tools and the method worldwide. The museum holds the largest collection of historic machine tools anywhere, with working demonstrations and hands-on engineering exhibits.
And just outside town, the Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge crosses the Connecticut River into New Hampshire: 449 feet of two-span timber lattice built in 1866, the longest wooden covered bridge in the United States and one of the longest in the world. It still carries traffic, and walking its shaded length is a signature New England experience.
Plymouth Notch: the village frozen in time
Twenty-five miles west, up into the Green Mountains, Plymouth Notch is not a museum with a village attached — it is an entire 19th-century hill hamlet preserved in place as the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site, and one of the most complete presidential sites in the country.
On 2 August 1923, President Warren Harding died suddenly in San Francisco. Vice President Coolidge was on holiday at his family’s home here, a house with no telephone and no electricity. A messenger drove up from the telegraph office at Bridgewater in the middle of the night. At 2:47 in the morning on 3 August, Coolidge dressed, came downstairs, and took the oath of office in the family sitting room by the light of a single kerosene lamp — administered by his father, John Calvin Coolidge Sr., a notary public. He then, by his own account, went back to bed.
The homestead remains furnished exactly as it was that night, down to the lamp and the table. Around it stand the buildings of the working village: the Florence Cilley general store with its original 1890s stock and post office, where Coolidge was born in the attached residence in 1872; the 1840 church; the one-room schoolhouse he attended; the barns; the dance hall that served as the summer White House press office in 1924; and the modern Coolidge Museum and Education Center.
Plymouth Artisan Cheese, founded by Coolidge’s father in 1890, is among the oldest continuously operating cheese factories in the United States and still makes raw-milk granular-curd cheddar to the original recipe. You can watch production and taste.
Half a mile down the road, the Notch Cemetery holds simple headstones for seven generations of Coolidges, the president’s marked no more elaborately than the rest — which was, by every account, exactly as he would have wanted it.
The full-day historic route
Windsor and Plymouth pair naturally into one day on Route 103 and Route 100A.
8:30am, Windsor — coffee and breakfast on Main Street, then walk the Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge across the Connecticut into New Hampshire and back.
9:30am, Old Constitution House — the tavern where the Republic of Vermont was created in July 1777, with the original meeting rooms and constitution documents.
11:00am, American Precision Museum — the 1846 armory, the world’s largest collection of historic machine tools, and the story of interchangeable parts.
12:45pm, Route 103 west — the scenic climb into the mountains toward Plymouth, past Ascutney and through Weathersfield.
1:30pm, Plymouth Notch — a picnic on the village green, then the guided tour of the homestead, store, schoolhouse and museum.
3:30pm, Plymouth Artisan Cheese — raw-milk cheddar made to the 1890 Coolidge recipe, with production visible.
4:30pm, Notch Cemetery — the hillside plot where the president lies among seven generations of his family.
More history nearby
Windsor County keeps going if you have the appetite. In Windsor itself, the Vermont State Craft Center at Windsor House occupies a grand 1840 hotel and shows work by more than two hundred Vermont artisans. Mount Ascutney rises directly above town, with a 3.7-mile auto road to a summit fire tower and views into three states.
North on Route 5 and I-91, Hartland and Sumner Falls give river access and a scenic picnic spot at a set of natural rapids on the Connecticut. Twenty-five minutes north, Woodstock adds Billings Farm & Museum, founded 1871, and Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park — the only unit of the National Park System dedicated to conservation history, and the birthplace of George Perkins Marsh, whose 1864 book Man and Nature founded the American conservation movement.
Twenty minutes north-east across the river, Hanover holds Dartmouth College, founded 1769, the free Hood Museum of Art with over 65,000 works, and the Orozco murals in Baker-Berry Library. Southward, Springfield and Weathersfield continue the machine-tool valley story, and Route 106 runs past Jenne Farm in Reading, among the most photographed farms in North America.
Practical information and where to stay
Windsor sits on US Route 5 and I-91 at exit 9, about two hours south-east of Burlington and two hours north-west of Boston. Plymouth Notch is on Route 100A, four miles off Route 100 and about forty minutes west of Windsor via Route 103, or thirty minutes south-west of Woodstock.
Both historic sites are seasonal: the Old Constitution House and the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site typically open from late May through mid-October, with the Coolidge site running special programming around 4 July and Coolidge’s birthday. The American Precision Museum runs a similar season. The Cornish-Windsor Bridge and the Notch Cemetery are open year-round and free.
Autumn is the finest time — the drive on Route 103 and Route 100A through the hills peaks between 1 and 12 October — but late spring and summer are quieter and every site is open.
For lodging, Windsor and neighbouring Ascutney offer dependable, well-priced rooms right off I-91, and Ludlow, twenty-five minutes west at the foot of Okemo, has the widest choice in southern Windsor County. Woodstock is thirty minutes north for a more polished stay. Compare live prices in the search below, with free cancellation on most rooms.
Good to know
Why is Windsor called the birthplace of Vermont?+
Because delegates met in Elijah West’s tavern there in July 1777 and drafted the constitution creating the independent Republic of Vermont — the first government in North America to prohibit adult slavery, extend the vote to all adult men and mandate publicly funded schools. The tavern survives as the Old Constitution House.
How long was Vermont an independent republic?+
Fourteen years, from 1777 until it joined the union as the fourteenth state in 1791. During that time it minted its own currency and ran its own postal service.
Where was Calvin Coolidge sworn in as president?+
In the sitting room of his family’s farmhouse at Plymouth Notch, at 2:47am on 3 August 1923, by the light of a single kerosene lamp. The oath was administered by his father, a notary public. The room remains furnished exactly as it was that night.
What is the longest covered bridge in the United States?+
The Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge, which crosses the Connecticut River from Windsor, Vermont into Cornish, New Hampshire. Built in 1866, it spans 449 feet in two timber lattice sections and still carries traffic.
What is the American Precision Museum?+
A museum in the 1846 Robbins & Lawrence Armory in Windsor, a National Historic Landmark, holding the world’s largest collection of historic machine tools. Windsor’s machinists perfected interchangeable parts — the basis of the American System of manufacturing — and exported the method worldwide.