Postcard villages
Away from the lakes, Orleans County is a string of quiet, deeply characterful villages. Craftsbury, Glover, Barton and Brownington feel like the Vermont of a century ago — white-clapboard churches, general stores and hayfields rolling up to wooded hills.
Craftsbury & the Outdoor Center
Craftsbury Common is one of Vermont’s most photographed village greens, ringed by white buildings and framed by hills. Just outside town, the Craftsbury Outdoor Center is a year-round hub for Nordic skiing, sculling on Great Hosmer Pond and trail running, with lodging and a farm-to-table dining hall.
Glover: puppets & ponds
Tiny Glover punches far above its weight. It is home to Bread & Puppet Theater, whose towering political puppets and open-air summer pageants are world-famous, and to the legend of Runaway Pond — where an 1810 attempt to boost a mill’s water supply accidentally drained an entire pond in minutes.
Barton & Brownington
The eastern villages reward a slow drive.
Barton — Crystal Lake State Park and the historic Orleans County Fair each August.
Brownington — the Old Stone House Museum, an 1836 granite school built by Alexander Twilight.
Orleans village — a famed spring rainbow-trout run on the Willoughby River.
Good to know
What is Bread & Puppet?+
A world-renowned political puppet theater based in Glover, with a barn museum of giant figures and open-air pageants staged in the summer fields.
Why is Craftsbury famous?+
For its immaculate village common and the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, a year-round Nordic skiing, rowing and running destination.
What is the Old Stone House?+
An 1836 granite schoolhouse in Brownington built by Alexander Twilight, the first Black American to earn a college degree — now a museum.