Stone House Museum in Brownington VT

We arrived in Brownington Vermont on 3 October expecting or at least hoping for some wonderful fall colors. As with so many plans, our day started with clouds turning to light rain as we drove up I-89. We were making our first trip to the Old Stone House Museum in Brownington Vermont.

Old Stone House Museum Brownington Vermont — Old Stone House Brownington Vermont

Lisa and I love seeing houses/buildings made of stone, as they have so much character, this one was not lacking in this. We started by walking the property with our umbrellas. It was 3 October 2021 and the fall colors were just showing in this area. BUT, just two days later on the 5th of October, I found colors like this at several of the ponds just 10 to 20 miles away.

Finding the Old Stone House Museum

You can click this link to open a Google map of the location. You are smack in the Northern middle of the NEK (Northeast Kingdom) and if traveling north on I-91, you get off in Orleans VT. You can take Route 58 east for 1.6 miles to Churchill Road. Head north for 2.5 miles to Old Stone House Rd. and you will find it on the left, a short distance away.

Before you go too far, Have you picked up your Gazetteer?

I have all the Gazetteers in my Amazon store and travel books from Frommers and Moon travel writers, with subjects covering New England.

History of the Old Stone House Museum

This stone house is at the heart of the Brownington Village Historic District. The Historical Society owns six buildings in the village. The Samuel Read Hall House, the Cyrus Eaton House, the Twilight Homestead, the Twilight Farmhouse, the Old Stone House, and the Lawrence Barn.

Lisa and I only did a tour of the Stone House (also known as the Athenian Hall) so our focus today is on this building. But If you go through a full tour covering the village, I think you will find it fascinating.

Lisa and I learned a very important fact from the tour, the Reverend Mr. Twilight who was both a minister and educator/principal was also the First African-American graduate with a bachelor’s degree in the country. He came to Brownington in 1829 as the minister of the Congregational Church and the Principal of the Grammar School. He graduated from Middlebury College in 1923.

We found the mystery intriguing that he had no financial help building the Athenian Hall and there are no records on how he paid for it. Local legend says he assembled much of it himself using an oxen team to move the large granite blocks. It is also said that he quarried the granite himself…

The school was both classroom and dormitories, the latter of which were upstairs for boys and girls who traveled from far distances to attend school here. There was no indoor plumbing or central heating and to heat the place they relied on the huge kitchen fireplace and 15 small charcoal fireplaces to heat the building.

Photographic Opportunities

This museum property has a multitude of photo ops for you to take advantage of From inside the museum to the grounds outside, so you shouldn’t lack things to photograph. The day we were there it was drizzling softly and I wandered the gardens and farm fields looking for photo ops.

I even saw an Amish buggy drive by on the road but by the time I got to the road, it was off in the distance. There are fields with crops and several barns to wander through and according to the signs they even make and sell ice cream on the weekends… But being a less than busy day, there was no ice cream to be had…

That is it for today, I hope you’ll take a trip up to the Old Stone House in Brownington Vermont. It’s a wonderful side trip and “could” provide some rustic buildings with the fall colors to photograph.

Jeff Foliage Folger

Autumn is a state of mind more than a time of year – Jeff Foliage

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