Grafton Restoration Focuses on Architecture

In a state noted for having more “pretty little towns” than any other in the nation, this lovely village is a strong contender for the “best-in-show” ribbon, having undergone an extensive renovation during the past quarter-century.

Founded in 1754 and soon a prosperous agriculture and logging town, Grafton later industrialized with tanneries and factories producing carriages, sleighs and butter churns.

But the town began to lose its head of steam, along with most of its citizens, as the 19th Century drew to a close, and the village smithy shod his final dobbin in the early 1900s.

As things continued to go steadily downhill, along came Dean Mathey, a Princeton Phi Beta Kappa graduate and investment banker. Mathey loved architecture as much as he loved Grafton, so he began doing for Grafton what the Rockefellers did for Williamsburg.

Unlike Williamsburg, however, Grafton is filled with people who live here attending band concerts, church fairs, bike parades and the fire department street dance.

Here to there: Fly United or USAir to Burlington, then take a bus or rental car to Grafton. Boston also is a good gateway city.

How long/how much? Do Grafton in a day, or use it as a base for visiting a few of the other towns in the vicinity. Costs for excellent accommodations are high moderate; dining well is very moderate.

A few fast facts: Visit about any time, although reservations are tight during fall foliage season. Good alpine skiing in the Green Mountains, cross-country trails everywhere. Walk or ride a bike in Grafton, but rent a car for exploring.

Getting settled in: The Old Tavern ($50-$105 double; seven separate houses and cottages with kitchens, sleeping up to nine, in the $250 range) goes back to 1788 and guests Rudyard Kipling, Ulysses S. Grant and Daniel Webster. The tavern gives you the feeling you’re in the home of a very affluent friend with exquisite tastes. Public rooms are comfortable. There’s a porch for rocking, plus tennis and a pool that looks like Walden’s pond. Four-posters, fireplaces, library, sleds and toboggans are available, also box stalls and a carriage shed for your horses.

The Wayfarer ($75-$90 double with full country breakfasts) is a restored 1834 home with only five rooms, most with wood-burning fireplaces. Rooms are furnished with country antiques, a couple with grandfather clocks; all have lovely views. The owners have an antique shop across the yard.

The Inn at Long Last (Chester; $75-$95 per person with breakfast and dinner) is about a 10-minute drive from Grafton. Another charmer, it’s owned by a former college president who’s made the inn a peaceful and friendly haven with magnificent dining. Each room has homemade quilts, wildflowers in baskets. Some with fireplaces and rocking chairs. Fresh muffins, tea and coffee for early risers--the big breakfast later. On the village green. There’s a library, tennis courts and pool. The owner is likely to play you cribbage by the fire. A delight from top to bottom.

Regional food and drink: Lots of unusual and interesting things put up for sale by housewives and at the Village Store: Putney chutney, cider jelly, Grafton’s own cheddar, pickled fiddlehead, maple cream, hot gingered apricot chutney and cider jelly, all bottled by the Grafton Goodjam kitchens.

Vermonters stick pretty much to all-American staples for the main course, the veal being as good as we’ve had anywhere. Farmer Jake Vierzen of Vergennes raises some of the state’s best. Vermont’s amber Catamount beer is excellent.

Moderate-cost dining: The Old Tavern’s dining room has a fairly extensive menu for a small town, leaning on local specialties such as chicken pot pie, roast duck and pork medallions, all given special interest with pecan wild rice, marsala on the veal, brandy cream walnut sauce with your pork. Full dinners about $15.

We seldom make a big thing of breakfast, but we did at Skyline a few miles down the pike in Marlboro.

At the top of Hogback Mountain, which has a 100-mile view, get ready for toasted pecan waffles, buckwheat or bacon griddle cakes from fresh-ground grain, topped with thick Vermont maple syrup that’s pure nectar. Other meals also served. Bird feeders outside windows let you watch purple finch and robins having their morning meal.

A certain waitress in the Inn at Long Last’s dining room is a member of the fire brigade and may have to leave on an emergency between courses. The menu, however, is truly innovative, with its variations on fresh local food.

The pension menu for room guests also gives walk-in diners several choices of entrees, main courses and desserts. We started with cheddar soup and corn-cob-smoked rainbow trout, went on to lamb loin chops with mint garlic dressing and coho salmon fillet. The homemade pastas and duck liver pate with honey mustard sauce were superb.

On your own: Walk Grafton’s tree-shaded streets for a look at what can be done when people revere the past and its architecture, stopping by the Village Store’s bulletin board. Then head down the road to Brattleboro, perhaps for a ride down the Connecticut River on the Belle of Brattleboro, a spruced-up African Queen affair.

Nearby Marlboro has some of the best chamber music concerts in the nation during summer, while a skip away at Weston you’ll find summer theater that has been acclaimed for half a century. Or take a ride on the Green Mountain Flyer, which also has been chugging along for ages on its 68-mile round trip past covered bridges, colorful farms and river valleys between Bellows Falls and Summit.

You might also want to take a swing through Proctorsville for a look at Joseph Cerniglia’s apple-wine operation. Cerniglia bridles at people calling his product a “fruit” wine. “What is the grape?” he asks. “A vegetable?”

Back in Grafton, be sure to see the old blacksmith shop where toothless smithy Hank Farnsworth kept the bellows going, repaired watches and still had a little time for barbering. Farnsworth also led the Grafton Village Band and claimed to have taught John Philip Sousa “all he ever know’d ‘bout band lead’n,” although Sousa was never in Grafton and Farnsworth never left until he died at 85 in 1957.

For more information: Contact the Vermont Travel Division, Agency of Development and Community Affairs, 134 State St., Montpelier, Vt. 05602, phone (802) 828-3236.