Date Visited: June 6, 2015
Links: Poultney Chamber of Commerce – The Story of Poultney – The Poultney Historical Society
Vermont Route 30 runs north from Brattleboro in the southeast corner of VT, to Manchester, jogs west through the Mettowee Valley and then meanders north to Middlebury. Following it from a middling point in Pawlet, just over Dorset Mountain from our Danby home, in about 30 minutes you come to the town of Poultney, the first destination of our adventure.
The choice to start with Poultney was based on Robyn’s desire to visit the yearly Poultney Town-Wide Tag Sale, a favorite of hers, and one of the first “events” of the VT summer. So while this is certainly not our first visit to the town, we aimed to look at it with new eyes, new interest.
Our trip there took us through the beautiful Mettowee Valley where [dairy] farms will always be seen on both sides of the highway because of land covenants, past lovely Lake St. Catherine and its State Park. Mark used to spend a lot of time fishing that lake which is partly located in Poultney.
Following Route 30, Poultney’s main drag is a left hand turn onto a somewhat broad thoroughfare lined with shops, eateries, service businesses, bank, post office etc. Most of the businesses look to be local. Some appear to have been there a long time.
At the end of the main street is Green Mountain College where, when Mark was in college at all-male St. Michael’s up in Burlington, he and his friends would stop on their way to bordering Hampton, NY to pick up a date. Then they would head across the border to the Hampton Manor where they could drink legally. Remind you of Animal House a little?
Things were certainly busy for the big Tag Sale, which includes festival-type vendors of jewelry, maple syrup, fried dough and the like as well as locals looking to get rid of their valuable “junk.” Lots of the usual kids toys and clothes, old rusted tools, out-of-date lamps, questionable knick-knacks, etc. Yet once in a while there is something that catches the eye.
The impression is that the downtown is vibrant, bearing in mind that vital, vibrant and viable are relative terms when referring to small Vermont towns. Probably the college has a lot to do with keeping the town humming.
We also walked along the side streets where there were scattered tag sales, viewing neighborhoods consisting of large, old, well-maintained houses. We imagined these to be quiet and quite livable neighborhoods.
We also noticed a red brick train station that has in the past seen several incarnations as shops or restaurants, but currently houses a culinary arts training center in connection with Poultney High School. Quite interesting to these two foodies! There are lots of indications that Poultney might once have been a significant stop for train travelers.
All in all, both of us would consider it a very livable place, although we suspect many residents must commute to Rutland or Middlebury for work.
We ended up dining at the Trolley Stop where we have eaten before. We have had good food and service there and recommend it to you if you’re looking for an eatery in Poultney.
Vermont towns often have an East this, or a North that, or other divisions of already small areas that are confusing to out-of-staters, but are really just assertions of Yankee independence. So, as we started home, we saw the sign for East Poultney and looped back to it.
The East Poultney we saw in our brief look around consisted of a lovely open square featuring a large, typically Vermontesque Congregational style church (functional? we couldn’t tell.) Across the street from the square was a small low building consisting of a tiny quaint country store, a state liquor outlet and a post office that was about the size of a postage stamp.
All told, though it had been a rather breezy and cool day for walking around outdoors, we had a nice visit, learned some things about a town we have already been to a number of times, and felt good about the beginning chapter of our 251 Journey.
