Date Visited: July 11, 2015
Chester, VT Website
Wikipedia Page
If you’ve lived in Southern Vermont as long as we have and have needed to travel east, you’ve probably passed through Chester on Route 11. What we learned yesterday, however, that Chester is more than just a place to pass through. And like so many tourists out and about on a perfect summer day, we stopped and looked around a bit.
The first thing you notice coming into Chester is the interesting architecture; particularly lots of Victorian style houses. Fancy slate work roofs, loads of gingerbread fretwork, and wrap-around porches grace large roomy houses, any of which would make a postcard bed and breakfast. For you architecture buffs/nerds you can expect to see early 1800’s Federal and 1830’s era Greek Revival as well as Queen Anne and early 20th Century Colonial Revival…at least that’s what the brochure says. Both of us had childhood fantasies of living in a Queen Anne style house in a tower room, a turreted, many-sided hideaway.
Should you decide to stop awhile, there is “Main Street” that runs parallel to Route 11, conveniently out of the main traffic of Route 11 so one can stroll along it easily, also known as the Village Green. Parking is head in on the left, and shops and restaurants/inns populate the right side of the street. Plenty of crosswalks allow exploring the opposite side of the Route as well.
We strolled down Main Street peering into the artisan and vintage goods shops like Misty Valley Books and Vintage Vermont, and admiring the large impressive Fullerton Inn and Inn Victoria (high tea, anyone?) For our lunch, always a top priority on these journeys, we went to the Moon Dog Cafe on the west end of the main thoroughfare. Here we had the best veggie burgers ever on Baba a Louis bread (Chester is home to the quirky Baba a Louis Bakery), health-conscious smoothie and iced tea, served about 3 minutes after we ordered at a table in the front window alcove with Moroccan lamps overhead. And of course we needed a couple of large cookies from the tempting array of baked goods there in glass jars. This is a very local friendly place – kind of hippie-dippie, with charmingly mismatched tables/chairs, vintage plates, and a tock of handmade soaps, incense, etc. They obviously take pride in the healthy food and the place, which looks like a converted old general store.
After a stroll on the main drag we explored some quiet side streets and discovered a marvelous community foot bridge spanning a lovely stream. Robyn wasn’t too keen on getting on it as it swayed a bit and you could see down through the steel mesh floor of the bridge to the river beneath…vertigo much?
We crossed Route 11 and discovered a very impressive cemetery located next to the grounds of the Chester Historical Society. On beautifully manicured grounds overshadowed by immense hemlock trees are arranged the gravestones of heroes of both the Revolutionary and the Civil Wars. Some stones are so old they can barely be read now but many evoke what are surely fascinating stories. It truly felt like hallowed ground. A Public Tomb was a puzzling feature, until we read that it was to house the departed to be buried during the long Vermont winter when the ground is too frozen to dig.
The Center of Chester is also home to several large beautiful churches; some old and at least one more recently restored. Several denominations are represented. Some serious antique shops are another draw to Chester, with beautiful Vermont farmhouse furniture and household items of every description.
Jumping back in the car and heading east, we encountered The Country Girl Diner, which Mark’s parents never failed to stop at on their trips to Vermont from Massachusetts, and Stone House Antiques, a large warehouse of old goodies.
Turning back to the west, we journeyed out of the main part of town to Chester Depot, once a bustling train stop, to just past it where the famous Stone House Village is located. The story of the building of these houses can be found here
Scroll down to near the bottom of the article.
One final stop at a small hut that served excellent maple creemees and we headed for home. Next time you’re passing through Chester, you might want to stop, pull up on the front porch of one of the inns, have a lemonade, and “set” a spell.