A Quick Visit to Southern Vermont

June 2022

Hildene, Bennington Battle Monument, Robert Frost home, Mt. Equinox, Quechee Gorge, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller Natl. Historical Park, and covered bridges

Hildene

It was a short jaunt from New York’s Hudson River Valley to southern Vermont. We stayed near Bennington in order to see the battle monument there, as well as nearby Hildene, the summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln, the only surviving son of Abraham Lincoln.

Hildene was built around the turn of the 20th century, during the time that Robert Lincoln was president of the Pullman Company, which was then the largest manufacturing company in the U.S. After the last Lincoln descendant to live in the house died in the mid-1970’s, a non-profit group was formed to prevent the estate from being bought by developers. The furnishings in the house are the originals from when Robert Lincoln lived here, and an upstairs wing has a small exhibit about Abe Lincoln.

Pipes for the organ are hidden behind panels on both sides of the stairway landing, above the front door.

Portrait of Robert Lincoln above the fireplace

View of the formal gardens from the upstairs sitting room

Abraham Lincoln’s stovepipe hat

Hildene is beautifully situated between the Taconic mountains on one side, and the Green Mountains on the other. Next to Nemours, we liked Hildene best out of all the mansions we’ve visited.

The poppies were not yet at their peak in early June, but some varieties were blooming.

This 1903 Pullman executive car could hold 18 passengers and 2 porters to attend to them.

The 300-foot-tall Bennington Monument is located on a hill 5 miles away from where the actual Revolutionary War battle took place in upstate New York in 1777. The battle prevented the British from reaching the arsenal supply depot which was located where the monument now stands.

We took an elevator about two-thirds of the way up the monument to where the slits are seen in the stone. That was the observation area.

View from about 200 feet up the monument

Statue of the commanding General John Stark, who led his troops to defeat the British at the Battle of Bennington

Our admission ticket to the monument offered a discount on admission to the Robert Frost Stone House Museum that same day. Poet Robert Frost lived here in the 1920’s. We did not explore the grounds, but only saw the two downstairs rooms. The living room had displays about Frost’s life and family.

The room where Robert Frost wrote “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”. We listened to a recording of his voice reading that poem:

“Whose woods these are, I think I know. His house is in the village though; he will not see me standing here to watch his woods fill up with snow…”

“…The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.”

I’ve always liked that poem.

The next day, we paid $30 to drive up to the top of Mt. Equinox, the highest mountain in the Taconic Range. The drive is billed as the longest privately-owned paved toll road in the U.S. The clouds prevented us from clearly seeing the mountain ranges in the distance, but we had a great view of the valley below. We hiked to Lookout Rock, but the view from the small rock was mostly obscured by trees and underbrush. The view was better right from the building next to the parking lot at the summit, which is over 3800 feet up.

On the way back down, we pulled off at one parking area, and we saw a huge cloud of yellow pollen blowing across the road below us. The pine tree pollen in New York and Vermont at this time of year was so heavy, that our black car had a greenish-yellow coating on it for weeks.

There are over 100 covered bridges in Vermont with 5 of those in Bennington county. We went on a drive to find some, two of which are pictured below.

Chiselville Covered Bridge

Arlington Green Covered Bridge

From here, we traveled north to Woodstock, Vermont. We stopped at nearby Quechee Gorge.

Then we went on a guided tour of Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller Natl. Historical Park, which is the only National Park Service unit in Vermont, and according to the NPS, is the only park unit that tells about the history of conservation in the U.S.

After Billings died, his wife and daughters ran the farm, and one of Billing’s granddaughters married Laurance Rockefeller, so the women of the family were just as important to the conservation movement as the men of this house.

Lots of beautiful woodwork

The art collection was quite nice: the painting below left is by Bierstadt, and a Tiffany window is on the right. There were also paintings by Asher Durand and Thomas Cole, which was fitting for a house owned by conservationists, as Hudson River School paintings educated people of that time period as to the importance of preserving the environment.

We wish we could have walked a trail, as the natural area is quite large, and the house is just a small part of the park, but Craig’s knee was bothering him, so the house tour and visitor center exhibit was the extent of our visit.

Finally, we stopped by this covered bridge near Woodstock.

We enjoyed our quick visit to just a small part of beautiful Vermont. Too bad we didn’t schedule time along Lake Champlain. From here, we headed back into upstate New York.