With Mt. Ascutney poking up over the rows and rows of thick forest, it’s hard to believe this area was once called “little New York.” The foliage-filled bluffs of southern New Hampshire and Vermont flanking the upper Connecticut River and the narrow two-lane roads winding through the woods make that nickname even more incongruous.
When the 20th Century was young, however, the area around Cornish, in a region known among locals as the Upper Valley, was filled with some of the most famous names from New York’s literary and artistic set and was known collectively as the Cornish Colony.
While the famed colony has long since disappeared, the luscious landscape that attracted all those artists and writers remains. Come in fall and set your eyes on the melange of colors flanking the roadsides. You will understand why so many ventured from the city to the northern countryside.
The bright reds and golds and oranges overwhelm you from any direction. If you canoe down the Connecticut River, you will find yourself in an enviable situation, hemmed in by the color-topped cliffs with Mt. Ascutney looming closer and closer as you paddle through the waters. Travel by car and you can stop and admire the woods at your leisure. Mt. Ascutney State Park on the Vermont side of the river lures picnickers, hikers and relaxed strollers in search of easy trails.
Two hundred years of human settlement have not left the area worse for wear. Town greens and covered bridges compliment fall colors. You won’t find fast food strips unless you wander up to West Lebanon in New Hampshire; the Vermont side is free of such encroachments.
Of course, one man’s eyesore is another man’s dream. Famed sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, probably the most renowned member of the Cornish Colony, learned that during his first visit here. Saint-Gaudens’ Cornish home is as handsome as a frosted wedding cake but it wasn’t always grand and imposing. The story goes that the structure was built in the 1800s as an inn on a road planned to be a main coach route. However, the primary thoroughfare was built elsewhere and the would-be inn was deserted like an ’85 Plymouth on a Bronx expressway.
Years later a Cornish property owner convinced Saint-Gaudens to buy the inn. The artist was at first repulsed, but the Cornish native knew Saint-Gaudens was planning a statue of Abraham Lincoln. So he told the artist about all the “Lincoln-shaped men” living locally. Saint-Gaudens packed his chisel and was on his way north.
You can tour the home today as well as two sculpture studios, a sculpture garden, the owners’ stables, the family burial site and a brookside walking path. Come in the fall to see the works of man and nature at their best. Those who saw the Academy-Award-winning movie “Glory” will recognize the reproduction of the Shaw Memorial. (The original sits on Boston Common.) The monument to Col. Robert Gould Shaw and his black Civil War regiment took 14 years to finish and is one of the sculptor’s most highly regarded works. Be sure to examine the detail in the soldiers’ guns, the folds in their uniforms and their facial expressions.
Following the example set by Saint-Gaudens, a slew of other creative minds came north, some seasonally, others year-round. Poet William Vaughn Moody, American novelist Winston Churchill, actress Ethel Barrymore, illustrator Charles Dana Gibson (of Gibson Girl fame) and artist Maxfield Parrish became Cornish Colony residents. Little question why this colony of urban talents became known as “little New York.”
While Saint-Gaudens was drawn by potential Lincoln models, Parrish was lured by the dizzying blue skies. Visit on a crisp, fall day and you will understand what inspired Parrish to develop his own shade of blue–his deep, mystical Parrish blue. Parrish once explained his switch to landscape painting in his later years this way: “There are always pretty girls on every city street, but a man can’t step out on the subway and watch the clouds playing with the top of Mt. Ascutney.” (And I thought he was just getting old.)
You, too, have the luxury of scouting Mt. Ascutney. A 4-mile-long auto road in Ascutney State Park takes you to the 3,150-foot summit. The park is also one of the best places to unpack the picnic basket or amble through the woods. The mountain might be nature’s most prominent landmark, but the honors for man’s efforts go to the Windsor-Cornish covered bridge. Built in 1866 and restored in 1990, it spans the Connecticut River and is the longest covered bridge in the United States.
It would be neglectful to discuss the Upper Valley without saying a word or two about Woodstock, the pristine community with an immaculately manicured green, clapboard homes, the stately Woodstock Inn and the gentle pace people in big cities savor. If Universal Studios built a New England backlot, Woodstock would be the model.
Esthetics aside, Woodstock boasts enough activity to fill anyone’s day. Life-sized dioramas, a working dairy farm, the refurbished farm manager’s house and creamery, and frequent activity weekends make Billings Farm and Museum an eye-opening look at Vermont daily farming, past and present. To appreciate the lifestyle of a millionaire with a heart, cross the street from the farm complex and enter Woodstock’s own Rockefeller mansion, officially called Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, opened to the public in 1998. The connection to this area? The granddaughter of Frederick Billings, the farm’s founder, was the wife of John D.’s grandson Laurance S. Rockefeller.
Inside the mansion visitors are told a tale of progressive conservation, all the while examining treasures collected from all parts of the globe and artistic works of Thomas Cole and Albert Bierstadt, for example. Long before there was a mansion, a man named George Perkins Marsh lived on this property. It was Marsh who in 1864 wrote a landmark conservation book, “Man and Nature.” Impressed with Marsh’s views, Frederick Billings bought Marsh’s property, founded the farm and renovated and expanded this home. It was Rockefeller who expanded the house even more, adding those sumptuous touches that only those with a name like Rockefeller could afford.
Time left over? Head to some of Woodstock’s antique shops. Try Church Street Antiques (4 Church) and Wigren & Barlow (29 Pleasant). Who Is Sylvia? (26 Central) specializes in antique clothing. For modern touches, there’s Unicorn (15 Central) with imported crafts, Aubergine (1 Elm) with gourmet kitchenware, F.H. Gillingham & Co. (16 Elm), a country store with an atmosphere more genuine than packaged, and The Vermont Workshop and Christmas Treasures (both sharing 76 Central Street), with holiday goodies and home accessories.
Don’t leave Woodstock without walking through the village center. There is often some kind of action–a craft or quilt show, perhaps–taking place on the broad village green. And check out the Town Crier blackboard at Elm and Central, which announces townwide events.
IF YOU GO
THE SIGHTS
Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site (off New Hampshire Highway 12A, Cornish, N.H.) is open 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily through Oct. 31; grounds open until dark. Admission is $4 adults, free under 17. 603-675-2175; www.nps.gov/saga.
Ascutney State Park (U.S. Highway 5, Ascutney, Vt.). A 4-mile toll road to Mt. Acutney is open 8 a.m.-sunset daily through Columbus Day (season may extend a week depending on weather). Toll is $2 per adult and $1.50 for ages 4-14. 802-674-2060.
Billings Farm and Museum (Vermont Highway 12, Woodstock, Vt.) is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily through Oct. 31 plus selected hours during the Christmas season. Admission is $8 adults, $7 ages 65 and over, $6 ages 13-17, $4 ages 5-12, $1 ages 3-4. 802-457-2355; www.billingsfarm.org.
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park (across the street from Billings Farm and Museum) is also open daily through Oct. 31. Guided tours of the mansion and grounds last roughly 75 minutes and are offered every half hour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reservations are highly recommended during foliage season. Admission is $6 adults, $3 for ages 5-12 and over 62. 802-457-3368; www.nps.gov/mabi.
LODGING
Home Hill Country Inn (703 River Rd., Plainfield, N.H.): Doubles at this nine-room inn are $150-$245 with continental breakfast. 603-675-6165; www.homehillinn.com.
Fireside Inn & Suites (25 Airport Rd., West Lebanon, N.H.): Doubles at this motel are $89-$120. 603-298-5906.
Sunset Motor Inn (New Hampshire Highway 10, West Lebanon, N.H.): Doubles are $55-$75. 603-298-8721.
Woodstock Inn (The Green, Woodstock, Vt.): Doubles at this 144-room resort run $169-$324. 802-457-1100; www.woodstockinn.com.
Shire Motel (46 Pleasant St., Woodstock, Vt.): Doubles are $95-$165. 802-457-2211.
Juniper Hill Inn (Juniper Hill Road, Windsor, Vt.): Doubles at this country inn are $95-$175 with full breakfast. 802-674-5273; www.juniperhillinn.com.
INFORMATION
Vermont Travel Division, 6 Baldwin St., Drawer 33, Montpelier, VT 05633-1301; 802-828-3237; www.travel-vermont.com.
Woodstock Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 486 (location: 18 Central St.), Woodstock, VT 05091; 888-4-WOODSTOCK or 802-457-3555; www.woodstockvt.com.
New Hampshire Office of Travel and Tourism Development, Box 1856, Concord, NH 03302-1856; 800-386-4664 or 603-271-2343; www.visitnh.gov.
— M.S.
