Issues → May/June 2008 → Interact → 10 Things to Do →

A Sampler of New England's Prettiest Towns

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(page 2 of 5)

Kingfield has a favorite son, actually two of them. The twin Stanley brothers, of Stanley Steamer automobile fame, were born here. The Stanley Museum, in a former schoolhouse, teaches just enough about them through explanatory panels and exhibits -- two restored and running Stanley Steamer motor cars, letters, some technical knickknacks -- to make you realize what an amazing invention an automobile is. Look for the letter from the widow of F. E. Stanley, who died in a car accident in 1918, a most poignant description of love lost.

But the unexpected delight is the display of photographs by Chansonetta Stanley, the brothers' beautifully named and very talented sister. Long before most women had careers -- or were photographers -- Chansonetta captured in black-and-white photos the rural world of Kingfield (and beyond). The faces of those farm girls pictured 100 years ago look as fresh as any teenager's today. For all of Kingfield's Victorian charm, its 20th-century ski aura, and its famous Stanley brothers, it's Chansonetta's story that stays with me on the long drive home.

New Harbor, Maine

At the eastern side of Pemaquid Point, this town has had about as picture- perfect a harbor as one could wish for -- for centuries. This was the home of Samoset, the Indian who startled the Pilgrims in Plymouth in 1621 by greeting them with, "Much welcome, Englishmen." Seems Samoset had hobnobbed with the English sailors who fished off nearby Monhegan Island.

Today New Harbor is small and sheltered, ringed with pine trees and home to as many working lobster boats as sailing boats. Best of all, you can have a nice seat from which to view all this lovely scenery at Shaw's Fish and Lobster Wharf Restaurant, 207-677-2200. Order your lobster and iced tea, then pick your picnic table out on the deck. Fishermen unload their catch, and the boat to Monhegan Island takes off from here as well. With so much to see, you'd better order a strawberry shortcake to keep up your energy.

A trip to the very tip of the peninsula will take you to the 1827 Pemaquid Light and its tiny Fisherman's Museum. Here the earth rolls into the sea with big, wave-smoothed rocks, perfect for scrambling over in late-afternoon light.

Grafton, Vermont

The approach is on a washboard dirt road, the perfect entrance to this secluded slice of Greek Revival New England in the Vermont mountains. This, you think, is how our ancestors traveled, being bounced about by bumps. Protected from macadam, Grafton is a gem of the early 1800s. True, it's had a little help in looking so pristine and all from the wealthy Windham Foundation, which bought and restored the entire town. But there's no denying it's pretty.

Everyone's first reaction to Grafton is to wander up and down the streets. Everyone's second reaction to Grafton is to take up residence in one of the rocking chairs that line the porch of the Old Tavern, which has been offering rooms to the weary since 1801. I'm sure that for at least that long, carloads of New Yorkers have been transformed into rocking hayseeds by this porch.

The Old Tavern offers a small-town experience with a stay in one of the inn's rooms, in one of its cottages, or in one of the seven guest houses tucked around town. You'll be in good company -- among visitors have been Ulysses S. Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, Henry David Thoreau, and Rudyard Kipling. For the active, there are 30 kilometers of hiking, tennis courts, and a natural swimming pond -- but those rocking chairs are tempting.