Montpelier Travel Guide
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Montpelier is 13 miles SE of Waterbury, 9 miles NW of Barre, 178 miles NW of Boston, and 39 miles SE of Burlington.
Montpelier may very well be the most down-home, low-key state capital in the U.S., with a hint of that in every photo of the gold dome of the Capitol. Rising up behind it isn't a bank of mirror-sided skyscrapers, but a thickly forested hill. Montpelier, it turns out, isn't a self-important center of politics, but a small town that happens to be home to state government. It's a quite agreeable place to pass an afternoon, or even stay a night, if you yearn to see just how small-town Vermont really ticks. Sure, the Capitol is worth a visit, as is the local historical society; more than that, though, Montpelier is worth visiting if only to experience a small, clean New England town that's more than a little friendly.
Montpelier centers on two main boulevards: State Street, lined with state government buildings; and Main Street, with many of the town's shops. It's all very compact, manageable, and cordial. The downtown sports a pair of hardware stores next door to each another, good bookstores, and the Savoy, 26 Main St. (tel. 802/229-0509 or 802/229-0598), one of the best art movie houses in northern New England. A large cup of cider and popcorn slathered with real, unclarified butter costs less than a small popcorn at a mall cinema.
Nearby Barre (pronounced "Barry") is more commercial and less charming, but shares an equally vibrant past. Barre has more of a blue-collar demeanor than Montpelier. The historic connection to the thriving granite industry is glimpsed occasionally, from the granite curbstones lining the long Main Street to the signs for commercial establishments carved out of locally hewn rock. Barre attracted talented stone workers from Italy and Scotland (it has a statue of Robert Burns), who helped give the turn-of-the-20th-century town a lively, cosmopolitan flavor.
About 10 miles west of Montpelier, Waterbury is at the juncture of Route 100 and I-89, making it a commercial center by default, if not by design. Set along the Winooski River, it tends to sprawl more than other Vermont towns, perhaps in part because of the flood of 1927, which came close to leveling the town. It's also because the town has attracted an inexplicable number of food companies (including Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and Green Mountain Coffee) that have built factories and outlets in outlying former pastures. With its location between Montpelier and Burlington and easy access to Stowe and Sugarbush, Waterbury has started to attract more émigrés looking for the good life.
Downtown, with its brick commercial architecture and sampling of handsome early homes, is worth a brief tour, but most travelers are either passing through or looking for "that ice cream place." Despite its drive-thru quality, Waterbury makes a decent home base for further explorations in the Green Mountains, in Burlington, 25 miles to the west, and in Montpelier to the east.
