Newfane Travel Guide
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These two villages, about 5 miles apart on Route 30, are the picture-perfect epitome of Vermont. Set within the serpentine West River Valley, both are built around town greens. Both towns consist of impressive white-clapboard homes and public buildings that share the grace and scale of the surrounding homes. Both boast striking examples of early American architecture, notably Greek Revival.
Don't bother looking for strip malls, McDonald's, or video outlets hereabouts. Newfane and Townshend have a feel of having been idled on a sidetrack for decades while the rest of America steamed blithely ahead, yet these villages certainly don't have the feel of a mausoleum. During a breezy autumn afternoon, a swarm of teenagers might skateboard off the steps of the courthouse in Newfane while a lively pickup basketball game gets underway at the edge of the Townshend green. There is life here.
For visitors, however, inactivity is often the activity of choice. Guests find an inn or lodge that suits their temperament, then spend days strolling the towns, undertaking aimless back-road driving tours, soaking in a mountain stream, hunting up antiques at the many shops, or striking off on foot for one of the rounded, wooded peaks that overlook villages and valleys.
