Historic Inns in Vermont

The regions

Where to stay, by region

Southern Vermont

In Manchester Village, The Equinox grew from the Equinox House of 1853 and now spans 17 structures; the resort traces its start to the 1769 Marsh Tavern. Dorset has two inns run together as the Inns of Dorset: The Dorset Inn, on the village’s main intersection since 1796, and Barrows House, the Reverend William Jackson’s 1804 house, made an inn in 1900. Elsewhere in the Shires, The Arlington Inn is Martin Chester Deming’s 1848 house, and Four Chimneys Inn stands in the Old Bennington Historic District. The Grafton Inn began in 1801, when Enos Lovell turned his home into an inn, and in downtown Brattleboro the Latchis Hotel is a 1938 Art Deco hotel and theatre.

Central Vermont

Woodstock has four: the Woodstock Inn & Resort, which the Rockefellers opened on the Woodstock Green in 1969; The Jackson, an 1889–90 Queen Anne house; The Woodstocker B&B, a house the inn dates to 1830; and the Kedron Valley Inn in South Woodstock. In the Upper Valley, The Norwich Inn was rebuilt in 1890 on the foundation of a 1797 inn, and the 1924 Hotel Coolidge stands near the White River Junction depot. In the Okemo Valley, The Fullerton Inn faces the Chester green, Castle Hill Resort & Spa in Cavendish is built around Allen M. Fletcher’s stone mansion, and Hartness House in Springfield was inventor James Hartness’s 1904 home. Brandon has The Brandon Inn on Central Park and The Lilac Inn, a 1909 summer house; the Inn at Round Barn Farm is in the Mad River Valley at Waitsfield; and The Inn at Montpelier joins two Federal houses on Montpelier’s Main Street.

Champlain Valley

Middlebury has three: The Middlebury Inn, Nathan Wood’s 1827 brick hotel on Court Square; the Swift House Inn, Samuel Swift’s 1814 house; and The Waybury Inn in East Middlebury, built in 1810 as a boarding house and tavern. In Vergennes, the Strong House Inn is Samuel Paddock Strong’s 1834 house, individually listed on the National Register. On Lake Champlain, Shelburne Farms Inn fills the Webbs’ 1899 Shelburne House on a National Historic Landmark estate and opens only from mid-May to mid-October, and in Burlington, Lang House on Main Street is an 1881 house that became a B&B in 2000.

Northern Vermont

In Stowe Village, Peter C. Lovejoy built the Green Mountain Inn in 1833; it now has rooms in several buildings, not all of them historic. Waterbury’s Old Stagecoach Inn, a Federal house the inn dates to 1826, later hosted travelers bound for the resorts around Stowe, and in Jeffersonville, Smugglers’ Notch Inn sits at the foot of Smugglers’ Notch, the mountain pass to Stowe. In the Northeast Kingdom, The Inn at Mountain View Farm has rooms in the 1913 brick creamery and the c. 1855 farmhouse of Elmer A. Darling’s farm on Darling Hill in East Burke.

Before you book

Planning your stay

Before you book

Several inns have grown beyond their historic buildings, so ask where your room is: only 8 of Barrows House’s 27 rooms are in its 1804 main inn, 8 of the Strong House Inn’s 14 are in its 1834 main house, 20 of The Middlebury Inn’s rooms are in a 1968 annex, and at Castle Hill only the Castle rooms and suite are in the mansion. Some add fees: The Equinox charges a $44 nightly resort fee plus a 4% historic preservation fee and a 1% community impact fee, the Inns of Dorset a $34 nightly resort fee, and The Grafton Inn a $30 preservation fee per reservation. Check age rules too: the guest checking in must be 21 at The Equinox and the Green Mountain Inn, the Strong House Inn takes no children under 12, The Woodstocker B&B takes children 16 and older, and the Inn at Round Barn Farm welcomes children when a party reserves the whole inn.

Seasons

Shelburne Farms Inn is seasonal, open from mid-May to mid-October; its 2026 season ended October 19, and its booking engine already showed June 2027 rates. The Inn at Mountain View Farm sets a two-night minimum in foliage season.

Accessibility

The Grafton Inn’s Main Inn has an elevator, The Middlebury Inn has a historic Otis elevator in its Main Inn, and The Norwich Inn’s elevator serves second-floor accessible rooms. At The Waybury Inn, all guest rooms are on the second floor and there is no elevator.

Ways in

Themes in Vermont

Village inns in National Register districts

Most of the inns we list stand inside a National Register historic district, often on the village green or main street. The Dorset Inn anchors the north side of Dorset’s main intersection, and the National Register nomination calls The Grafton Inn, a three-and-a-half-story hotel, the centerpiece of the Grafton Village Historic District. The Fullerton Inn faces the Chester green, The Brandon Inn stands on Brandon’s Central Park, and The Middlebury Inn on Middlebury’s Court Square.

Woodstock and the Rockefeller inn

Captain Israel Richardson built one of Woodstock’s first lodgings in 1793, later known as the Eagle Hotel, and in 1892 a new Woodstock Inn with more than 100 rooms and a 400-foot verandah replaced it. Laurance Rockefeller bought the aging inn and had it torn down, and on November 23, 1969, he and Mary Rockefeller opened the present inn on the Woodstock Green. Elsewhere in Woodstock, The Jackson is the 1889–90 Queen Anne house of sawmill owner Wales N. Johnson, The Woodstocker B&B is a house the inn dates to 1830, and the Kedron Valley Inn’s Federal brick buildings stand in South Woodstock village.

Middlebury and the Champlain Valley

Nathan Wood opened The Middlebury Inn as the brick Vermont Hotel beside the Centre Turnpike in 1827, Samuel Swift built the Swift House Inn’s main house in 1814, and in East Middlebury John Foote built The Waybury Inn as a boarding house and tavern around 1810. In Vergennes, Samuel Paddock Strong, son of the General Samuel Strong who directed the Vermont militia at the Battle of Plattsburgh, built the Strong House Inn in 1834. On Lake Champlain, William Seward Webb and Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb created Shelburne Farms in 1886 as a model agricultural estate, with landscaping by Frederick Law Olmsted.

Mansions and model farms

Allen M. Fletcher, Vermont’s governor from 1912 to 1915, built the stone mansion at Castle Hill in Cavendish, which Historic Hotels of America says was the first home in Vermont fully wired for electricity. Inventor James Hartness, later governor, built Hartness House in Springfield in 1904, with tunnels to the turret telescope he designed, and Chicago banker Albert G. Farr built The Lilac Inn in Brandon as a summer house in 1909. Farm stays include The Inn at Mountain View Farm, on Elmer A. Darling’s gentleman’s working farm, and the Inn at Round Barn Farm, where a 12-sided dairy barn of 1910 is the only survivor of five round barns once in Waitsfield.

Road trip

Manchester to Lake Champlain, inn to inn

Manchester

Start at The Equinox in Manchester Village, whose Equinox House opened in 1853 and where Mary Todd Lincoln stayed in 1864, or in Dorset at The Dorset Inn or Barrows House.

Brandon

Stay on Central Park at The Brandon Inn, rebuilt in brick and marble in 1892, or at The Lilac Inn, Albert G. Farr’s 1909 Georgian Revival summer house, with nine rooms.

Middlebury

Choose The Middlebury Inn on Court Square, the Swift House Inn, or The Waybury Inn in East Middlebury, whose exterior was used in the 1980s TV series Newhart.

Shelburne

End at Shelburne Farms Inn on Lake Champlain between mid-May and mid-October; the rest of the year, stay at the Strong House Inn in Vergennes or Lang House on Main Street in Burlington.

Context

History and architecture

Vermont was an independent republic from 1777 and became the 14th state in 1791, and its oldest inns began as taverns and houses of the Revolutionary and early-statehood years. The Equinox traces its beginnings to the Marsh Tavern of 1769, where the local Council of Safety met during the Revolution; Jacob Simonds built the Neshobe Tavern in Brandon in 1786; and The Dorset Inn dates to 1796. More followed: Colonel Jasper Murdock built an inn in Norwich in 1797, Enos Lovell made his Grafton home an inn in 1801, John Foote built a boarding house and tavern in East Middlebury around 1810, and Nathan Wood opened the Vermont Hotel beside the Centre Turnpike in Middlebury in 1827. The Equinox House opened in 1853, and Mary Todd Lincoln stayed in 1864. Fire remade several: The Norwich Inn was rebuilt in 1890 and The Brandon Inn in 1892. Around the turn of the 20th century came estates and summer houses, from the Webbs’ Shelburne House (1899) to James Hartness’s Springfield house (1904) and Allen M. Fletcher’s stone mansion at Castle Hill, begun in 1905. The railroad left its mark too: the Green Mountain Inn added its Depot Street building for the Mount Mansfield Electric Railroad in 1897, and the Latchis Hotel opened in Brattleboro in 1938, welcoming train travelers from New York, Boston and Philadelphia. In 1969 Laurance and Mary Rockefeller replaced the 1892 Woodstock Inn with the present building.