President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site

A few miles north of Weston in the town of Plymouth is one of the best presidential historical sites in the country. The President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site (Rte. 100A, Plymouth Notch, 802/672-3773, www.historicvermont.org/coolidge, 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m. daily late May–mid-Oct.; office exhibits only Mon.–Fri. mid-Oct.–May, $7.50 adults, $2 children 6–14, children under 6 free) is situated on the grounds of the 30th president’s boyhood home, a sprawling collection of houses, barns, and factories nobly situated in a mountain-ringed valley. The exhibits inside give a rarely intimate look into the upbringing of the president known as “Silent Cal” for his lack of emotion, but who restored the dignity of the office during a time of widespread scandal.

Farrar-Mansur House Musuem

Situated on the town common in Weston, the F-style Farrar-Mansur House Museum (Rte. 100, Weston, 802/824-8190, 1–5 p.m. daily late May–early Oct., suggested donation $2) was originally built as a tavern at the turn of the 19th century. It is now filled with early American furnishings and portraits. Paintings in the parlor by Roy William, a student of John Singer Sargent, depict life in the town circa 1830.

Old Mill Museum

Also run by the Weston Historical Society, the Old Mill Museum (Rte. 100, Weston, 802/824-8190, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. daily late May–early Oct., suggested donation $2) displays proof that not everything in the town was always so cute. Room after room is filled with rough-hewn farming and logging implements with which village folk carved out their lives. The building itself is an old sawmill, rebuilt after being burned in 1900.