Brownington

Alexander Twilight, the first African American to earn a degree from an American college (Middlebury, class of 1823), built the massive stone building known as the Old Stone House in Brownington in the 1830s. He served as the town's minister and schoolmaster, and in 1836 was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives -- making him likely the first African American to serve in a state legislature. The Old Stone House is now a museum and the centerpiece of Brownington's identity.

Chartered in 1790 in Orleans County, Brownington sits on high ground with sweeping views of the surrounding Northeast Kingdom hills. Brownington Village, a tiny cluster of buildings around the church and the Old Stone House, is one of the best-preserved early Vermont village centers. The landscape is open farmland and forest, and the pace of life has not changed dramatically in the past century.

With about 1,040 residents, Brownington governs itself through the selectboard and town meeting system. The annual meeting is a direct exercise in the democratic tradition that Alexander Twilight helped expand simply by showing up and participating in public life at a time when few doors were open to him.