Cornwall

Chartered in 1761 as one of the Bennington group of New Hampshire grants, Cornwall lies in the heart of Addison County's fertile Champlain Valley. The flat, open farmland here was some of the first in the region to be cleared for agriculture, and by the early 1800s Cornwall was a prosperous farming community. The town shares a border with Middlebury and has long been connected to that college town's economic and cultural life.

About 1,270 people call Cornwall home. The landscape remains overwhelmingly agricultural — dairy farms and hayfields stretch toward the Adirondack views to the west — and the town has resisted the kind of suburban development that has changed other Champlain Valley communities. Cornwall's one-room Bingham Memorial School served students until consolidation brought them into the Addison Central district. The town operates under a selectboard, and Town Meeting in March remains the centerpiece of civic life, where residents debate budgets, road spending, and local priorities face to face.