Reading

A hill town in southern Windsor County, Reading was chartered in 1761 and settled by families who farmed the steep terrain and tapped the sugar maples that grew in abundance on the upper slopes. The town's population peaked in the mid-1800s and has declined gradually since, as the economics of hill farming became less viable. About 733 people live here now.

Reading has no commercial village center. The town hall, a church, and a handful of homes mark the crossroads that passes for a center, while the rest of the population is scattered along the dirt roads that climb through the hills. The landscape is beautiful in an austere way — stone walls running through second-growth forest, cellar holes marking abandoned farmsteads, and views across the Black River valley.

The town's Hall Art Foundation, housed in a converted farm complex, brings contemporary art exhibitions to this unlikely rural setting. Town meeting remains Reading's annual exercise in self-governance, a gathering where the small population makes decisions about roads, schools, and the modest municipal budget.