Danby, Vermont
The quiet Village of Danby, conveniently located midway between Rutland and Manchester, has over 100 buildings listed in the National Register of Historical Places, many of them indicators of the town’s former prosperity in the early 19th century as a hub of commerce for marble, logging and charcoal. The library, church, town hall, school, post office and Veterans’ Memorial Park are a a short walk to each other, and a general store/gas station is nearby. A popular swimming hole offers summer fun in the picturesque Mill Brook as it tumbles into the Otter Creek watershed, a favorite fishing spot.
Some of the area’s most dramatic scenery and long-range mountain views can be found in the town’s upper reaches. Smokey House Center, featuring 5000 acres of protected lands, is open to hiking and hunting, provides work-based learning and environmental field studies to area youth, and supports local farmers by leasing its farmland and providing space for them to sell their products directly to the public. Two riding stables offer trail riding and lessons. The Olde Country & Bluegrass Festival, held every July on private land, is a popular local event. The firehouse hosts a variety of public events as well, including a chicken barbecue and tractor pull. Neighboring Mount Tabor, just across Route 7 to the east of the village, provides access to the trail network in the Green Mountain National Forest.
Danby’’s underground marble mine - the largest in the world - is known internationally for the purity of its marble, which has been used to construct many of the world’s most iconic structures. The mine has been in continuous operation since 1903.
History
Recorded history cites Danby as a ‘wild and rugged’ spot for its first inhabitants, who settled in the upper reaches of the town, now known as Danby Four Corners, sometime around the mid-1700s. The village became the seat of the town with the advent of a north-south stage road (now Route 7) in the mid-1800s, around the same time that marble quarrying began. As production soared, the railroad arrived and a brief period of prosperity. Vermont’s first millionaire, early 19th-century lumber and charcoal baron Silas Griffith, grew up in Danby, established an annual children’s Christmas fund which continues to this day. The SL Griffith Library was built following his death; his legacy included the funds to conduct it perpetually.
Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author and stateswoman Pearl S Buck chose Danby as her final home. Her former house on the banks of the Mill River was washed away during Tropical Storm Irene, the day before it was to open as the Danby-Mt. Tabor Historical Society Museum during the town’s 250th anniversary celebration. The Society is now housed in the basement of the Library.
Education
Taconic and Green Regional School District
Pre-K to Grade 6: Currier Memorial School
Grades 7-8: Choice of Manchester Elementary, Dorset or Flood Brook Schools
Grades 9-12: Full choice (state average tuition paid for any private/independent school) Area schools include: Burr & Burton Academy, Manchester and Long Trail School, Dorset
Local Attractions
SL Griffith Library
Mt. Tabor-Danby Historical Society
Smokey House Center
Otter Creek Fun Center
Chipman Stables
Mountain View Ranch
Green Mountain National Forest
Local Businesses
Mt. Tabor Country Store
Vermont Store Fixtures Corporation
Vermont Quarries
Government
Phone/Internet/Television
VTEL, state-of-the-art fiber optics vermontel.com
Comcast high speed digital
Houses of Worship
Danby First Congregational Church
Mountain View Baptist Church
Nearest Medical Facilities
Rutland Regional Medical Center
Public Transportation
Airports: Rutland and Burlington VT and Albany NY.
Train stations: Rutland and Albany, NY