There is much to see and ponder in Ferrisburgh, beginning with the Rokeby Museum, the only museum in the state with a focus on social activism. Rokeby is the former home of several generations of the illustrious Robinson family of artist-writer-activists, prominent figures in the Underground Railroad, the suffragist movement, and Vermont literature. The family also boasts Rachel Robinson Elmer, a pioneer of the Art Deco style whose iconic postcards of New York City recently celebrated their 100th anniversary. One might not think of northern Vermont as a hotbed of visual arts rebellion, but in the early 20th century, North Ferrisburgh hosted a dissident art colony formed by UVM and Middlebury College faculty artists dissatisfied with their schools’ lack of support for “degenerate” art styles.

Speaking of colleges, in 1961 Ferrisburgh was being considered as a site for the relocation of Johnson State College, which had outgrown its campus; this plan fell apart when the Town Clerk bought up the proposed site and attempted to charge the college double what they had agreed to pay the town. In delightful deadpan, Wikipedia goes on to inform us he “was stripped of his position of Town Clerk, and eventually convicted of an unrelated homicide.”

The village of North Ferrisburgh is now home to Vermont Cookie Love, who make the best maple creemee (in my opinion; in Vermont this is a fiercely debated issue), and to Justin and Emily Rose’s Vermont Piano Gallery . It was Justin who tipped me off to the fine piano in the United Methodist Church.