The Old Stone House Museum & Historic Village was recently awarded a Bruhn Historic Revitalization grant through the Preservation Trust of Vermont (PTV) to help restore all 60 windows of the Old Stone House! Named for PTV’s founding President, Paul Bruhn, the grant was created in partnership with Senator Leahy and the National Park Service to help rural communities throughout the country.
Not only will the grant allow for the restoration of the historic windows, but it will also afford the museum the ability to install exterior storm windows with UV-filtering laminated glass panes. These storm windows serve two important purposes: 1) to protect the restored windows (including one that is etched with pre-1860 student graffiti) from weathering and physical damage; and 2) to mitigate light damage, ensuring better preservation for all of the historic artifacts housed inside the building. This project is one of the most impactful we can undertake when it comes to the sheer number of artifacts that will benefit!
Students Martha Chadwich and Catharine Blake etched their names on a window of the Old Stone House, known to them as Athenian Hall.
The Story of a House
One hundred years is a long stretch of time when measured against a human life—long enough for generations to come and go, for memories to settle into stories, and for neighbors to become family. This year, the Old Stone House Museum & Historic Village marks its 100th year as a museum. Yet the story of the building we all know simply as the “Old Stone House” reaches back even further. For only half of its long life has it been a museum.
Construction of the Old Stone House was completed in 1836, meaning next year (2026) will be the 190th ‘birthday’ of this famous four-story granite namesake. Built by educator Alexander Twilight and first called “Athenian Hall,” the building began as a dormitory for both the young men and women who attended the Orleans County Grammar School in Brownington. Co-education was just emerging in the United States and Twilight spared no time in allowing young women (quite radically for the times) to attend the boarding school and sleep in the same building as the male students! It was a forward-thinking act of fairness and vision that still echoes through the halls today.
Like many old homes, Athenian Hall has lived several lives. It would witness the death of Alexander Twilight in 1857 and the dorm’s closure a few years later. Mercy Ladd Merrill Twilight, his wife, opened the doors to travellers, operating the building as a boarding house before eventually selling the property, moving to Derby, and passing away in 1865. The building endured through the quiet period that followed—patient, solid, and waiting for its next chapter.
On October 2, 1917 Richard and Josephine Addison signed the deed that sold “the Old Stone Boarding House” to the Orleans County Historical Society for $500. An organization of neighbors, dating back to 1853, who banded together to raise the funds necessary to keep the monumental building from the hands of buyers who wanted to demolish the structure to reuse the stone. At 81 years old, the Old Stone House began a new chapter in its life, becoming a keeper of community memory, and growing into the museum and historic village it is today.
Neighbor to Neighbor: 100 Years of Preserving Orleans County History
As a museum, the Old Stone House is home to thousands of artifacts that tell the story of Orleans County and the wider Northeast Kingdom—everyday objects, treasured heirlooms, all quiet witnesses to lives once lived. But what does it take to make sure these irreplaceable resources remain available for generations to come? It means fighting against what museum professionals call the ‘Agents of Deterioration.’ These are the forces that cause aging and damage to objects: physical forces (like wear and breaks), thieves and vandals, dissociation (loss of data), fire damage, water damage, pests (like insects, rodents, and mold), pollutants (gases, dust, soot, and chemical contaminants), environmental conditions (particularly temperature and relative humidity), and perhaps the most insidious of all, light damage.
A project of this magnitude, a full window restoration, is a fitting match for our centennial anniversary. As stewards of the community’s history, the historical society has taken care of the Old Stone House Museum for the last 100 years, and we continue to invest in the next 100 thanks in no small part to our friends and neighbors, whose donations are filling the gap not covered by the grant as well as supporting our educational programs and public events.
Alexander and Mercy Twilight are both buried in Brownington Cemetery, overlooking the Old Stone House—their dedication to education enduring through the mission of the museum. Generations of children, students, and adults continue to learn within the granite walls they first built almost 200 years ago.