Grey Gables Mansion ( Richford )

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The Grey Gables Mansion located in Richford, Vermont and only minutes from Montgomery and Jay Peak is an ideal point from which to explore the many different areas of Northern Vermont and Quebec, Canada.

Within Richford guests will find several charming shops including a country store (Pinnacle Peddler) and The Pink Lady Antique Shop. The town has several fine restaurants. The town cemetery is a must see. It reminds one of The Per Lachaise Cimetiere in Paris. The Mansion is located across the street from Davis Park which borders the Missisquoi River. Every Saturday in the summer months, the town hosts a Farmer's Market. The park is an ideal setting for a quiet walk or a nice picnic.

Now offering Historical Inns accommodations,

The Grey Gables Mansion located in Richford, Vermont was built between 1890-1892, for a prosperous Richford entrepreneur, Sheldon Boright. By-gone days are recalled in this stately mansion. Mr. Boright, a wealthy wood baron, lived in the home with his young family. Much of the land in Richford was owned by Mr. Boright, including the land beyond the river. Here he would race his horses. He would invite his friends over for lavish parties in the ballroom. The guests could wander up to the widow's peak and watch the horses race off in the distance.

The stately balloon-framed mansion exhibits a typical multi-gabled, asymmetrical design, complete with ornate exterior woodwork, a wrap-around porch and porte-cochere, projecting bays, stained glass window sash, and variegated wall and roof sheathing materials, typical of the Queen Anne style.

The interior, as well, is also intact, displaying such period detail as found in the carved walnut and mahogany staircases, library and second floor bedroom fireplaces, and original, dark varnished door and window architraves which are composed of reeding pilaters rising up to molded cornices.

The rather elaborate design and decorative detailing of the house was taken from a popular late-nineteenth century architectural pattern book entitled, Pallister's American Cottage Homes (1878) and then adapted, by Richford builder M.E. Dodge, to both suite the needs of the Borights and to make use of the locally-available materials. The original house design, found on the cover of Pallister's 1878 pattern book, was actually used by George Pallister, himself, in the construction of his home in Seaside Park, a suburb of Bridgeport, CT. This building, however, is no longer standing, leaving the Boright House as perhaps the only surviving example of its kind in the country, and certainly, the only one of its kind in the State of Vermont.

Photos: 1835 Wiley Inn, Inn At Maplemont Farm