Neighborhood
The Village of North Bennington is a short walk down Prospect Street. On the right hand side of the street stands one of Shirley Jackson’s North Bennington houses, the one with the columns. It’s where she wrote ‘The Lottery.’
At the bottom of the hill, Pangaea Café is a coffeeshop haven while, next door, The Pangaea Lounge offers terrace dining overlooking one of Paran Creek’s millponds. Also on the fountain square is the friendly John G. McCullough Library (Prospect Street has a dedicated shelf) and Powers Market, Vermont’s version of a bodega.
Crossing Main Street and heading up the opposite hill, one arrives at the Park-McCullough Governors’ Mansion, the mid-nineteenth century home to two Vermont governors. Its veranda has wicker chairs for alfresco reading. Beyond the Mansion winds a network of bridle paths, Mile-Around Woods, where in early spring, the forest floor is carpeted with ephemeral wildflowers.
Across Prospect Street from the Writers House a path leads to the Bennington College campus. The College’s beautiful white Georgian buildings frame a breathtaking vista of Mount Anthony. The quad seems to drop away; no wonder it’s called The End of the World. Bennington’s evening literary programming is open to the public.
