Rural Otter Creek Valley Multiple Resource Area

The Rural Otter Creek Valley Multiple Resource Area was Vermont’s first rural historic district, honoring the agricultural history of the fertile valley south of Wallingford. Extending south on Route 7 for 3½ miles, the thematic study area includes 14 farmsteads; 5 of the farms were historically associated with the Munson family.

Many of the 19th-century houses exhibit fine rural Vermont expressions of Federal and Greek Revival design. Eclectic agrarian buildings document the dominant 19th-century trends in agriculture and dairy, with English, monitor, and dairy barns. The 1888 work on the Israel Munson dairy barn by architect Clinton G. Smith resulted in one of Vermont’s most notable agricultural buildings.