WHITE RIVER JUNCTION

White River Junction reinvented itself. Once the largest railroad hub in New England north of Boston, with up to 50 trains arriving daily, it declined when the interstate bypassed downtown in the 1960s. What moved in was art.

Northern Stage operates as a professional regional theater on the north end of downtown, producing a full season of plays and musicals that draw from the Upper Valley. The Center for Cartoon Studies, Briggs Opera House, and the Main Street Museum round out a cultural corridor that runs along Main Street and Gates Street. The Tip Top Building, a converted 45,000-square-foot bakery, houses artist studios and creative businesses.

The downtown is compact and walkable, with wide sidewalks connecting storefronts, galleries, and cafes in a National Historic District. White River Junction is one of five villages within the town of Hartford, alongside Quechee, Wilder, West Hartford, and Hartford Village, but this is the one with the creative density.

Tip: Main Street is the spine — start there and work outward. Northern Stage is a short walk from the downtown restaurants, making a dinner-and-show evening easy to pull off on foot.

Neighborhoods: Main Street • Gates Street • South Main Street