Marlboro offers rural expanses close to Brattleboro
Marlboro is full of farmhouses on backcountry expanses among tall sugar maple trees, while being a brief commute to the commercially active town of Brattleboro. The Southern Vermont community stays engaged through events like the Marlboro Music Festival, while a network of small businesses and farms offer shopping options close to home. "Marlboro tends to be busier than nearby towns because it's a commuter town for Brattleboro," says Adam Palmiter, a longtime Southern Vermont local and Realtor with Berkley & Veller Greenwood Country Realtors.
Hiking and camping at Hogback Mountain, Molly Stark State Park
Hogback Mountain Conservation Area is a large protected green space within Marlboro, where residents can hike or snowshoe along established trails and spot bobcats, black bears and moose. Molly Stark State Park is popular for camping and hiking, just south of Hogback Mountain. In neighboring Wilmington to the west, locals can swim or set out on kayaks at Lake Raponda.
The Marlboro Music Festival brings community together
"For Marlboro, the big draw is the music festival," says Palmiter. "It tends to be a very artsy community." Marlboro Music is an art residency for dozens of talented instrumentalists, who perform for the community at the Marlboro Music Festival at the end of their seven-week program. These summer concerts have been a town staple since the early 1950s and continue to be a massive artistic hub for Marlboro's locals.
Local farm stands and Main Street dining in Brattleboro
"For agriculture, there are local CSAs and farms, but nothing large-scale, the town isn't known for that as much," says Palmiter. Full Plate Farm in Putney offers a membership for locals to take home a weekly selection of fresh produce. The abundance of sugar maple trees around the Southern Vermont region has allowed many small businesses to thrive, such as Matt's Maple Syrup. Locals looking for drinks and dinner can head to Kipling's Tavern in Brattleboro for Irish pub grub and draft beer. There's also Echo Restaurant & Lounge for wood-fired pizzas or a weekend brunch.
Farmhouses and multi-acre lots for rural Vermont residences
In Marlboro, farmhouses, ramblers and Cape Cods sit along winding country roads. Single-family homes range from $300,000 to $800,000, varying by square footage and lot size. Many homes come on multi-acre lots and were built between the turn of the 20th century and the early 2000s. "The housing market is typical for the Southern Vermont area," says Palmiter. "Folks mostly buy these as primary homes, and there's not much flipping." There is also a significant land market in town, with many parcels zoned for rural residences.
Marlboro School District coordinates high school options with nearby districts
Marlboro School serves kindergarten through eighth-grade students and gets a B-minus rating from Niche. It is the only school in the Marlboro School District, so the district offers a voucher program to pay for students' tuition whether they advance to a private or public high school in another district. Students typically go on to the B-minus rated Brattleboro Union High, since it offers school bus service to and from Marlboro. The town once hosted Marlboro College, a private, liberal arts institution, until it closed in 2020. The school's endowment was given to Boston's Emerson College, which used it to open the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College, maintaining the old college's most acclaimed programs.
Brattleboro is less than half an hour away
Due to Marlboro's rural, secluded nature, residents are car-dependent. Commuters can reach Brattleboro with an 11-mile drive east on Vermont Route 9, also called the Molly Stark Byway. Marlboro typically receives an average annual snowfall well above the national average, considering Vermont is the snowiest state in the country, and locals must plan commutes and day-to-day activities accordingly.
Written By
Maxwell Olarinde
