Alexander Twilight / Old Stone House

A Vermonter by birth, Alexander Twilight attended Middlebury College, graduating in 1823. He was the first African American to earn a degree from a U.S. college or university. Twilight arrived in Brownington in 1829 to head the Orleans County Grammar School and the Congregational Church. Elected as a Representative for the town in 1836, he became the first African American to serve in any state legislature. Twilight began construction of a four-story granite dormitory in 1834. For years afterward, Athenian Hall housed young men and women attending the school. Area residents referred to it as the Stone Boarding House. Purchased by the Orleans Country Historical Society in 1917, it was opened as the Old Stone House Museum in 1925.