Green Mountain Club

Birthplace—March 11, 1910 The Green Mountain Club was born at a meeting of Vermont hiking enthusiasts in the Van Ness House hotel, which stood on this site from 1870 until it burned in 1951. The club’s mission is to “make the Vermont mountains play a larger part in the life of the people.” This resulted in the Long Trail, the first long-distance hiking trail in the nation. Vermont’s “footpath in the wilderness,” the Long Trail traces a roughly 272-mile path along the high ridges of the Green Mountains from Massachusetts to Canada, crossing Vermont’s highest peaks. The trail, completed in 1930, continues to be maintained by the club. The Green Mountain Club’s founder, James P. Taylor, lived in the Van Ness House much of his adult life.