A third of the store is given over to a rack of postboxes that undoubtedly will wind up in the Smithsonian someday, and a closet-size office for the postal clerk who comes by for two hours in the morning. You’d think losing all that retail space would be a drawback, but consider it again: Every one in town pretty much has to come by every day or two. Guaranteed traffic, right past the milk case. There’s a two-bedroom apartment upstairs and a small barn out back. It will be your world.

Also out back, the beautiful Middlebury River flows through a deep gorge; out front, Route 125 leads up from the college town below, the conduit for a steady stream of bike riders who pause at the store to quench their thirst. In the winter, skiers stop by on their way home from the world-class Nordic trails two miles away, and from the family-friendly college ski hill a little farther up the pass. In the summer, authors from around the world flow in for the famed Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference; in the fall, the colors are unmatched.