Roadside Americana: Quaint small college towns

Granville, OH – Source: granville.us.com

For this list, I chose to keep the town’s size at approximately 15,000 residents or less. Otherwise, it’s increasingly difficult to affix the term “quaint” to a place larger than that population. Berea is the largest community with more than 13,000 people, but most of the communities listed are quite a bit smaller than even 10,000 residents. Fulton, Greencastle, and Silver City are the only other communities listed with 10,000 or more residents. The smallest is Olivet, Michigan (near Lansing) with 1,600 residents.

• Berea, Kentucky (Berea)
• Buckhannon, West Virginia (West Virginia Wesleyan)
• Chestertown, Maryland (Washington)
• Dartmouth, New Hampshire (Dartmouth)
• Decorah, Iowa (Luther)
• Fulton, Missouri (William Woods)
• Gambier, Ohio (Kenyon)
• Granville, Ohio (Denison)
• Greencastle, Indiana (DePauw)
• Gunnison, Colorado (Western State)
• Hancock, Michigan (Finlandia)
• Hanover, Indiana (Hanover)
• Lewisburg, Pennsylvania (Bucknell)
• Lexington, Virginia (Washington & Lee and VMI)
• North Manchester, Indiana (Manchester)
• Oberlin, Ohio (Oberlin)
• Olivet, Michigan (Olivet)
• Shepherdstown, West Virginia (Shepherd)
• Silver City, New Mexico (Western New Mexico)
• Dahlonega, Georgia (North Georgia)
• Yellow Springs, Ohio (Antioch)

Silver City, NM – Source: findyourspot.com