Amherst College, founded in 1821, is consistently rated one of the top liberal arts colleges in the United States. Its campus is the model of the type: a long sweep of lawn flanked by brick and white-clapboard academic buildings, with a stone library and the steepled Johnson Chapel at the head. The view south from the chapel steps, over the Pelham Hills, is one of the best in the Pioneer Valley.
Visitors can walk the campus freely. Highlights are the Mead Art Museum, the Beneski Natural History Museum, the strange free-standing Stearns Steeple — a church tower with no church attached — and the College's small Octagon observatory on Memorial Hill.