Setting suggestions?

Why don't you make up one? That way it can be whatever you'd like it to be.

That was the first thing I thought, too. My other suggestion is my state, Colorado, has any number of small, quaint mountain towns, some of which aren't "too" touristy. Look up the towns of Nederland (if you want a hippie vibe), Leadville (for historical vibes and cool old buildings), or the town of Pine (laid back, far enough off the highway to avoid most of the daytrippers, and not near the ski slopes). There's lots and lots of others, like Ouray.

aadams73 said:

Why don't you make up one? That way it can be whatever you'd like it to be.

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Now that's just crazy talk.

Beaufort, South Carolina. It's about halfway between Savannah and Charleston. I'm actually there right now, originally intending to use it just as a base camp. But it's beautifully quaint, and has an amazing Revolutionary War and Civil War history. Off the beaten path, relatively few tourists, just idyllic.

I love Beaufort! Lots of pelicans and cormorants to watch. Very walkable. I had the best corn chowder ever in a tiny cafe on just off the main street.
Good choice for any story.
C

blackrose602 said:

Beaufort, South Carolina. It's about halfway between Savannah and Charleston. I'm actually there right now, originally intending to use it just as a base camp. But it's beautifully quaint, and has an amazing Revolutionary War and Civil War history. Off the beaten path, relatively few tourists, just idyllic.

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There's the Isle of Mull which has all sorts of tiny towns and tidbits of history going back to the Dark Ages and before.

Romney Marsh is an interesting place, not only for its geography but for its associations with the "Scarecrow of Romney Marsh" (beware--Disney owns the rights to those books).

I once used a fictionalized version of the town where I grew up--Pensacola, Florida, which has an interesting "feel" and history (including Civil War and Revolutionary War Battles, hurricanes, the last WWII era aircraft carrier, etc.)

Ever heard of America's Stonehenge?

Then again, you can fictionalize a fusion of all of these and others if you like!

You may want to take a look at Delaware. It's where I live and I think it's the best kept secret on the east coast. Lots of quaint towns.
C

Vermont is packed with small towns that have interesting and varied history.

Before you do any writing about a town in Vermont, though, you'd have to research Act 250. It's a low that prevents or at least slows down almost any kind of new construction in the entire state. Someone wanting to enclose a screened porch might wait two years for approval. A Blockbuster Video wanted to take three adjacent spaces in a strip mall and combine them - the permitting took seven years.

This means that new construction has that strict-architectural-standard New-England-town look, and there's some incongruous stuff from the late 60s-early 70s that got in before they passed the law.

Vermont considered becoming an independent country during the Revolution, even though people lined up to cheer Ethan Allen dragging the cannon from Fort Ticoderoga all the way to Boston to use against the British. A band of Confederate soldiers robbed a bank in the far north of the state and fled into Canada. A building could have been built as a hotel, then become a hospital, a school, a convent, back to a hotel, then been turned into an art gallery, leaving ghosts and buried bodies every step of the way.

I see you live in California. Why not pick a small town near you that you could easily drive to for research? A small-town/rural CA setting could be interesting and have some history not everyone knows about.

One place I visited that was exceptionally interesting and had quite a bit of history, was Bath, England.

New Bern North Carolina is beautiful and it's also the birth place of pepsi, so you know there's a fun fact!

RJK said:

One place I visited that was exceptionally interesting and had quite a bit of history, was Bath, England.

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Talking of Bath this is also my favourite place, as I find it all romantic books especially written by Barbara Cartland . Her characters mostly go to bath to elope.
padma

Cambria, CA is pretty epically quaint. Or Morro Bay nearby-- I went on a sea kayak tour there right under Hearst Castle and the guide was telling us all manner of crazy stories about the family and their wacky antics on all the land they own in the area. Or Solvang, if you are an old-timey windmill enthusiast.

Newport, Florence, or Astoria in Oregon are pretty neat. Obviously they don't have a super long history, though.