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132-621: Brattleboro ( / ˈ b r æ t əl b ʌr oʊ / ), originally Brattleborough , is a town in Windham County, Vermont , United States, located about 10 miles (16 km) north of the Massachusetts state line at the confluence of Vermont's West River and the Connecticut River . With a 2022 Census population of 12,106, it is the most populous municipality abutting Vermont's eastern border with New Hampshire , which

264-725: A CDP which is coextensive with the entire town. CDPs are only recognized within towns, not cities. Because the primary role of CDPs is to establish "place" data for communities located in unincorporated areas, a CDP cannot be within an incorporated place. Since the Census Bureau recognizes New England cities as incorporated places, a CDP cannot be within a city. Data users from outside New England should be aware that New Englanders usually think in terms of entire towns (i.e., MCD data), making CDP data of marginal local interest. Since virtually all territory in New England outside of Maine

396-501: A Selectboard of five members, and by several dozen town representatives elected from three municipal districts. The Selectboard, meeting on average every week or two, is considered part of the 'executive branch' of town government; its five members being elected to fill three one-year positions and two three-year positions. In turn, the Selectboard hires and supervises a full-time town manager. The town's three districts also each elect

528-461: A borough or city can span more than one town. In practice, though, most cities in Connecticut today do not function any differently from their counterparts elsewhere in New England. See the section below on boroughs and villages for more background on this topic. There are far fewer cities in New England than there are towns, although cities are more common in heavily built-up areas, and most of

660-484: A borough, a city can cover only a portion of a town rather than being coextensive with the town. This is rare today—only one or two examples remain—but it was more common in the past. At least one borough historically spanned more than one town: the borough of Danielsonville originally laid over parts of Killingly and Brooklyn , until the Brooklyn portion petitioned to be reorganized as a fire district and concurrently

792-529: A city, it is coextensive and consolidated with the Town of Hartford; governed by a single governmental entity with the powers and responsibilities of the Town being carried out by the entity referred to as the City of Hartford. In legal theory though not in current practice Connecticut cities and boroughs could be coextensive (covering the same geography as the town) without being consolidated (a single government); also

924-420: A fair number of unincorporated, named communities that lie within the incorporated territory of a municipality. Connecticut is one of two New England states to have any type of incorporated general-purpose municipality below the town level, namely incorporated boroughs (Vermont has incorporated villages). There are nine remaining in the state, with one, Naugatuck , having consolidated with the town. Additionally,

1056-470: A female householder with no husband present, and 46.3% were non-families. 37.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.15 and the average family size was 2.84. In the town, the population was spread out, with 22.3% under the age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 24, 29.2% from 25 to 44, 25.3% from 45 to 64, and 16.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age

1188-456: A few cases in Maine where a township or gore does not border any other unorganized land, it is treated as its own MCD rather than being folded into a larger UT. In theory, a CDP could probably be defined within an MCD representing an unorganized area. Due to the extremely sparse population in most such areas, however, there are few if any cases in which the Census Bureau has actually done so. For

1320-497: A historical example in New Hampshire, see Plantation number four . Most areas of New England never developed municipal forms based on the compact populated place concept. This contrasts with states with civil townships, which typically have extensive networks of villages or boroughs that carve out or overlay the townships. Two of the New England states do have general-purpose municipalities of this type, however, to at least

1452-494: A large shipping and warehouse facility in Brattleboro near I-91's Exit 3. Ehrmann Commonwealth Dairy is headquartered in Brattleboro and operates a dairy processing facility in the town that opened in 2011. New Chapter , an organic vitamin and supplement maker is headquartered in Brattleboro. The town's densely populated center is located near Vermont's lowest elevation point in the Connecticut river valley. Because of

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1584-470: A limited extent. Connecticut has incorporated boroughs , and Vermont has incorporated villages . Such areas remain a part of their parent town, but assume some responsibilities for municipal services within their boundaries. In both states, they are typically regarded as less important than towns, and both seem to be in decline as institutions. In recent decades, many boroughs and villages have disincorporated, reverting to full town control. The term "village"

1716-478: A list of all New England towns and other town-level municipalities, see the following articles: Note: All population statistics are from the 2020 United States census . Connecticut contains 169 incorporated towns. Put into terms that are equivalent to the other New England states, 20 are cities/boroughs and 149 are towns. (As discussed in the Cities section of Other types of municipalities in New England above,

1848-416: A military officer, cleric, slaveholder as well as a principal proprietor. Ironically, there is no record that Brattle ever visited the locality, and settlement activities remained tentative until after the 1763 Treaty of Paris , when France abandoned their claims to Vermont, part of the region which they had called New France . Hostilities having ceased, Brattleboro developed quickly in peacetime, and soon

1980-461: A normal-sized town, these areas were known by a variety of names, including gores , grants, locations, purchases, surpluses, and strips. Sometimes these areas were not included in any town due to survey errors (which is the technical meaning of the term "gore"). Sometimes they represent small areas that were left over when a particular region was carved into towns, not large enough to be a town on their own. Some appear to have simply been granted outside

2112-636: A number of lodging establishments. Brattleboro also hosts art galleries, stores, and performance spaces, mostly located in the downtown area. In 2007, after meeting qualifying criteria, the local Selectboard passed a resolution designating Brattleboro a Fair Trade Town, becoming the second Fair Trade certified town in the nation after Media, Pennsylvania . C&S Wholesale Grocers , the northeast's largest regional food distributor, made its headquarters here until 2005, when they moved their administrative offices to Keene, New Hampshire ; however, because of close proximity to Interstate 91 , C&S still operates

2244-539: A paper mill, a manufacturer of papermaking machinery, a factory making melodeons , two machine shops, a flour mill, a carriage factory, and four printing establishments. Connected by the Vermont & Massachusetts Railroad and the Vermont Valley Railroad , the town prospered as a regional center for trade in commodities including grain, lumber, turpentine , tallow and pork. In 1888, the spelling of

2376-568: A part of a town — within Barnstable, the seven villages correspond to districts for fire, water, sewer and elementary schooling, for instance. (In Maine and New Hampshire, the term "village corporation" is used for a type of special-purpose district.) Many villages also are recognized as places by the United States Postal Service (some villages have their own post offices , with their names used in mailing addresses) or

2508-527: A particular municipality. All municipalities titled as cities are classified as incorporated places, even if their population-distribution pattern is no different from that of a typical town; towns are never classified as incorporated places, even if they are thoroughly built up. The ambiguity over whether certain municipalities in Massachusetts should be classified as cities or towns, and the Census Bureau's inconsistent handling of these municipalities (see

2640-571: A representative to the Vermont House of Representatives. Brattleboro is represented at the national level by U.S. senators Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch , and by Congresswoman Becca Balint , who also represents Vermont's entire at-large federal congressional district. At the state level in Montpelier : Brattleboro has a diverse mix of public and private primary, secondary and post-secondary schools and career centers. Sub-campuses of

2772-413: A result, Maine has developed more of an infrastructure for administration of unincorporated and unorganized areas than the other New England states. The existence of this fallback probably explains why Maine has had significantly more towns disincorporated over the years than any other New England state. There have been numerous instances of towns in Maine disincorporating despite populations that numbered in

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2904-578: A rocking chair for $ 2.50. She was the first American woman auctioneer, and later became the first woman admitted to the National Auctioneers Association . According to the United States Census Bureau , the town has a total area of 32.5 square miles (84.0 km), of which 32.0 square miles (82.9 km) is land and 0.5 square mile (1.2 km, 1.42%) is water. Brattleboro is drained by

3036-543: A short segment of Western Avenue in West Brattleboro. Open during the summer months, Fort Dummer State Park is named for, and located near, the original site of a Dummer's War -era stockade. The state park consists of 218 acres of protected forest, featuring hiking trails and a State campground, just south of the population center on wooded hills overlooking the Connecticut River. Brattleboro sees

3168-605: A significant center of industry as well, especially in the manufacture of paper . In a machine shop here, George A. Long built a self-propelled steam vehicle in 1875, the Long steam tricycle , for which he received one of the nation's earliest automobile patents . The Hinsdale post office , located on Main Street, is the oldest continually-operating in the same building post office in the United States. From 1959 to 2008,

3300-521: A similar purpose to MCDs in other states in terms of governmental function or civic-identity importance. New England towns are classified as MCDs not because they are not "incorporated" but rather the data that the census gathers on places is analyzed based on different models (those of compact settled places and open rural places) that is not well represented by the New England Town system of organization. In order to better fit their own purposes,

3432-412: A single compact populated place. Plantations in Maine are similarly classified as MCDs. That New England towns serve, in essence, the same function as incorporated places in other states, but are not treated as incorporated places by the Census Bureau, can be a source of confusion. The Census classifications should not be understood to imply that New England towns are not incorporated, or necessarily serve

3564-542: A small body of British colonial troops were posted at the fort, but after 1750 this was considered unnecessary. Although the area was originally part of the Equivalent Lands , the township became one of the New Hampshire grants , and was chartered (founded) as such on December 26, 1753, by Governor Benning Wentworth . It was named Brattleborough, after Brigadier-General William Brattle , Jr. of Boston ,

3696-423: A somewhat different manner from that of the other New England states. In these areas, towns were often "chartered" long before any settlers moved into a particular area. This was very common in the mid to late 18th century—although there were towns which predated that period and were not part of this process in southeastern New Hampshire, such as Exeter . Once there were enough residents in a town to formally organize

3828-410: A substantial seasonal influx of recreational skiers and snowboarders, many of them bound for the resorts at nearby Mount Snow and Stratton , but it is also a winter sports destination in and of itself. The town played an important role in the development and popularization of the skiing industry as a winter sport, with pioneering Brattleboro native and Dartmouth College alumnus Fred Harris, founder of

3960-423: A town and a city have become blurred. Since the early 20th century, towns have been allowed to modify the town meeting form of government in various ways (e.g., representative town meeting , adding a town manager ). In recent decades, some towns have adopted what effectively amount to city forms of government, although they still refer to themselves as towns. As a practical matter, one municipality that calls itself

4092-719: A town and another that calls itself a city may have exactly the same governmental structure. With these changes in town government, a reluctance to adopt the title of city seems to have developed, and few towns have officially done so since the early 20th century. In Massachusetts, nine municipalities ( Agawam , Barnstable , Braintree , Franklin , Palmer , Randolph , Southbridge , West Springfield and Weymouth ) have adopted Mayor-Council or Council-Manager forms of government in their home rule charters, and are therefore considered to be legally cities, but nevertheless continue to call themselves "towns". They are sometimes referred to in legislation and other legal documents as "the city known as

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4224-426: A town disincorporated or a plantation surrendered its organization). The remaining eight counties contain significant amounts of unincorporated/unorganized territory. Most of these areas are in very sparsely populated regions, however. Only about 1.3% of the state's population lives in areas not part of a town, city, or plantation. (Since the 2000 Census, two towns, Madrid and Centerville, have disincorporated. Thus, at

4356-550: A town government, no further action was necessary to incorporate. This practice can lead to inconsistencies in the dates of incorporation for towns in this region. Dates given in reference sources sometimes reflect the date when the town was chartered, which may have been long before it was settled, and not the date when its town government became active. In other parts of New England, some "future towns" were laid out along these lines, but such areas would not be formally incorporated as towns until they were sufficiently settled to organize

4488-560: A town government. A typical town in the northern three states was laid out in a 6-by-6-mile (9.7 by 9.7 km) square. Each contained 36 sections, 1 mile (1.6 km) squares or 640 acres (260 ha). One section was reserved for the support of public schools. This was copied when the Continental Congress laid out Ohio in 1785–87. Many early towns covered very large amounts of land. Once areas had become settled, new towns were sometimes formed by breaking areas away from

4620-562: A town meeting as its legislative body; instead, a city's legislative body is an elected representative body, typically called the city council or town council or board of aldermen . City governments are typically administered by a mayor (and/or city manager ). In common speech, people often generically refer to communities of either type as "towns", drawing no distinction between the two. The presence of incorporated boroughs in Connecticut and incorporated villages in Vermont has influenced

4752-460: A unique type of entity called a plantation . Beneath the town level, Connecticut has incorporated boroughs , and Vermont has incorporated villages . In addition to towns, every New England state has incorporated cities. However, cities are treated in the same manner as towns under state law, differing from towns only in their form of government. Most cities are former towns that changed to a city form of government because they grew too large to have

4884-475: A very rudimentary organization that does not rise to the level of an organized general-purpose municipal government (e.g., a town clerk 's office exists for the purpose of conducting elections for state or federal offices). In general, unorganized areas fall into one of the three categories below. During the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, as town boundaries were being drawn up, small areas would sometimes be left over, not included in any town. Typically smaller than

5016-434: A young Brattleboro woman, Carrie Balestier, in 1892. The couple built a home called Naulakha , just over the town line to the north in neighboring Dummerston . Kipling wrote The Jungle Book and other works there. He also wrote about local life in the early 1890s: heavy snowfalls, ox-teams drawing sledges, and people in the small towns beset with what he called a "terrifying intimacy" about each other's lives. He recorded

5148-488: Is 100 °F (38 °C), set in 1955, and the record low is −33 °F (−36 °C), set in 1958. In terms of average annual precipitation , May is typically the wettest month, and February is the driest. Brattleboro averages 92.58 inches (235 cm) of snow annually. Brattleboro lies in USDA plant hardiness zone 5a. As of the census of 2010, there were 12,046 people, 5,364 households, and 2,880 families residing in

5280-642: Is a town in Cheshire County , New Hampshire , United States. The population was 3,948 at the 2020 census . Hinsdale is home to part of Pisgah State Park in the northeast, and part of Wantastiquet Mountain State Forest in the northwest. The main village in town, where 1,485 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined as the Hinsdale census-designated place (CDP) and is located at the junction of New Hampshire routes 119 and 63 . Located in

5412-997: Is a mid-1990s creation of, and continues to be sponsored by, the Arts Council of Windham County . Other arts organizations in Brattleboro include the Brattleboro Music Center , the Vermont Theatre Company , the New England Youth Theater , the Brattleboro Women's Chorus, the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA), the Vermont Performance Lab , and the Vermont Jazz Center . The town operates and maintains

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5544-566: Is also based out of downtown Brattleboro. New England town Towns date back to the time of the earliest English colonial settlement , which predominated in New England, and they pre-date the development of counties in the region. Areas were organized as towns as they were settled, throughout the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Town boundaries were not usually laid out on any kind of regular grid, but were drawn to reflect local settlement and transportation patterns, often affected by natural features. In early colonial times, recognition of towns

5676-411: Is incorporated, CDPs do not really serve the same purpose as they do elsewhere; CDPs in New England invariably represent territory that is not "unincorporated", but part of a larger incorporated town. The extent to which such an area has its own distinct identity can vary, but is not usually as strong as identification with the town as a whole. There are numerous instances where the Census Bureau recognizes

5808-433: Is no area that is outside the bounds of a municipality. Using usual American terminology, there is no "unincorporated" land in Massachusetts. Of the 351 municipalities, the number that are cities and the number that are towns is a matter of some ambiguity. Depending on which source is consulted, anywhere from 39 to 53 are cities. The ambiguity is the result of questions around the legal status of municipalities that have since

5940-510: Is one of the few states in the region that is an exception to this rule; the Massachusetts Constitution requires a town to have a population of at least 10,000 people before it can switch its government from a town meeting form to a city form. Nevertheless, even without a hard and fast population limit for city status, the practical threshold to become a city seems to be higher in the three southern New England states than in

6072-700: Is one public middle school, the Brattleboro Area Middle School (BAMS), and one public high school, the Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS). The Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, which oversees the public school system in the southeastern corner of Windham County , also administers a dedicated vocational education unit, the Windham Regional Career Center. Oak Meadow , a K–12 homeschool curriculum provider and distance learning school

6204-481: Is sometimes used in New England to describe a distinct, built-up place within a town or city. This may be a town center , which bears the same name as the town or city (almost every town has such a place), or a name related to that of the town, or a completely unrelated name. The town of Barnstable, Massachusetts , for example, includes the villages of Barnstable Village , West Barnstable , Centerville , Marstons Mills , Osterville , Cotuit , and Hyannis . Except for

6336-469: Is sufficiently populated to be covered by a town or a city. In colonial times, Massachusetts also used the term "plantation" for a community in a pre-town stage of development (Maine originally got the term from Massachusetts, as Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820, when it became a state via the Missouri Compromise ). The term "plantation" had not been much used in Massachusetts since

6468-475: Is the Connecticut River . The town has been important to the history of Vermont, acting as a gateway for trade on both the Connecticut River and subsequent road and train infrastructure. Moreover the Whetstone Brook allowed the development of several mill industries that relied on water power. The town rose to national and international recognition because of several major industries in the town during

6600-474: The Connecticut River , later enlisting as an officer in the army. Then, in 1742, he established Fort Hinsdale, including a trading post and gristmill , reportedly at his own expense. The town's earliest history recounts Indian assaults, raids and captivities. Located beside the Connecticut River and connected to Brattleboro, Vermont , by bridge, Hinsdale contains excellent farmland, but has been

6732-495: The Brattleboro Typographic Company . These businesses initiated a decade of very successful printing industry in the town. Whetstone Falls, very close to where Brattleboro's Whetstone Brook flows into the Connecticut River, was a handy source of water power for watermills , initially a sawmill and a gristmill . By 1859, when the population had reached 3,816, Brattleboro had a woolen textile mill,

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6864-876: The Community College of Vermont and Vermont Technical College are located in Brattleboro; in the downtown's newly renovated Brooks House. Brattleboro was also home to the New England Academic Center of Union Institute and University , housed in the Marlboro College Graduate Center building. SIT Graduate Institute , formerly known as the School for International Training , is a private higher education institution in northern Brattleboro. An outgrowth of The Experiment in International Living , which

6996-690: The Dartmouth Outing Club (1909–1910), also establishing the Brattleboro Outing Club (in 1922), contributing to the first North American use of motor-driven ski lifts, and building the Harris Hill olympic-scale ski jumping facility , the site of international competitions every February that still attract daring ski-jumping athletes from all over the world. Brattleboro employs a representative town meeting local government, wherein its citizens are represented at-large by

7128-635: The Holstein/Friesian Cattle Association, which houses and maintains the worldwide registries for those two breeds. Brooks Memorial Library houses a town historical archive, fine art paintings, and sculptures. Brattleboro has a thriving arts community. It was listed in John Villani's book The 100 Best Small Art Towns in America , in which it was ranked #9 among 'arts towns' with a population of 30,000 or less. On

7260-558: The Massachusetts Bay Colony against Chief Gray Lock and others during Dummer's War , the Massachusetts General Court voted on December 27, 1723, to build a blockhouse and stockade on the Connecticut River near the site of what would later become known as Brattleboro. Lieutenant-governor William Dummer signed the measure, and construction of Fort Dummer began on February 3, 1724. It

7392-678: The New England Center for Circus Arts , Vermont Jazz Center , and the Brattleboro Retreat , a mental health and addictions hospital. Notable annual events include Strolling of the Heifers and the Brattleboro Literary Festival . The location was called Wantastegok or "Wantastiquet" by the indigenous Sokoki band of Abenaki that resided in the area before settlement by Europeans. To defend

7524-428: The United States Census Bureau (which recognizes some villages as census-designated places and tabulates census data for them). Towns with an example of the former, such as Richmond, Rhode Island , do not have a post office themselves, but instead use villages in town or villages in nearby towns as a mailing address. This leads to a weaker town identification in such towns, with residents more strongly identifying with

7656-549: The United States Census Bureau does not classify New England towns as "incorporated places". They are instead classified as " minor civil divisions " (MCDs), the same category into which civil townships fall. The Census Bureau classifies New England towns in this manner because they are conceptually similar to civil townships from a geographic standpoint, typically exhibiting similar population-distribution patterns. Like civil townships, but unlike most incorporated municipalities in other states, New England towns do not usually represent

7788-581: The West River , Ames Hill Brook and Whetstone Brook. The town is in the Connecticut River Valley , and its eastern boundary (and the Vermont state line) is the western bank of the Connecticut River . Hills and mountains surround the town. Brattleboro experiences a humid continental climate ( Köppen Dfa ) with cold, snowy winters and hot, humid summers. The town can experience snowfall as early as November and as late as April, and in

7920-420: The poverty line , including 18.0% of those under age 18 and 9.2% of those age 65 or over. Both a commercial and touristic gateway for the state of Vermont, Brattleboro is the first major town one encounters crossing northward by automobile from Massachusetts on Interstate 91 , and is accessed via Vermont exits 1, 2, and 3 from that thoroughfare. It offers a mix of a rural atmosphere and urban amenities including

8052-446: The 1840s, and for many years prior to the 1860s Vermont had just one city. Even Massachusetts, historically New England's most populous state, did not have any cities until 1822, when Boston was granted a city form of government by the state legislature. In most of New England, population is not a determining factor for what makes a city or town, and there are many examples of towns with larger populations than nearby cities. Massachusetts

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8184-717: The 18th and 19th centuries as what might be termed "future towns", but never saw enough settlement to actually commence operation of a formal town government. All three of the northern New England states also include at least one unorganized township that was once a town but has disincorporated and reverted to unorganized territory, generally due to population loss. Maine also has some unorganized townships that were once organized as plantations. Maine has significantly more unorganized territory than Vermont or New Hampshire. Fewer than 100 Vermont residents and fewer than 250 New Hampshire residents live in unorganized areas. In Maine, by contrast, about 10,000 residents live in unorganized areas. As

8316-497: The 18th century. Massachusetts also once had "districts", which served much the same purpose. They were considered to be incorporated, but lacked the full privileges of a town. On August 23, 1775, in order for more representation for the Revolutionary War, 36 towns in Massachusetts and 6 in Maine were incorporated, effectively eliminating the district meaning. Maine and Rhode Island are also known to have made limited use of

8448-401: The 1960s and 1970s following the construction of Interstate 91, which runs north-south through the town. The area has little residential development and is dominated by larger commercial and industrial establishments and suburban-style shopping areas along Putney Road , including seven chain hotels and motels located within a short distance of each other. Brattleboro is also the headquarters of

8580-457: The 1970s, through home-rule petition, adopted corporate charters approved by the state legislature with forms of government that resemble city government and do not include elements traditionally associated with town government (especially, a board of selectmen and a town meeting). Of the fourteen communities that have done so, all but three call themselves a "town" in their municipal operations, and are usually referred to by residents as "towns", but

8712-591: The 19th century: several bookbinding companies, including Brattleboro Typographic Company which produced bibles, and Estey Organ , one of the largest manufacturers of pipe organs in the world. Both industries shrank in the early 20th century, relying more on its role as a economic hub for more rural communities and Vermont's tourism industry . There are satellite campuses of two colleges in Brattleboro: Community College of Vermont , and Vermont Technical College . Located in Brattleboro are

8844-450: The 20th century, however. One late instance was the separation of Sugar Hill, New Hampshire , from the town of Lisbon in 1962. It has not taken place anywhere in New England in the last fifty years; boundary changes of any type are fairly rare. Towns are the basic building block of the New England municipality system, although several other types of municipalities also exist. Every New England state has cities . In addition, Maine also has

8976-549: The 42 municipalities that title themselves as cities are recognized as cities. This includes the 39 cities that adopted city forms of government through pre-home rule procedures. The other 309 municipalities in the state are treated as towns below. The same classification is used for identifying Massachusetts cities on the list of New England towns and its attendant pages with historical census population statistics. For further information, see this section of Massachusetts government . Hinsdale, New Hampshire Hinsdale

9108-528: The Brattleboro Hydropathic Establishment was opened by Robert Wesselhoeft; this was the third " water cure " establishment in the country, utilizing waters from a spring near the current downtown fire station. Until the water cure closed in 1871, the town was widely known as a curative health resort. Other industries began to appear in the town under the initiation of the businessman John Holbrook , who initiated firms like

9240-478: The CDP. At the same time, not all built-up places with significant populations are recognized as CDPs. The Census Bureau has historically recognized relatively few CDPs within urbanized areas in particular. Many towns located in such areas do not contain any recognized CDPs and will thus be completely absent from Census materials presenting the population of "places". Greenwich, Connecticut, is one prominent example. While

9372-410: The Census Bureau, can be another source of confusion. The Census classifications should not be understood to imply that cities are incorporated but towns are not, or that cities and towns represent two fundamentally different types of entities. The Census classifies New England municipalities strictly based on whether they are towns or cities, with no regard to the actual population-distribution pattern in

9504-452: The Census only counts cities and certain fully urbanized towns as "places" in its categorization. In other towns, those with small built-up central villages, the Census designates one or more census-designated places (CDPs) and considers all other land to be parts of "minor civil divisions". This classification is done only for the Census's own data analysis, and otherwise has no connection to

9636-512: The Connecticut River on Vernon Road (VT Route 142), at the corner of Cotton Mill Hill. The western section of town, built up around Vermont's east-west Route 9 , was formally designated a village in 2005. It is mostly lower-density residential in character, and features the state's largest mobile home park and several planned housing developments and subdivisions. Away from the Route 9 conduit, other parts of western Brattleboro and some areas north of

9768-485: The Gibson-Aiken Center, a large recreation and community activities facility, located downtown on Main Street, along with a number of parks and outdoor recreation centers, including Living Memorial Park , whose features include an outdoor swimming pool and a municipal skiing facility. There are bicycle lanes on Putney Road in the northern portion of town, on Guilford Street near Living Memorial Park, and on

9900-527: The Killingly portion was renamed Danielson by the General Assembly. There are no legal restrictions in Connecticut that would prevent a city or borough today from similarly overlaying the territory of more than one town, provided it is not consolidated with one of the underlying towns. Cities actually developed earlier in Connecticut than in the other New England states, and were originally based on

10032-641: The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth's Office considers all fourteen to be legally cities. Other sources within state government often refer to all fourteen municipalities as towns, however. The U.S. Census Bureau listed all as towns through the 1990 Census. For the 2000 Census, some were listed by the Federal government as towns and some as cities, a situation that continues in Census materials since 2000. Massachusetts appears to be

10164-581: The Regional Career Center are also located in this section, as is Fort Dummer State Park, which is named after the first European settlers' 1724 stockade. The original Fort's site, however, was flooded in the early 20th century by a flood-control and hydro-electric dam built just downstream in Vernon, Vermont . An historical marker is located near the Fort's now-underwater site, on the west bank of

10296-532: The Springfield Union, which was the paper that published the first news about James' claims, as well as excerpts from the new chapters of the novel. Newspaper editors from papers around New England who had employed James denounced the entire affair as a well-planned advertising hoax. The book became a sensation, being reviewed in the New York Times and widely promoted in spiritualist magazines of

10428-472: The Statistics and Superlatives section below), further blurs matters. To fill in some of the "place" data, the Census Bureau sometimes recognizes census-designated places (CDPs) within New England towns. These often correspond to town centers or other villages, although not all such areas are recognized as CDPs. In cases where a town is entirely or almost entirely built-up, the Census sometimes recognizes

10560-517: The Town of ..." Greenfield, in December 2017, dropped the "town" designation, which some called "embarrassing" and which legislators said made paperwork more difficult. Common parlance labeling a community a "city" or a "town" may have more to do with its current size, whether its current size or its historical size and reputation. In addition to towns and cities, Maine has a third type of town-like municipality not found in any other New England state,

10692-527: The Town of Greenwich appears in MCD materials, the Census Bureau does not recognize Greenwich as a "place". In New Hampshire and Vermont, the Census Bureau treats each individual unorganized entity (township, gore, grant, etc.) as an MCD. In Maine, it seems, due to the extent of unorganized area, the Census Bureau typically lumps contiguous townships, gores, and the like together into larger units called "unorganized territories" (UTs), which are then treated as MCDs. In

10824-611: The U.S., except that it uses the town as its basic unit rather than the county. Even though the Census Bureau does not treat New England towns as "incorporated places", it does classify cities in New England as such. The rationale behind this is that cities are likely to be more thoroughly built-up and therefore more readily comparable to cities in other states than towns are. Boroughs in Connecticut and incorporated villages in Vermont are also treated as incorporated places. That New England states, in general, regard cities and towns on equal footing, yet they are handled in two different ways by

10956-564: The US Census Bureau treats Groton Long Point as a borough, as an act of the state legislature gives it the same powers as a borough, although it has never formally organized as one. They were once more numerous. Many of those that remain are very small. Connecticut also has at least one remaining city ( Groton ) that is within, but not coextensive with, its parent town . A second non-coextensive city, Winsted , still exists on paper, but its government has been consolidated with that of

11088-493: The West River have a decidedly rural character, with dirt roads, sparse housing, wooded Green Mountains foothills, and the last few farms left in the town following the 1970s' decline of the dairy industry. At its peak, the immediate Brattleboro area had over 170 farms; there are now less than a dozen remaining. The section of Brattleboro north of the West River , formerly farmland, was mostly subdivided and developed during

11220-476: The actual organization or legal status of New England towns. The census bureau does uniquely recognize towns, however, in that it classifies metropolitan areas in New England on the basis of town boundaries rather than county boundaries as it does in other parts of the U.S. Unique to New England is the New England city and town area , which is analogous to Metropolitan Statistical Areas in other parts of

11352-410: The adjacent mountains and high country as late as May. Nor'easters often come with the potential of dumping a foot or more of snow on Brattleboro when they move through; such storms are not uncommon during the winter months. Summers are warm to hot and generally humid, with abundant sunshine and heavy showers and thunderstorms associated with passing cold fronts . Tornadoes are rare. The record high

11484-421: The age of 18 living with them, 48.5% were headed by married couples living together, 10.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.0% were non-families. 26.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.8% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.41, and the average family size was 2.85. In the town, 21.2% of the population were under

11616-429: The age of 18, 8.2% were from 18 to 24, 23.9% from 25 to 44, 32.1% from 45 to 64, and 14.4% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42.7 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.5 males. For the period 2011–2015, the estimated median annual income for a household was $ 50,217, and the median income for a family was $ 54,966. Male full-time workers had

11748-505: The borough concept. At one time, all cities were non-coextensive; the practice of making cities coextensive with their towns was a later adaptation intended to mimic the city concept that had emerged in the other New England states. Over time, many non-coextensive cities have expanded to become coextensive with their parent town. As with boroughs, many have also disincorporated and reverted to full town control. These two trends have combined to make non-coextensive cities very rare in recent times;

11880-653: The boundary with New York State , housing the Stratford Shoal Light , is not part of any town and is administered directly by the United States Coast Guard . In general, inhabited minor off-shore islands are administered as part of a nearby town and in some cases, are their own independent towns, such as the town of Gosnold , Massachusetts, which encompasses the Elizabeth Islands . Unlike municipalities in most other states,

12012-553: The buildings now houses the Estey Organ Museum. The entire surviving complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, both for its architecture, and for having been a major economic force in Brattleboro for many years. In 1871, Thomas P. James, "The Spirit Pen of Dickens", a printer by trade, moved to Brattleboro, where he took a job at The Vermont Farmer and Record. James claimed that

12144-415: The built-up area around a town center as a CDP, resulting in a CDP that bears the same name as the town. In these cases, data for the CDP is, in general, meaningless to local residents, who seldom draw any particular distinction between the built-up area around the town center and outlying areas of the town. A local source citing data for such a community will almost always use the data for the entire town, not

12276-417: The day. James published the novel on October 31, 1873, and reported that he sold 30,000 copies of it. James left Brattleboro in 1879, abandoning his third wife, and moving to Watertown, Massachusetts, with his fourth wife Lizzie Plummer, a member of the wealthy Salisbury family with ties to Brattleboro's printing and paper making industries. British author Rudyard Kipling settled in Brattleboro after marrying

12408-502: The death of men who had left, going to seek their fortunes in the cities or out west, and the consequent loneliness and depression in the lives of local women; the long length of the workday for farmers, even in winter, often for lack of help; and the abandonment of farms. The first person to receive a U.S. Social Security benefit check, issued on January 31, 1940, was Ida May Fuller from Brattleboro. On May 12, 1950, auctioneer Emma Bailey held her first auction in Brattleboro, selling

12540-477: The departed spirit of Charles Dickens had given him a communication during at a seance on Oak Street. According to James, Dickens' spirit conveyed that he had chosen James to write down the end of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", which Dickens had not completed before he died. Dickens' spirit also supposedly told James that it was fine if James made a profit from the book. The book was printed by the same company that owned

12672-434: The district concept. Districts have not been at all common since the first half of the 19th century, and there have not been any districts anywhere in New England in over a century. Maine is the only New England state that currently has a significant amount of territory that is not sufficiently populated to support town governments; thus, it is the only New England state that still needs the plantation type of municipality. For

12804-400: The evolution of cities in those states. In Connecticut in particular, the historical development of cities was quite different from in the other New England states, and at least technically, the relationship between towns and cities is today different from elsewhere in New England. Just as boroughs in Connecticut overlay towns, so do cities; for example, while Hartford is commonly thought of as

12936-490: The exception rather than the rule in the New England system, and the number of New England residents who live in them is extremely small in comparison to those who live in towns and cities, even in Maine. Most such areas are located in very sparsely populated regions. Much of the barely inhabited interior of Maine is unorganized, for example. The majority of the unincorporated areas in New Hampshire are in Coos County , and

13068-782: The first Friday of every month, an event known as "Gallery Walk" is held, during which galleries, artists, arts organizations, and stores display new art works or hold performances. Included in the organizations that participate are the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center , the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery , the In-Sight Photography Project , River Gallery School , Through the Music, and the Windham Art Gallery . Gallery Walk

13200-805: The hundreds. While these were not large communities, they were large enough to realistically operate a town government if they wanted to, but simply elected not to. In Vermont and New Hampshire, disincorporation has, in general, not been brought up for discussion unless a town's population has approached single digits. In general, coastal waters in the New England states are administered directly by either state or federal agencies and are not part of any town. Several towns, however, have chosen to include all or part of their corresponding coastal waters in their territory. Coastal waters include human-made structures built within them. In Connecticut, for example, an artificial, uninhabited island in Long Island Sound at

13332-490: The incorporated villages in Vermont, these "villages" are not incorporated municipalities and should not be understood as such. Towns do sometimes grant a certain measure of recognition to such areas, using highway signs that identify them as "villages", for example. These informal "villages" also sometimes correspond to underlying special-purpose districts such as fire or water districts, which are separately incorporated quasi-municipal entities that provide specific services within

13464-464: The largest municipalities in the region are titled as cities. Across New England as a whole, only about 5% of all incorporated municipalities are cities. Cities are more common in the three southern New England states, which are much more densely populated, than they are in the three northern New England states. In early colonial times, all incorporated municipalities in New England were towns; there were no cities. Springfield, Massachusetts , for instance,

13596-618: The majority of the unincorporated areas in Vermont are in Essex County . Two additional counties in New Hampshire and three additional counties in Vermont contain smaller amounts of unincorporated territory. In Maine, eight of the state's sixteen counties contain significant amounts of unorganized territory (in essence, those counties in the northern and interior parts of the state). Four other counties contain smaller amounts. Most of these areas have no local government at all; indeed, some have no permanent population whatsoever. Some areas have

13728-443: The only New England state where this issue has arisen, though other New England states also have municipalities that have adopted what amounts to city forms of government but continue to call themselves "towns". In the other New England states, it does not appear that any need to officially label such municipalities as "cities" has been identified. For purposes of determining the "largest town" and "smallest city", in this article, only

13860-530: The only one currently incorporated is the city of Groton , located in the southwestern part of the town of Groton, Connecticut . In Vermont, if a village becomes a city, it does not continue to overlay its parent town, but breaks away and becomes a completely separate municipality. Most cities in Vermont today are actually former villages rather than former towns, and are much smaller than a typical town in terms of land area. The above process has created several instances where there are adjacent towns and cities with

13992-411: The original existing towns. This was an especially common practice during the 18th and early 19th centuries. More heavily populated areas were often subdivided on multiple occasions. As a result, towns and cities in urbanized areas are often smaller in terms of land area than an average town in a rural area. Formation of new towns in this manner slowed in the later part of the 19th century and early part of

14124-524: The plantation. A plantation is, in essence, a town-like community that does not have enough population to require full town government or services. Plantations are organized at the county level and typically found in sparsely populated areas. There is no bright-line population divider between a town and a plantation, but no plantation currently has any more than about 300 residents. Plantations are considered to be "organized" but not "incorporated." Not all counties have them; in some southern counties, all territory

14256-421: The relationship between towns and cities in Connecticut is different from the other New England states, at least on paper; thus, in the technical sense, all 169 of the above municipalities are really towns, with 20 overlaid by a coextensive city or borough of the same name.) Together, these 169 municipalities cover the entire state. There is no unincorporated territory, but, as in all New England states, there are

14388-439: The remaining 32 are organized as plantations. These 485 organized municipalities together cover much of, but not all of, the state's territory. Of Maine's sixteen counties, only four are entirely incorporated. Four other counties are almost entirely incorporated, but include small amounts of unincorporated/unorganized territory (three of these four counties were entirely incorporated or organized at one time, but lost that status when

14520-506: The same name. In all cases, the city was originally the "town center" of the town, but later incorporated as a city and became a separate municipality. All three of the northern New England states ( Vermont , New Hampshire , and Maine ) contain some areas that are unincorporated and unorganized, not part of any town, city or plantation. Maine has significantly more such area than the other two states. While these areas do exist, their importance should not be overstated. They are certainly

14652-528: The southwestern corner of the state, Hinsdale was chartered in 1753. It was named for Colonel Ebenezer Hinsdale, member of a prominent Deerfield, Massachusetts , family, whose mother had been taken captive in the famed Raid on Deerfield of 1704. Graduated from Harvard , Hinsdale was ordained to become a missionary for Indians of the Connecticut River Valley. Instead, he would serve as chaplain at Fort Dummer , an important trading post on

14784-412: The surrounding steep hills there is very little flat land, and many of its buildings and houses are situated on steep hillsides, necessarily closely bunched together. This concentrated topography and population density have helped to create a semi-urban, cosmopolitan atmosphere in the downtown. Since the 1950s, additional construction and development have expanded outside the concentrated downtown area; in

14916-457: The three northern New England states. In Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, almost every city has at least 10,000 people, and all but a few have at least 20,000. In Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, however, there are a number of cities with fewer than 10,000 people, and there are five (three in Maine and two in Vermont) with fewer than 5,000. Over time, some of the distinctions between

15048-399: The time of the 2000 Census, Maine had 22 cities, 434 towns, and 34 plantations, for a total of 490 organized municipalities. Also since the 2010 Census, Sanford adopted a new charter that included designation as a city.) Massachusetts contains 351 municipal corporations, consisting of cities and towns. These 351 municipalities together encompass the entire territory of Massachusetts; there

15180-404: The town has a total area of 22.7 square miles (58.7 km ), of which 20.5 square miles (53.1 km ) are land and 2.1 square miles (5.5 km ) are water, comprising 9.42% of the town. The highest point in town is Wantastiquet Mountain, at 1,378 feet (420 m) above sea level , located on the town's northern boundary and overlooking the Connecticut River and Brattleboro, Vermont , to

15312-444: The town of Winchester for many years, making it more of a special-purpose district than a true municipality. Winsted is no longer recognized by the Census Bureau as an incorporated place, although data is tabulated for a Census Designated Place that is coextensive with that of the original city. As of the 2020 census, Maine contains 485 organized municipalities, of which 23 are incorporated as cities, 430 are incorporated as towns, and

15444-406: The town was 92.1% White , 1.9% Black or African American , 0.3% Native American , 2.2% Asian , 0.04% Pacific Islander , 0.6% from other races , and 2.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.7% of the population. There were 5,364 households, out of which 27.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.8% were married couples living together, 12.8% had

15576-486: The town was home to the Hinsdale Greyhound Park . In 2023, Geoffrey Holt , a caretaker of a mobile home park , left the town $ 3.8 million to be used for education, health, recreation, and culture. Hinsdale is in the southwestern corner of New Hampshire, bordered to the west across the Connecticut River by Vermont and to the south by Massachusetts . According to the United States Census Bureau ,

15708-470: The town's name was shortened to Brattleboro. The Estey Organ company, the largest organ manufacturer in the United States, operated in Brattleboro for about a century beginning in 1852. The company's main factory was located southwest of downtown Brattleboro, on the south side of Whetstone Brook between Birge and Organ Streets. At its height, the complex had more than 20 buildings, many of which were interconnected by raised walkways and covered bridges. One of

15840-544: The town. Almost all of the population is concentrated in two census-designated places identified in the town: Brattleboro and West Brattleboro . The results of recent censuses indicate very little change in the overall number of people living in the town. Despite this, Brattleboro remains the most populous town along Vermont's eastern border. The population density of the town was 375.3 people per square mile (144.9/km). There were 5,686 housing units at an average density of 177.7 per square mile (68.6/km). The racial makeup of

15972-405: The town. There were 1,827 housing units, of which 146, or 8.0%, were vacant. The racial makeup of the town was 96.5% white , 0.5% African American , 0.2% Native American , 0.5% Asian , 0.3% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 0.3% some other race, and 1.6% from two or more races. 1.4% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Of the 1,681 households, 29.6% had children under

16104-621: The usual town structure, sometimes in areas where it was probably not contemplated that towns would ever develop. Over time, those located in more populated areas were, in general, annexed to neighboring towns or incorporated as towns in their own right. No such areas exist today in Massachusetts, Connecticut or Rhode Island, but some remain in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. All three of the northern New England states contain some town-sized unorganized entities, referred to as "unorganized townships" (sometimes, just "townships") or "unorganized towns". Most of these are areas that were drawn up on maps in

16236-451: The village they live in. However, villages or CDPs have no existence as general-purpose municipalities separate from the town (if they even have any legal existence at all), and are usually regarded by local residents as a part of the town in which they are located, less important than the whole. It is possible for a Connecticut borough or Vermont village to become a city. In Connecticut, cities overlay towns just as boroughs do, and, just like

16368-440: The west, south, and north of the township. The southeast quarter of the town, near to and abutting the riverbank, is where its population has historically been the densest, and is composed largely of one- or two-family houses, with apartment buildings such as " triple deckers " interspersed among them. Commercial and industrial operations are concentrated along the north-south Canal Street (Route 5) artery. The town's high school and

16500-531: The west. The entire town lies within the Connecticut River watershed , with roughly the northwestern two-thirds of town draining into small streams that feed directly into the Connecticut, and with the southeastern third of the town draining into the Ashuelot River , a major tributary of the Connecticut. Hinsdale is served by state routes 63 and 119 . As of the census of 2010, there were 4,046 people, 1,681 households, and 1,093 families residing in

16632-407: Was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 84.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 79.9 males. The median income for a household in the town was $ 31,997, and the median income for a family was $ 44,267. Males had a median income of $ 31,001 versus $ 25,329 for females. The per capita income for the town was $ 19,554. About 9.2% of families and 13.1% of the population were below

16764-537: Was a town for the first two centuries of its existence. The entire land areas of Connecticut and Rhode Island had been divided into towns by the late 18th century, and Massachusetts was almost completely covered early in the 19th century. By 1850, the only New England state that still had large unincorporated areas was Maine ; by the end of the 19th century, most areas in Maine that could realistically be settled had been organized into towns. Early town organization in Vermont and much of New Hampshire proceeded in

16896-576: Was completed before summer. On October 11 of that year, the French attacked the fort and killed some soldiers. In 1725, Dummer's War ended. By 1728, and in subsequent peaceful periods, the fort served as a trading post for commerce among the colonial settlers and the Indians . But violence flared up from time to time throughout the first half of the 18th century. In 1744, what became known as King George's War broke out, lasting until 1748. During this period

17028-531: Was founded in 1932 in nearby Putney, Vermont , the Graduate Institute offers master's degrees in several internationally oriented concentrations. Its students and faculty hail from all regions of the globe, giving Brattleboro a decidedly eclectic and international flair, and its notable alumni include native Vermonter and 1997 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams . Brattleboro currently has three public K–6 elementary schools. They are: There

17160-648: Was second to no other settlement in the state for business and wealth. In 1771, Stephen Greenleaf opened Vermont's first store in the east village, and in 1784, a post office was established. A bridge was built across the Connecticut River to Hinsdale, New Hampshire , in 1804. In 1834, the Brattleboro Retreat, then called the Vermont Asylum for the Insane, was established through a generous bequest by Anna Marsh of Hinsdale, New Hampshire . In 1844,

17292-442: Was settled as a "plantation" (in colonial Massachusetts, the term was synonymous with town) as early as 1636, but the city of Springfield was not established until 1852. The oldest cities in New England date to the last few decades of the 18th century, (e.g. New Haven, Connecticut , was chartered as a city in 1784). In New England, cities were not widespread until well into the 19th century. New Hampshire did not have any cities until

17424-431: Was very informal, generally connected to local church divisions. By 1700, colonial governments had become more involved in the official establishment of new towns. Towns were typically governed by a town meeting form of government, as many still are today. Towns originally were the only form of incorporated municipality in New England. The city form of government was not introduced until much later. Boston , for instance,

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