Manchester, Vermont

Last updated

Manchester, Vermont
Bennington county court house manchester vermont 20040731.jpg
Bennington County Courthouse in Manchester Village
Manchester vt highlight.png
Manchester, Vermont
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Manchester, Vermont
Location in the United States
Coordinates: 43°8′27″N73°4′48″W / 43.14083°N 73.08000°W / 43.14083; -73.08000
Country Flag of the United States.svg  United States
State Flag of Vermont.svg  Vermont
County Bennington
Named for Robert Montagu, 3rd Duke of Manchester
Communities Manchester
Manchester Center
Manchester Depot
Barnumville
Richville
Area
  Total42.2 sq mi (109.4 km2)
  Land42.1 sq mi (109.1 km2)
  Water0.1 sq mi (0.3 km2)
Elevation
899 ft (281 m)
Population
 (2020)
  Total4,484
  Density106/sq mi (41.1/km2)
Time zone UTC−5 (Eastern (EST))
  Summer (DST) UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP Code
05254
Area code 802
FIPS code 50-42850 [1]
GNIS feature ID1462142 [2]
Website manchester-vt.gov

Manchester is a town in, and one of two shire towns [3] (county seats [4] ) of, Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 4,484 at the 2020 census. [5]

Contents

Manchester Village, an incorporated village, and Manchester Center, are settlement centers within the town. Manchester has become a tourist destination, especially for those from New York and Connecticut, offering visitors factory outlet stores of national chain retailers as well as many locally owned businesses and restaurants.

History

View of Manchester in 1913 View of Manchester, VT.jpg
View of Manchester in 1913
c. 1920s at Ye Olde Tavern C. unknow by e in old 1920'a 30's.jpg
c.1920s at Ye Olde Tavern

The town was one of several chartered in 1761 by Benning Wentworth, colonial governor of New Hampshire. It was his custom to name new towns after prominent English aristocrats of the day, hoping they might adopt a patronly interest in their namesakes. Wentworth named Manchester for Robert Montagu, 3rd Duke of Manchester. First settled in 1764, the town was laid out in 1784. The land was better suited for grazing than tillage, so by 1839 about 6,000 sheep roamed the pastures and hillsides.

Other industries came to include iron mines, marble quarries and mills, and lumber companies. The arrival of the railroad from industrialized centers like New York City brought tourists, drawn by Manchester's historic architecture and beautiful setting among mountains. Following the Civil War, the town developed into an affluent resort area, which it remains today.

Between 1812 and 1819, Manchester was made famous by the Boorn–Colvin case, called "America's first wrongful conviction murder case", [6] the subject of several books and still studied today. [7]

Orvis is a family-owned retail and mail-order business specializing in high-end fly fishing, hunting and sporting goods. Founded in Manchester in 1856 by Charles F. Orvis to sell fishing tackle, it is the oldest mail-order retailer in the United States. [8] [9]

Jake Burton Carpenter, founder of Burton Snowboards, perfected snowboard design in his garage in Manchester. The company operated out of Manchester until 1992, when it relocated to Burlington. [8] Nearby Stratton Mountain was among the first ski resorts to allow snowboarding.

The town has three distinct state-recognized historic districts—the Depot district located on Highland Avenue and Elm Street, Bonnet Street, just north of Main Street, and Main Street itself. [8]

Geography

The Congregational Church in Manchester Village, Vermont The Congregational Church in Manchester Village Vermont.jpg
The Congregational Church in Manchester Village, Vermont
View of Manchester, Vermont by DeWitt Clinton Boutelle, 1870 ViewOfManchesterVermont.jpg
View of Manchester, Vermont by DeWitt Clinton Boutelle, 1870

Manchester is located in north-central Bennington County, lying between the Green Mountains to the east and the Taconic Range to the west. Equinox Mountain, the highest summit in the Taconics, with an elevation of 3,850 feet (1,170 m), is in the western part of the town. Manchester is drained by the Batten Kill, Lye Brook, Munson Brook, Bromley Brook, and Bourn Brook. The Lye Brook Falls Hiking Trail, which leads to one of the highest waterfalls in Vermont, is a popular local attraction.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 42.2 square miles (109.4 km2), of which 42.1 square miles (109.1 km2) is land and 0.1 square miles (0.3 km2), or 0.29%, is water. [10]

Demographics

Historical population
CensusPop.Note
1790 1,276
1800 1,3979.5%
1810 1,5027.5%
1820 1,5080.4%
1830 1,5251.1%
1840 1,5994.9%
1850 1,78211.4%
1860 1,688−5.3%
1870 1,89712.4%
1880 1,9281.6%
1890 1,907−1.1%
1900 1,9552.5%
1910 2,0444.6%
1920 2,0570.6%
1930 2,004−2.6%
1940 2,1396.7%
1950 2,42513.4%
1960 2,4701.9%
1970 2,91918.2%
1980 3,26111.7%
1990 3,62211.1%
2000 4,18015.4%
2010 4,3915.0%
2020 4,4842.1%
U.S. Decennial Census [11]

As of the census [1] of 2000, there were 4,180 people, 1,819 households, and 1,156 families residing in the town. The population density was 99.0 people per square mile (38.2 people/km2). There were 2,456 housing units at an average density of 58.2 units per square mile (22.5 units/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 97.87% White, 0.38% Black or African American, 0.17% Native American, 0.31% Asian, 0.43% from other races, and 0.84% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.75% of the population.

There were 1,819 households, out of which 28.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.5% were married couples who were living together, 9.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.4% were non-families. Of all households 30.5% were made up of individuals, and 14.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.81.

The population distribution by age for Manchester was 23.1% under the age of 18, 4.0% from 18 to 24, 25.0% from 25 to 44, 28.8% from 45 to 64, and 19.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.3 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $47,196, and the median income for a family was $59,191. Males had a median income of $36,453 versus $26,017 for females. The per capita income for the town was $30,499. About 2.2% of families and 4.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.9% of those under age 18 and 6.5% of those age 65 or over.

Transportation

Manchester is crossed by four highways, including one Super-2 freeway. They are:

Green Mountain Community Network's Orange Line bus and MVRTD "The Bus" Manchester-Rutland Connector serve the town with public transit commuter connections to Bennington and Rutland, respectively. [12] [13] The closest major airport is Albany International Airport in New York, although three daily round trip flights from Rutland to Boston are available via Cape Air from Rutland – Southern Vermont Regional Airport. [14] Greyhound, the national intercity bus system, also serves Manchester through Premier Coach's Vermont Translines with an intercity bus connection between Burlington, Vermont and Albany, New York. [15] [16]

Rail

Manchester has several Amtrak passenger train connections within a one-hour drive.

VTrans and NYSDOT have shown interest in restoring passenger train service to Manchester on a new Amtrak route between Albany and Burlington via Rutland, also linking up nearby Mechanicville, New York and North Bennington, Vermont. The new train would share much of its route with the Ethan Allen Express, likely running beyond Albany to New York City. [17] [18] As of 2021, the idea is listed simply as a "potential initiative" in the Vermont Rail Plan. [19]

Notable attractions

Hildene, the summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln and Mary Lincoln, is a mansion in the Georgian Revival style completed in 1905 that is located southwest of Manchester Center. [20] Robert Lincoln, the only child of President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln to survive into adulthood, served as Secretary of War to Presidents Garfield and Arthur, was appointed Minister (Ambassador) to Great Britain during the administration of President Benjamin Harrison, and later became general counsel and then president of the Pullman Company. The Hildene house and surrounding grounds are open to the public.

Also located in Manchester, at the base of Mount Equinox, is the Southern Vermont Arts Center (SVAC). In addition to hosting art exhibitions from its permanent collections and of visiting collections in its gallery facilities, SVAC conducts educational programs and provides facilities for performances and events in the arts. The permanent collection at SVAC includes the work of such regional artists as Ogden Pleissner, Jay Hall Conaway, Reginald Marsh, Guy Pene du Bois, Lorenzo Hatch, Luigi Lucioni, Arthur Gibbs Burton, and Robert Strong Woodward. [21]

Media

Like the rest of Bennington County, Manchester lies in the Albany–Schenectady–Troy television and radio media market.

Manchester is home to alternative rock radio station WEQX's studios. Their broadcast tower is on the summit of Equinox Mountain, from which their callsign derives, enabling their signal to reach the northern and eastern Capital Region of New York's radio market area, [22] while also being able to reach the remainder of southern Vermont, western Massachusetts, and southwestern New Hampshire.

In November and December 2020, John Gray's novel, Manchester Christmas, became a local and regional bestseller. [23]

WVNK 91.1 FM, a VPR partner station, is also licensed to Manchester.

Print news is carried in the Manchester Journal and Bennington Banner .

Notable people

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windsor County, Vermont</span> County in Vermont, United States

Windsor County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 57,753. The shire town is the town of Woodstock. The county's largest municipality is the town of Hartford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rutland County, Vermont</span> County in Vermont, United States

Rutland County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 60,572, making it the second-most populous county in Vermont. Its county seat and most populous municipality is the city of Rutland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bennington County, Vermont</span> County in Vermont, United States

Bennington County is a county in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 37,347. The shire towns are jointly Bennington and Manchester, and the largest municipality is Bennington. The county was created in 1778.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Addison County, Vermont</span> County in Vermont, United States

Addison County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 37,363. Its shire town is the town of Middlebury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorset, Vermont</span> Town in Vermont, United States

Dorset is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,133 at the 2020 census. Dorset is famous for being the location of Cephas Kent's Inn, where four meetings of the Convention that signed the Dorset Accords led to the independent Vermont Republic and future statehood. Dorset is the site of America's oldest marble quarry and is the birthplace of Bill W., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. East Dorset is the site of the Wilson House and the Griffith Library. The town is named after the English county of Dorset.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester Center, Vermont</span> Census-designated place in Vermont, United States

Manchester Center is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Manchester in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2010 census, the CDP had a population of 2,120, out of 4,391 people in the entire town of Manchester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Bennington, Vermont</span> Village in Vermont, United States

North Bennington is an incorporated village in the town of Bennington in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,716 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proctor, Vermont</span> Town in Vermont, United States

Proctor is a town in Rutland County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,763 at the 2020 census. Proctor is home to the Vermont Marble Museum and Wilson Castle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middlebury, Vermont</span> Town in Vermont, United States

Middlebury is the shire town of Addison County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,152. Middlebury is home to Middlebury College and the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bennington, Vermont</span> City in Vermont, United States

Bennington is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. It is one of two shire towns of the county, the other being Manchester. As of the 2020 US Census, the population was 15,333. Bennington is the most populous town in southern Vermont, the second-largest town in Vermont and the sixth-largest municipality in the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rutland (city), Vermont</span> City in Vermont, United States

Rutland is the only city in and the seat of Rutland County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 15,807. It is located approximately 65 miles (105 km) north of the Massachusetts state line, 35 miles (56 km) west of New Hampshire state line, and 20 miles (32 km) east of the New York state line. Rutland is the third largest city in the state of Vermont after Burlington and South Burlington. Rutland City is completely surrounded by Rutland Town, which is a separate municipality. The downtown area of the city is listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places.

<i>Ethan Allen Express</i> Intercity rail service in the United States

The Ethan Allen Express is a daily passenger train operated by Amtrak in the United States between New York City and Burlington, Vermont, via Albany, New York. One daily round trip is operated on a 310-mile (500 km) north–south route with a 7-hour 35 minute scheduled running time. The train is subsidized by New York and Vermont for the portion north of Albany. It is named for Vermont cofounder and American Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vermont Route 7A</span> State highway in Bennington County, Vermont, US

Vermont Route 7A (VT 7A) is a 27.8-mile-long (44.7 km) north–south state highway in Bennington County, Vermont, in the United States. It is an alternate route of U.S. Route 7 (US 7) between Bennington and Dorset. The route is signed as "Historic VT 7A" to distinguish it, the original routing of US 7, from the modern US 7 limited-access highway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hildene</span> Historic building in Vermont, US

Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home is the former summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln and his wife Mary Harlan Lincoln, located at 1005 Hildene Road in Manchester Center, Vermont.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Lincoln Beckwith</span> Descendant of Abraham Lincoln (1898–1975)

Mary Lincoln Beckwith was a prominent descendant of Abraham Lincoln. Beckwith was the great-granddaughter and one of the last two confirmed descendants of Abraham Lincoln, along with her younger brother Robert.

Green Mountain Community Network (GMCN) is a private, nonprofit organization, that owns and operates the public transit system by local bus in Bennington County in southwestern Vermont called the Green Mountain Express. Their bus service currently has 3 local "fixed deviated" weekday routes in Bennington: the Red, Blue and Brown routes, which can deviate up to 1/4 mile from their alignment upon request. They also have two local Saturday routes, and three commuter routes: the Orange Line, with weekday plus Saturday service to Manchester; the Purple Line, with weekday service to Williamstown, Massachusetts; and the Emerald line, with weekday service to Wilmington. The Emerald Line is a partnership between West Dover-based Southeast Vermont Transit's "the MOOver" and GMCN.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vermont Translines</span> American intercity bus service

Vermont Translines is an intercity bus company founded by its parent company, charter bus company Premier Coach, in 2013. The bus company mainly serves the US Route 7 and US Route 4 corridors in the New England state of Vermont. Aided by $400,000 in annual federal grant money disbursed by the Vermont Agency of Transportation, the company also utilizes Greyhound's ticketing system and connects with other Greyhound bus routes, primarily in Burlington, Albany and White River Junction. Service on two routes between Burlington, Vermont and Albany, New York and between Rutland, Vermont and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire officially began June 9, 2014, with intermediate stops at towns and cities between. The restart of intercity bus service for places like Rutland marked the first time some places along the current routes had seen any intercity bus service at all since Greyhound left Rutland in 2008, and in towns like Bennington since 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equinox House Historic District</span> Historic district in Vermont, United States

The Equinox House Historic District encompasses the historic center of the village of Manchester, Vermont. It includes a small group of civic and commercial buildings around the junction of Main Street and Union Street, with the luxury Equinox House hotel as its primary focus. The district, developed as a tourist destination in the late 1800s, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and enlarged in 1980. It is a small portion of the Manchester Village Historic District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charity Clark</span> American politician (born 1975)

Charity Rae Clark is an American lawyer and politician from Vermont. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served as Vermont Attorney General since January 2023.

References

  1. 1 2 "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau . Retrieved January 31, 2008.
  2. "US Board on Geographic Names". United States Geological Survey. October 25, 2007. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
  3. Title 24, Part I, Chapter 1, §3, Vermont Statutes. Accessed November 1, 2007.
  4. "Find a County". National Association of Counties. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
  5. "Census - Geography Profile: Manchester town, Bennington County, Vermont". United States Census Bureau . Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  6. Warden, Rob (October 10, 2013). "First Wrongful Conviction: Jesse Boorn and Stephen Boorn". Center on Wrongful Convictions. Northwestern University Law School. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
  7. Murder by Gaslight: The Dead Alive. Murderbygasslight.blogspot.com (April 11, 2010). Retrieved on 2014-04-12.
  8. 1 2 3 "Town of Manchester History | Town of Manchester, VT". www.manchester-vt.gov. Archived from the original on March 20, 2012.
  9. Orvis
  10. "Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): Manchester town, Bennington County, Vermont". U.S. Census Bureau, American Factfinder. Archived from the original on February 12, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
  11. "U.S. Decennial Census". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved May 16, 2015.
  12. Orange Line Schedule, Green Mountain Community Network, Inc. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
  13. Manchester Route, Marble Valley Regional Transit District. Archived August 25, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved July 24, 2013.
  14. Rutland-Southern Vermont Regional Airport. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
  15. New Vermont Bus Service Coming Soon Archived October 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine , My Champlain Valley. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  16. Bus Service VT NH NY, Vermont Translines. Retrieved July 25, 2014.
  17. "New York – Vermont Bi-State Intercity Passenger Rail Study: Service Development Plan" (PDF). Vermont Agency of Transportation. July 2014. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  18. "Vermont Rail Plan: Passenger Rail Forecasting Scenarios" (PDF). Vermont Agency of Transportation. May 2021. pp. 8–10. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  19. "Vermont Rail Plan" (PDF). Vermont Agency of Transportation. May 2021. pp. 39–40. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  20. "Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home". 2023. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  21. "Southern Vermont Arts Center". 2023. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  22. WEQX's Coverage Area. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
  23. "VT Voices Q&A with John Gray". November 23, 2020.
  24. "Elfriede Abbe". Printmaking. Frog Hollow. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved June 13, 2011.
  25. Bigelow, Walter J. (1919). Vermont, Its Government 1919-1920. Montpelier, VT: Historical Publishing Company. p. 23.
  26. Aldrich, Lewis Cass (1889). History of Bennington County, Vt. Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Co. pp.  539–541.
  27. History of Bennington County, Vt., pp. 539–541.
  28. Ullery, Jacob G. (1894). Huse, Hiram A. (ed.). Men of Vermont: an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont. Brattleboro, VT: Transcript Publishing Company. pp. 336–337 via Internet Archive.
  29. Dodge, Prentiss Cutler (1912). Encyclopedia of Vermont Biography. Burlington, VT: Ullery Publishing Company. pp. 301–302 via Google Books.
  30. "The Samples | Biography & History | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved November 5, 2017.