Waterbury, Vermont
Encyclopedia
Waterbury is a town
in Washington County
in central Vermont
, in the United States
. It is also the name of a village
within that town. The population was 4,915 at the 2000 census
.
Ice Cream, whose factory tours have become Vermont's most popular tourist attraction
. Other local businesses include:
Several Vermont state government administrative offices are located in town, as are the Dale Woman's state prison and the Vermont State Hospital mental health facility. Waterbury is also surrounded by several of Vermont's heavily visited ski resorts to the north and south, including Stowe, Sugarbush and Bolton Valley.
and Pennacook
people. European settlement of the area dates from 1763, when King George III
granted a charter for land in the Winooski River Valley. James Marsh became the first permanent white settler in the region in 1783. Many of the early settlers came from Waterbury
, Connecticut
and named their new town in honor of the hometown.
The Village of Waterbury was incorporated in 1882 with a population of over 2000.
The Central Vermont Railroad came to Waterbury in 1849. The Green Mountain Seminary
was built in Waterbury Center in 1869.
The state opened the Vermont State Asylum for the Insane here in 1891. The hospital, renamed the Vermont State Hospital
, grew to occupy over 40 buildings, but by the 1980s the number of patients had declined to the point where only one building was required. The remainder of the campus came to be used for state offices.
Like many New England
towns, Waterbury's economy was based around the local river mill industry and the surrounding agricultural producers. The mills produced products such as lumber
and finished wood products, wicker products, leather, starch, and alcohol. The agriculture was based on sheep through the 19th century but switched over to dairy farming by the 20th century. Waterbury had a ski factory in the 1940s, The Derby & Ball Company.
In 1927, Waterbury, like many other Vermont communities, was devastated by flooding. Inscriptions on the sides of some buildings in Waterbury village purport to show where the level of the water rose during the 1927 flood. The village recovered and in 1938 the Waterbury Dam
was built by the Army Corps of Engineers to control future flooding.
However, on August 29, 2011, Tropical Storm Irene flooded downtown Waterbury and filled the buildings of the state complex with up to six feet of water. Patients from the mental hospital were temporarily housed in various locations around Vermont, and over 1100 of the 1586 state employees were working in office space in other towns as of October, 2011. The state was expected to decide by 2012 whether to relocate all or part of the workforce back to Waterbury.
of 2000, there were 4,915 people, 2,011 households, and 1,321 families residing in the town. The population density
was 810.4 people per square mile (312.9/km²). There were 2,106 housing units at an average density of 347.2 per square mile (134.1/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 97.80% White, 0.26% African American, 0.12% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.26% from other races
, and 0.89% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.67% of the population.
There were 2,011 households out of which 24.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.2% were married couples
living together, 7.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.3% were non-families. 25.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 2.93.
In the town the population was spread out with 25.1% under the age of 18, 5.5% from 18 to 24, 32.8% from 25 to 44, 26.2% from 45 to 64, and 10.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37.7 years. For every 100 females there were 97.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.4 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $44,940, and the median income for a family was $60,547. Males had a median income of $35,566 versus $25,838 for females. The per capita income
for the town was $25,858. About 3.3% of families and 6.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.0% of those under age 18 and 4.9% of those age 65 or over.
has its headquarters in the Waterbury Office Complex.
for grades 9-12.
, the national passenger rail system, provides daily service to Waterbury, operating its Vermonter
between St. Albans, VT and Washington, DC.
GMTA (Green Mountain Transit Agency) provides public transit bus services to Burlington, Montpelier, Morrisville
and Stowe, VT.
-550 AM & 96.1 FM (News/Talk), is located in town, with its offices and studios on Stowe Street. WWMP (MP103) - 103.3 FM (Rock, Pop & R&B) is officially licensed to Waterbury and has its transmission tower located on Ricker Mountain (which it shares with sister station WNCS Montpelier), but its offices and studios are located in South Burlington.
New England town
The New England town is the basic unit of local government in each of the six New England states. Without a direct counterpart in most other U.S. states, New England towns are conceptually similar to civil townships in other states, but are incorporated, possessing powers like cities in other...
in Washington County
Washington County, Vermont
Washington County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of 2010, the population was 59,534; Vermont's third-most populous county after Chittenden County and Rutland County. Its shire town is Montpelier, the state capital. The center of population of Vermont is located in Washington...
in central Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is also the name of a village
Waterbury (village), Vermont
Waterbury is a village in the town of Waterbury in Washington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,706 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
within that town. The population was 4,915 at the 2000 census
United States Census, 2000
The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
.
Economy
Industry
Waterbury is the location of Ben & Jerry'sBen & Jerry's
Ben & Jerry's is an American ice cream company, a division of the British-Dutch Unilever conglomerate, that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, and ice cream novelty products, manufactured by Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc., headquartered in South Burlington, Vermont, United...
Ice Cream, whose factory tours have become Vermont's most popular tourist attraction
Tourist attraction
A tourist attraction is a place of interest where tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, or amusement opportunities....
. Other local businesses include:
- Cabot CreameryCabot CreameryThe Cabot Creamery Cooperative is an American dairy agricultural marketing cooperative, wholly owned by the Agri-Mark Cooperative.Originally started as Cabot Farmers Cooperative Creamery in 1919 by farmers in Cabot, Vermont, it was taken over by the Agri-Mark Cooperative in 1992...
Annex - Green Mountain Coffee RoastersGreen Mountain Coffee RoastersGreen Mountain Coffee Roasters is a publicly-traded brand of coffee based at Waterbury in the U.S. state of Vermont. The brand specializes in organic, fair trade, and specialty gourmet coffees. Keurig is a wholly owned subsidiary of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc., and sells many of their...
- Lake Champlain ChocolatesLake Champlain ChocolatesLake Champlain Chocolates is a privately held chocolate manufacturer located in Burlington, Vermont, USA. The company handcrafts over one million pounds of gourmet chocolates each year. Its products are sold nationally through independent specialty food retailers...
- Cold Hollow Cider Mill - a tourist attraction in the state.
- WDEVWDEVWDEV is a radio station based in Waterbury, Vermont, USA. WDEV broadcasts on the AM band at 550 kHz, and WDEV-FM, licensed to Warren, Vermont, broadcasts at 96.1 MHz. The stations' studios and offices are located near U.S. Route 2 in Waterbury...
Radio
Several Vermont state government administrative offices are located in town, as are the Dale Woman's state prison and the Vermont State Hospital mental health facility. Waterbury is also surrounded by several of Vermont's heavily visited ski resorts to the north and south, including Stowe, Sugarbush and Bolton Valley.
History
The location where Waterbury now lies was once the frontier between the MahicanMahican
The Mahican are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the Hudson River Valley . After 1680, many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. During the early 1820s and 1830s, most of the Mahican descendants migrated westward to northeastern Wisconsin...
and Pennacook
Pennacook
The Pennacook, also known by the names Merrimack and Pawtucket, were a North American people that primarily inhabited the Merrimack River valley of present-day New Hampshire and Massachusetts, as well as portions of southern Maine...
people. European settlement of the area dates from 1763, when King George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
granted a charter for land in the Winooski River Valley. James Marsh became the first permanent white settler in the region in 1783. Many of the early settlers came from Waterbury
Waterbury, Connecticut
Waterbury is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, on the Naugatuck River, 33 miles southwest of Hartford and 77 miles northeast of New York City...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
and named their new town in honor of the hometown.
The Village of Waterbury was incorporated in 1882 with a population of over 2000.
The Central Vermont Railroad came to Waterbury in 1849. The Green Mountain Seminary
Green Mountain Seminary
Green Mountain Seminary is a historic place off VT 100 in Waterbury Center, Vermont.The seminary building was largely constructed around 1869 as a co-educational Free Will Baptist school. The Waterbury site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978...
was built in Waterbury Center in 1869.
The state opened the Vermont State Asylum for the Insane here in 1891. The hospital, renamed the Vermont State Hospital
Vermont State Hospital
Vermont State Hospital of the Vermont State Hospital for the Insane was a Vermont mental institution in Waterbury, Vermont.-History:It was built in 1890 in Waterbury, Vermont as the Brattleboro Retreat became overcrowded. It was closed on October 29, 2011.-External links:**...
, grew to occupy over 40 buildings, but by the 1980s the number of patients had declined to the point where only one building was required. The remainder of the campus came to be used for state offices.
Like many New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
towns, Waterbury's economy was based around the local river mill industry and the surrounding agricultural producers. The mills produced products such as lumber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
and finished wood products, wicker products, leather, starch, and alcohol. The agriculture was based on sheep through the 19th century but switched over to dairy farming by the 20th century. Waterbury had a ski factory in the 1940s, The Derby & Ball Company.
In 1927, Waterbury, like many other Vermont communities, was devastated by flooding. Inscriptions on the sides of some buildings in Waterbury village purport to show where the level of the water rose during the 1927 flood. The village recovered and in 1938 the Waterbury Dam
Waterbury Dam
The Waterbury Dam was built between 1935-1938 by 2,000 men working for the Corps of Engineers, United States Army, to serve as one of three dams to control the flow of Little River, Vermont, Winooski River and its tributaries. In 1927, flood waters from the Winooski River killed over 55 people and...
was built by the Army Corps of Engineers to control future flooding.
However, on August 29, 2011, Tropical Storm Irene flooded downtown Waterbury and filled the buildings of the state complex with up to six feet of water. Patients from the mental hospital were temporarily housed in various locations around Vermont, and over 1100 of the 1586 state employees were working in office space in other towns as of October, 2011. The state was expected to decide by 2012 whether to relocate all or part of the workforce back to Waterbury.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 4,915 people, 2,011 households, and 1,321 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 810.4 people per square mile (312.9/km²). There were 2,106 housing units at an average density of 347.2 per square mile (134.1/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 97.80% White, 0.26% African American, 0.12% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.26% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.89% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.67% of the population.
There were 2,011 households out of which 24.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.2% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 7.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.3% were non-families. 25.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 2.93.
In the town the population was spread out with 25.1% under the age of 18, 5.5% from 18 to 24, 32.8% from 25 to 44, 26.2% from 45 to 64, and 10.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37.7 years. For every 100 females there were 97.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.4 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $44,940, and the median income for a family was $60,547. Males had a median income of $35,566 versus $25,838 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the town was $25,858. About 3.3% of families and 6.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.0% of those under age 18 and 4.9% of those age 65 or over.
Government and infrastructure
The State of Vermont operates the Waterbury Office Complex. The Vermont Department of CorrectionsVermont Department of Corrections
The Vermont Department of Corrections is an executive agency of the U.S. state of Vermont; charged with overseeing the state correctional facilities, supervising probation and parolees, and serving in an advisory capacity in the prevention of crime and delinquency. It is a part of the Vermont...
has its headquarters in the Waterbury Office Complex.
Education
Waterbury belongs to the Washington West Supervisory Union. Students attend Thatcher Brook Primary School for grades preschool and Kindergarten through 4th grade, Crossett Brook Middle School for grades 5-8, and Harwood Union High SchoolHarwood Union High School
Harwood Union High School is a mid-sized public secondary school located in South Duxbury, Vermont. As a member of the Washington West Supervisory Union, the school serves the towns of Duxbury, Fayston, Moretown, Waitsfield, Warren, and Waterbury...
for grades 9-12.
Transportation
AmtrakAmtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
, the national passenger rail system, provides daily service to Waterbury, operating its Vermonter
Vermonter
Amtrak's Vermonter is a 611-mile passenger train service between St. Albans , New York City and Washington, D.C. One trip runs in each direction per day....
between St. Albans, VT and Washington, DC.
GMTA (Green Mountain Transit Agency) provides public transit bus services to Burlington, Montpelier, Morrisville
Morrisville, Vermont
Morrisville is a village in Morristown, Lamoille County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 2,009. Morrisville has 2 country clubs, a hospital, a school featuring Greek architecture and an airport. The hospital and one of the country clubs are named after...
and Stowe, VT.
Media
Radio station WDEVWDEV
WDEV is a radio station based in Waterbury, Vermont, USA. WDEV broadcasts on the AM band at 550 kHz, and WDEV-FM, licensed to Warren, Vermont, broadcasts at 96.1 MHz. The stations' studios and offices are located near U.S. Route 2 in Waterbury...
-550 AM & 96.1 FM (News/Talk), is located in town, with its offices and studios on Stowe Street. WWMP (MP103) - 103.3 FM (Rock, Pop & R&B) is officially licensed to Waterbury and has its transmission tower located on Ricker Mountain (which it shares with sister station WNCS Montpelier), but its offices and studios are located in South Burlington.
Notable people
- William P. DillinghamWilliam P. DillinghamWilliam Paul Dillingham was an American Republican politician from the state of Vermont.-Early life:The son of Vermont Governor Paul Dillingham, William P. Dillingham was born on December 12, 1843, in Waterbury, Vermont, where he later attended the public schools...
, politician. - Wallace M. GreeneWallace M. GreeneGeneral Wallace Martin Greene, Jr. was a four-star United States Marine Corps general who served as the 23rd Commandant of the Marine Corps from January 1, 1964 to December 31, 1967...
, commandant of the Marine Corps. - Henry Janes, soldier, humanitarian and chief surgeon at GettysburgBattle of GettysburgThe Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...
. - William WellsWilliam Wells (general)-Medal of Honor:Wells commanded the Second Battalion, 1st Vermont Cavalry, in the repulse of Stuart's Cavalry at the Battle of Hanover during the Gettysburg Campaign...
, merchant, Civil War general and Medal of Honor recipient. - Ken SquierKen SquierKen Squier is an American sportscaster and motorsports editor from Waterbury, Vermont. From 1979-1997, he was the lap-by-lap commentator for NASCAR on CBS, and was also a lap-by-lap commentator for TBS from the time they had rights to NASCAR until 2000. Squier was the first announcer to give...
, owner of WDEVWDEVWDEV is a radio station based in Waterbury, Vermont, USA. WDEV broadcasts on the AM band at 550 kHz, and WDEV-FM, licensed to Warren, Vermont, broadcasts at 96.1 MHz. The stations' studios and offices are located near U.S. Route 2 in Waterbury...
Radio and co-owner of the Thunder Road International SpeedBowlThunder Road International SpeedBowlThunder Road International SpeedBowl, more commonly known as Thunder Road, is a high-banked, paved short track speedway located in the Town of Barre, Vermont . The track is co-owned by Ken Squier and Tom Curley. Currently, Thunder Road hosts four weekly divisions: Late Models, Tiger Sportsman,...
auto-racing track in Barre, VermontBarre, VermontBarre, Vermont can refer to:*Barre , Vermont*Barre , Vermont...
.