Founding
city in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States
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Burlington is the largest city in the U.S. State of Vermont and the county seat of Chittenden County. It is located 45 miles (72 km) south of the Canada–United States border and 95 miles (153 km) south of Montreal. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 44,743, making Burlington the most populous municipality in Vermont and the least populous U.S. city to be the most populous city within a state.
A regional college town, Burlington is home to the University of Vermont (UVM) and Champlain College. Vermont's largest hospital, the UVM Medical Center, is within the city limits. The City of Burlington owns Vermont's largest airport, the Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport, located in neighboring South Burlington. In 2015, Burlington became the first city in the U.S. to run entirely on renewable energy.
King George II of Great Britain placed the western border of the Province of New Hampshire twenty miles (32 km) east of the Hudson River. However, George III moved the Province of New York's border to the Connecticut River. He stated that the land claims of those currently in the area gained by New York were still valid, but New York courts ruled against the settlers. New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth continued to sell land in these areas in direct opposition to New York and royal demands. On June 7, 1763, the grant document for Burlington was awarded to Samuel Willis and 63 others. In the summer of 1775, settlers began clearing the land and built two or three log huts in 1775, but the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War delayed permanent settlement until after its conclusion. The first recorded town meeting was held on March 19, 1787.
The origins for the name Burlington is disputed. Benning Wentworth named many areas after rich people. Wealthy New Yorker Edward Burling who held land grants in Colchester, Vermont, or Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, who died a decade before the land grant, are the two candidates for the origin of the name. While no Burling family members are listed as grantees of the town, the family held large tracts of land in nearby towns, some of which were granted on the same day as Burlington. A settler from Burlington, Vermont, named Burlington, Iowa, in honor of it.
In 1808, the world's first lake-going steamboat was built in Burlington.
The War of 1812 was unpopular in Vermont and the rest of New England, which had numerous trading ties with Canada. Neither Vermont nor other New England states provided militia units or financial support. Vermont voters supported the Federalist Party, which opposed the war.
At one point during the war, the U.S. had 5,000 troops stationed in Burlington, outnumbering residents and putting a strain on resources. About 500 soldiers died of disease, which was always a problem due to poor sanitation in army camps. Some soldiers were quartered in the main building at the University of Vermont, where a memorial plaque was erected in 1909 to commemorate them.
In a skirmish on August 2, 1813, British forces from Canada shelled Burlington. This is described as either a bold stroke by the British with an ineffectual response from the Americans or as a weak sally by the British, which was rightly ignored by the Americans. The cannonade lasted about 10 minutes and caused no casualties. The American troops involved were commanded by Naval Lieutenant Thomas Macdonough, later a hero of the Battle of Lake Champlain.
The town's position on Lake Champlain helped it develop into a port of entry and center for trade, particularly after completion of the Champlain Canal in 1823, the Erie Canal in 1825, and the Chambly Canal in 1843. Wharves allowed steamboats to connect freight and passengers with the Rutland & Burlington Railroad and the Vermont Central Railroad. Burlington became a bustling lumbering and manufacturing center – for some time the third largest lumber market in the world – and was incorporated as a city in 1865. Its Victorian-era prosperity left behind much fine architecture, including buildings by Ammi B. Young, H.H. Richardson, and McKim, Mead & White.
On September 5, 1901, U.S. vice president Theodore Roosevelt spoke to a Civil War fraternal group in Burlington. Nine days later, he became U.S. president when President William McKinley died.
In 1870, the waterfront was extended by construction of the Pine Street Barge Canal. This became polluted over the years and was a focus for cleanup in 2009 under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund program. In fact, the entire Burlington waterfront was a derelict wasteland as late as the mid-1980s, with rail yards, industrial uses and 90 oil storage tanks crowding the 60 acres of shoreline filled into the harbor during the lumbering era.
In 1978, the ice cream enterprise Ben & Jerry's was founded in Burlington in a renovated gas station. It became a national brand, with retail outlets in numerous cities.
In 1980, two 18-story luxury condominium towers were proposed for the waterfront, just north of College Street. Opposition to that proposal led to the formation of the Citizens Waterfront Group to advocate for a bike path along the shore instead.
In 1987, then-Mayor Bernie Sanders proposed a community boathouse to anchor public redevelopment at the waterfront. The land filled into the harbor was eventually redesigned for public use in a decision of the Vermont Supreme Court in 1989.
By 1990, the Burlington Bike Path was complete, from Oakledge Park in the south, to the Winooski River in the north. In 2004, Governor Howard Dean obtained funding for construction of a bike bridge across the Winooski River, allowing the bike path to be extended four miles out into the lake on the old railroad causeway toward the Champlain Islands, now known as the Island Line Trail. The local bicycle advocacy that emerged from this effort led to the formation of the non-profit agency Local Motion. This agency runs a bike ferry during the summer so bicycles can cross a 200-yard gap in the railroad causeway, which enables riders to reach the Lake Champlain islands. and, via Quebec's Route verte, the city of Montreal.
In 2021, following the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, the city council scheduled a vote on a "Resolution In Solidarity with the Palestinian People" for September 13. The resolution called on the city council to "express its solidarity with the Palestinian people, condemn anti-boycott legislation, and endorse the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which calls for nonviolent pressure on Israel." The authors' stated reasons for introducing the resolution were Israeli settlements in the West Bank, an ongoing "military siege and an economic blockade" of Gaza, and US military aid to Israel. They also cited reports by Human Rights Watch and B'Tselem that find Israel guilty of the crime of apartheid.
The American Jewish Committee condemned the resolution as "deceptive and one-sided" and criticized it for its sole focus on Israel. A coalition of local rabbis and community groups condemned the resolution as well, citing the timing of the vote during the Jewish High Holy Days, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and fears that the resolution would fuel antisemitism. Former mayor Miro Weinberger called the resolution "inappropriate and counterproductive". In a 6–5 vote, the council decided to withdraw the resolution.
In 2023, three Palestinian-American students were shot and injured in an incident during Thanksgiving break.
The city of Burlington is situated on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, north of Shelburne Bay. It was built on a strip of land extending about 6 miles (9.7 km) south from the mouth of the Winooski River along the lake shore, and rises from the water's edge to a height of 300 feet (91 m).
A large ravine in what is now downtown was filled in with refuse and raw sewage in the 19th century to make way for further development.
Burlington is characterized by its neighborhoods, which are generally recognized as follows:
Burlington has a hot-summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa), with cold winters and warm to hot, humid summers. The monthly daily average temperatures range from 21 °F (−6.1 °C) in January to 72 °F (22.2 °C) in July. The annual precipitation of 43 in (1,092 mm) is well-distributed throughout the year, but the summer months are the wettest. The city's location east of Lake Champlain sometimes accounts for localized snow squalls, producing up to 13 inches (33 cm) in 12 hours on rare occasions. Annual snowfall averages 86 inches (218 cm), but this figure can fluctuate greatly from one year to another. Temperature extremes have ranged from −30 °F (−34 °C) on January 15, 1957, and February 12, 1979, to 101 °F (38 °C) on August 11, 1944. The most recorded snowfall from a single storm is 33.1 inches (84.1 cm), which fell January 2–3, 2010.
For the Northeastern United States, a heat wave is defined as having three consecutive days of 90 °F (32 °C) or more. There were six such heat waves from 2000–2009.
As of the 2020 census, Burlington had a population of 44,743. The median age was 27.8 years. 12.5% of residents were under the age of 18 and 11.6% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 93.1 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 91.1 males age 18 and over.
99.9% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.1% lived in rural areas.
There were 17,412 households in Burlington, of which 17.9% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 27.7% were married-couple households, 27.1% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 34.1% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 36.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 18,282 housing units, of which 4.8% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.8% and the rental vacancy rate was 2.2%.
According to the American Community Survey for 2017–2021, the median income for a household in the city was $59,331. Among workers with full-time, year-round work, males had a median income of $50,552 versus $38,418 for females. The per capita income for the city was $34,054. About 23.8% of the population was below the poverty threshold.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Burlington, Vermont”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.