The New International Encyclopædia/Burlington (Vermont)

BURLINGTON. A city, port of entry, and county-seat of Chittenden County, Vt., 40 miles west by north of Montpelier, on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, and on the Rutland and Central Vermont railroads (Map: Vermont, A 4). Burlington has a beautiful situation on high ground, and is laid out in broad, well-shaded streets. In the centre of the city is a large public square, near which are the handsome court-house, the city hall, the United States post-office and custom-house, and the Young Men's Christian Association building and the site of the new public library. The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College (q.v.), founded in 1791, is finely located on a hill; the Billings Library, designed by H. H. Richardson, is the most notable of its buildings. Among other features of the city are the Fletcher Free Library, the Howard Opera House, the Masonic Temple, the Roman Catholic cathedral, Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, the Mary Fletcher Hospital, Home for Destitute Children, Louisa Howard Mission, Providence Asylum, Saint Patrick's Academy, Saint Mary's Academy, Bishop Hopkins Hall, Edmunds High School, Vermont Episcopal Institute, Battery and College parks, the latter containing a statue of Lafayette, and two cemeteries—Lake View, situated near the lake, and Green Mount, overlooking the Winooski Valley, and containing the grave of Col. Ethan Allen, with a monument. An artificial breakwater forms a safe harbor, connected by steam and sailing vessels with leading ports on the lake. Burlington is one of the largest lumber markets in the country, the product being brought principally from Canada; and extensive quarries of marble, limestone, and other building-stone in the vicinity furnish material for another branch of its commerce. There are also important manufactures, to some extent promoted by the water-power furnished by the Winooski River, which include lumber, furniture, chairs, refrigerators, packing-boxes, brushes, patent medicines, cotton and woolen goods, paper, etc. Under a revised charter of 1896, the government is vested in a mayor, annually elected; a city council, of which the executive is a member; and administrative officials, the majority elected by the council. The water-works are owned and operated by the municipality. Population, in 1880, ll,365; in 1890, 14,590; in 1900, 18,640.

Burlington was chartered in 1763, but no settlement was made until about 1774, and it was not regularly organized as a town until 1797. In 1809 the Vermont, one of the first steamboats to be built in the country, was launched here. Burlington was chartered as a city in 1865.

See Vol. I. of Vermont Historical Gazetteer (4 vols., Burlington, 1867-82), and a sketch in the New England Magazine (Vol. XI, second series).