Arlington, Vermont, New England USA
About Arlington, Vermont
Bennington County
Chartered: July 28, 1761 (New Hampshire Grant)
Area: 27,028 Acres = 42.23 Square Miles [ Size Rank: 95* ]
Coordinates (Geographic Center): N 43° 05′ W 73°09′
Altitude: 691 feet ASL
Population (US Census, 2010): 2,317 [ Population Rank: 74* ]
Population Density (persons per square mile): 54.9 [ Density Rank: 76* ]
Full Census Info: Town County State
*Area, Population and Density rankings refer to Arlington’s relative position among Vermont’s 255 civic entities (9 cities, 242 towns, 4 gores and grants). Complete rankings are here.
Twice in 1765, New York patented land in the same area, the first called Princetown (for King George’s firstborn, the newly-named Prince of Wales), the second merely the Napier Tract (for James Napier, the King’s inspector and director general of military hospitals in North America). The New York patents and the claims of Indians were later the source of considerable difficulty for those who settled under Benning Wentworth’s grant.
Some suggest that the town is named for Arlington, Massachusetts, but that town was not so named until many years later. Rather, it is highly probable that Wentworth had a distinguished Englishman in mind, as he so often did when naming a town. The origin of the name derives from the Old English word for “the town of the people of the Earl”.
With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War soon after the town was settled, Arlington’s early years were turbulent. When the more northern settlements were abandoned because of danger from the British and Indians in Canada, several of the Green Mountain Boys, Thomas Chittenden (Vermont’s first Governor), Seth Warner and the Allens’ cousin, Remember Baker, lived in Arlington, and many meetings of the Vermont Council of Safety were held there (as the Governor’s residence, it was the de facto first capital). Baker, later killed by Indians while on a scouting mission, built the first grist mill at what is now East Arlington.
In a year when exceptionally late frosts caused crop failures throughout most of the town, one section was spared by its sheltered location. Its residents shared their crops and grains with their less fortunate neighbors, who took to calling the hamlet “Egypt”, in memory of the Biblical story of Joseph providing grain for his starving family and others.
The Batten Kill, offering world-famous trout fishing, flows through Arlington on its way west to the Hudson.
Lore has it that the pine tree depicted in Vermont’s State Seal stood in Arlington until the 1970s; a piece of that tree is housed in the town library.
Activities & Points of Interest
Goings-on in and near Arlington
Calendar of Events provided by the Vermont Department of Tourism & Marketing.
Russell Vermontiana Collection
Covered Bridge (With Google Maps and satellite images):
West Arlington
Click Here for a map of all bridges in Bennington County.
Contact Info
Emergency Services (Statewide): 911
Hospital: Southwestern Medical Center (Bennington) 802-442-6361
Town Clerk: Robin Wilcox PO Box 304 Arlington, VT 05250
802-375-2332
M-F 9-2
Churches, Ministries, Charitables
Episcopal : St. James 802-375-9952
Roman Catholic : St. Margaret Mary
United Church of Christ : United Church of Christ
United Methodist : Church On The Green 518-677-3602
United Methodist : East Arlington Federated UMC (East Arlington) 802-375-2548
Schools
Battenkill Valley Supervisory Union 802-375-9744
Arlington Memorial High and Middle School 802-375-2589
Fisher Elementary School 802-375-6409
Sunderland Elementary School 802-375-6100
Neighboring Towns
This is a basic geographic reference, intended to show relative location of adjacent towns. Directional accuracy is limited to 16 compass points. There isn’t even the slightest suggestion that one can necessarily travel directly from one town to the next (as in “You can’t get there from here”).
New York
Arlington
Places To Stay
Utilities
Notes about utilities:
- One electric or phone company indicates that company serves the entire town. More than one of either indicates each serves different areas of town.
- A listed cable company MIGHT mean the entire town is covered, but not necessarily. More than one listed indicates each serves different areas of town.
- Unless your area is one served by Vermont’s only gas utility, your only option is bottled gas (any dealer).
Cable Comcast 800-266-2278
Electric Green Mountain Power 888-835-4672
Telephone Fairpoint 866-984-2001
