Town of Brattleboro history

The Whitelaw map was reissued 14 years later, in 1810.

Map 20 1821 Brattleboro in 1821 – from the Third Whitelaw Map

The last few hundred feet of the water route to Brattleboro must have been very difficult in 1830.

In 1834 the Brattleboro Retreat for the mentally ill was founded

The Brattleboro Retreat, originally the Vermont Asylum for the Insane, is situated on a 1,000-acre campus and contains buildings dating to its founding in 1838.

The “Brattleboro Hydropathic Establishment” opened in 1845, and three years later issued its “Second Report” describing its successes in treating 392 people in the previous year.

The architect William Rutherford Mead was born in Brattleboro in 1846.

Map 28 1849 (Wesselhoeft) Brattleboro and Vicinity

The railroad began regular operations in 1851.

Record of deaths made from monuments in the different cemeteries in the town of Brattleboro, that died before 1857 are available on microfilm at the Family History Library.

The Whetstone Brook’s rushing falls fueled watermills which then powered sawmills and gristmills By 1859 Brattleboro had a woolen textile mill, a paper mill, a flour mill, a maker of papermaking machinery, melodeons, and carriages, four printers an two machine shops

In 1888 Brattleborough became Brattleboro…

Rudyard Kipling, the English author, married Caroline Balestier of Brattleboro in 1892 and lived for several years at an estate north of the village.

A monograph on the origin and early life of Brattleboro, by Lewis Grout (1899) - digital copy available free of charge online.

The first hospital in Brattleboro was built with $100,000 made available in 1901 from the Thompson Trust.

The original name chosen was The Hemlocks Hospital, but that had connotations of Socrates and suicide, so when it opened in 1904, the name Brattleboro Memorial Hospital was chosen.

Over the years, Brattleboro was served by three train stations, of which the last, Union Station, was built in 1915.

The Brattleboro Housing Authority was created in 1962 by the Town of Brattleboro to address the housing needs of the community’s lowest income elderly persons.

Melrose Terrace, in West Brattleboro, consisted of 19 separate buildings and 80 total units opened in 1966.

The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant (opened 1972) in Vernon supplies about one-third of Vermont’s energy.

Brattleboro, selected historical vignettes, by John N. Houpis, Jr (1973) - Find this book in a library.

In 1980, Fredrick Noble became the Executive Director and Larry Cooke became the Board Chair.

BHA spent the next two years developing, funding and then opening its first development since 1982, the Ann Wilder Richards building.

Town Clerk Vital and Town Records, 1779-2002, can be found on FamilySerach (browse only images).

Beginning in 2007, the BHA started to address the need for housing for the elderly with more assistance for daily living activities.

Both the ELF and energy contract were put aside in 2011 when Tropical Storm Irene did massive damage to Melrose Terrace.

Beginning in 2013, BHA with its development partner Housing Vermont undertook the task of finding and developing replacement housing for Melrose residents.