Williston (Vermont)

Williston
Williston Central School
Location in Vermont
Williston
Basic data
Foundation :	June 7, 1763
State :	United States
State :	Vermont
County :	Chittenden County
Coordinates :	44 ° 26 ′  N , 73 ° 6 ′  W Coordinates: 44 ° 26 ′  N , 73 ° 6 ′  W
Time zone :	Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 )
Residents :	8,698 (as of 2010)
Population density :	111.7 inhabitants per km 2
Area :	79.2 km 2  (approx. 31 mi 2 ) of which 77.9 km 2  (approx. 30 mi 2 ) is land
Height :	184 m
Postal code :	05495
Area code :	+1 802
FIPS :	50-84475
GNIS ID :	1462263
Website :	Town.Williston.VT.us

Williston is a town in Chittenden County of the state of Vermont in the United States , with 8,698 inhabitants (as of 2010).

geography

Geographical location

Williston is centrally located in Chittenden County, in the catchment area of ​​the Burlington industrial center in the fertile plains between the east bank of Lake Champlain and the western foothills of the Green Mountains . The Winooski River flows along the northern city limits . The largest lake in the town is Lake Iroquois, which juts out into the town to the south . The surface of the town is flat and the highest point, the 353 m high Yantz Hill , is outside the area of ​​the town on the eastern border.

Neighboring communities

All distances are given as straight lines between the official coordinates of the places from the 2010 census.

• North: Essex Junction , 4.3 mi
• Northeast: Jericho , 7.5 mi
• East: Richmond , 5.3 miles
• Southeast: Fayston , 18 mi
• South: Hinesburg , 6.2 miles
• Southwest: Shelburne , 7.1 mi
• West: Wilmington , 35 mi
• Northwest: South Burlington , 5.0 mi

climate

The average temperature in Williston ranges from −11.0 ° C (12 ° Fahrenheit ) in January to 20.0 ° C (68 degrees Fahrenheit) in July. This makes the place about 2 degrees cooler compared to the long-term mean of Vermont. The snowfalls between October and May peak in January and are significantly higher than the mean snow depth in the USA. The daily sunshine duration is at the lower end of the range of values ​​in the USA, in the period from September to December it is sometimes significantly lower.

history

The place was founded on June 7, 1763. On that day, Samuel Willis , after whom the city takes its name , received 20,000  acres of land from New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth . Settlement began in 1774. Thomas Chittenden was one of the city's first residents , who bought land here in 1776 and died here in 1797. Settlement came to a standstill as a result of the War of Independence , and local settlers were driven out by raids by Indian tribes allied with the British. Settlement was resumed after the end of the war. The constituent community meeting took place in 1786. The settlement took place very quickly, favored by the agriculturally useful soils. The 1790 census shows Williston as the second largest parish in what was then Vermont, after Charlotte .

In 1794 the boundaries of the municipality were changed significantly. In order to form a new town, the eastern half was given up by the municipality; in return, she received land expansions in the west, which were separated from the community of Burlington .

Since 1849 Williston has been connected to the Windsor – Burlington railway line , which still exists today, and which gave the place expanded sales markets. Passenger traffic on this route has been suspended since 1938, but freight traffic continues.

During the American Civil War , the community put more than 50 soldiers in cavalry and army. However, the place was spared from fighting on its territory.

In 1979, 26 of Williston's buildings were on the US National Register of Historic Places.

religion

Church in Williston (2013)

A first church was built in 1797 and replaced by a stone building around 1830. From 1828 a college for men and women, the Williston Academy , was established by the pastor of the Baptist church and operated with success. The influx was so great that a new, larger building had to be built as early as 1841, in which up to 120 students were taught. In 1858 this building was also expanded.

Five church congregations are represented in the village today (one each Catholic , one Methodist, one independent and one each from the Church of the Nazarene and the United Church of Christ ). The responsible hospital is in neighboring Burlington, as are all secondary schools.

Population development

Census Results - Town of Williston
year	1700	1710	1720	1730	1740	1750	1760	1770	1780	1790
Residents										471
year	1800	1810	1820	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890
Residents	846	1185	1246	1608	1554	1669	1479	1441	1342	1161
year	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990
Residents	1176	1000	929	961	1021	1182	1484	3187	3843	4887
year	2000	2010	2020	2030	2040	2050	2060	2070	2080	2090
Residents	7650	8698

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

In a west-east direction, Interstate 89 runs through the town. It connects Canada in the north with the south and runs via Montpellier. US Highway 2 runs parallel through the town and connects Williston with Burlington in the west and Richmond in the east. The Vermont State Route 2A runs from north to south, from Essex in the north to St. George in the south.

Regular events

Williston has hosted cyclocross competitions as part of championships since the mid-2010s .

Public facilities

There is no hospital in Williston. The University of Vermont Medical Center at Burlington is the closest hospital.

education

Williston is part of the Chittenden South Supervisory Union with Charlotte, Hinesburg, St. George and Shelburne . Williston is home to the Williston School District . It has two schools, Allen Brook School , a preschool with early childhood education through sophomore year, and Williston Central School, with classes from third year through eighth year.

The Dorothy Alling Memorial Library was founded in 1905. 19-year-old Sylvia Warren was elected librarian; she held this position for the next 50 years. Over the entire time, she donated her wages for the work to buy new books with the money. In the 1920s, the library moved to a room above the Warrens General Store, a store owned by Sylvia Warren's father. Sylvia Warren was now Williston's postmistress too. In the 1940s, Dorothy Parker Alling, a former schoolteacher, ran a small library and reading group for children. After the Warrens General Store closed, the library moved to the first floor and in 1955 Sylvia Warren retired. The library was now run by volunteers. Dorothy Alling died in 1958 and her husband Frank Alling donated a new building to the town on her behalf for the library books. The building was inaugurated in 1960.

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

• Chauncey W. Brownell (1847–1938), lawyer, politician, and Vermont Secretary of State
• Russell S. Taft (1835–1902), lawyer, politician, judge, and lieutenant governor of Vermont

Personalities who have worked on site

• Thomas Chittenden (1730–1797), statesman, politician, governor of Vermont and founder of Williston
• Martin Chittenden (1763–1840), politician, governor of Vermont
• Ben Cohen (* 1951), entrepreneur, founder of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company
• Jerry Greenfield (* 1951), entrepreneur, founder of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company
• Raul Hilberg (1926–2007), historian of Austrian origin. Is considered one of the most famous and important Holocaust researchers
• Peter Orlovsky (1933–2010), poet and actor

literature

• Zadock Thompson: History of Vermont, natural, civil and statistical, In Three Parts. Part 3. Chauncey Goodrich, Burlington VT 1842, pp. 192-193 .
• Harry Miller et al .: Williston. In: The Vermont historical Gazetteer. Vol. 1, 1867, pp. 900-930 .

Web links

Commons : Williston, Vermont  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

• Community homepage (in English)
• Entry at VirtualVermont.com (English) ( Memento from June 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
• Website of the Williston Historical Society

Individual evidence

1. ^ Williston in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey , accessed May 20, 2013.
2. ↑ Population data from the 2010 US Census in the American Factfinder
3. ↑ Yantz Hill on Peakery.com , accessed June 3, 2017
4. ↑ Index of / geo. In: census.gov. Retrieved May 18, 2019 . 
5. ↑ Climate data at www.City-Data.com (English)
6. ^ Website of the WHSV (English) ( Memento from January 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ Population 1790–2010 according to the census results
8. ^ Chittenden South Supervisory Union ( Memento from March 9, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 4, 2017
9. ^ Williston School District ( June 6, 2017 memento on the Internet Archive ), accessed June 4, 2017
10. ^ Dorothy Alling Memorial Library , accessed June 4, 2017