Windsor (Vermont)

Windsor
The Old South Congregational Church
Location in Vermont
Windsor
Basic data
Foundation :	July 7, 1761
State :	United States
State :	Vermont
County :	Windsor County
Coordinates :	43 ° 29 ′  N , 72 ° 25 ′  W Coordinates: 43 ° 29 ′  N , 72 ° 25 ′  W
Time zone :	Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 )
Residents :	3,553 (as of 2010)
Population density :	70.5 inhabitants per km 2
Area :	51.1 km 2  (approx. 20 mi 2 ) of which 50.4 km 2  (approx. 19 mi 2 ) is land
Height :	323 m
Postal code :	05089
Area code :	+1 802
FIPS :	50-84925
GNIS ID :	1462266
Website :	www.WindsorVT.org
The Old Constitution House , where the Vermont Republic constitution was signed

Windsor is a town in Windsor County in the state of Vermont in the United States with 3,553 inhabitants (according to the 2010 census).

geography

Geographical location

The parish stretches along the west bank of the Connecticut River in the eastern foothills of the Green Mountains . The 954 m (3,150 ft) high Mount Ascutney is also half of the municipality. Windsor is located in central Vermont on a plateau of the Green Mountains, the so-called Upper Valley .

Neighboring communities

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

• North: Hartland , 2.5 mi
• Northeast: Plainfield, New Hampshire , 9.7 mi
• East: Cornish, New Hampshire , 7.5 mi
• Southeast: Claremont, New Hampshire , 6.3 mi
• South: Weathersfield , 4.2 mi
• West: West Windsor , 5.7 mi
• Northwest: Woodstock , 9.2 mi

climate

The mean mean temperature in Windsor is between −7.8 ° C (18 ° Fahrenheit ) in January and 20.6 ° C (69 ° Fahrenheit) in July. The climate of the place largely corresponds to the long-term mean of Vermont. The snowfall between October and May is more than two meters with a peak of 45 cm in January, about twice as high as the mean snow depth in the USA. The daily sunshine duration is at the lower end of the range in the USA.

history

Windsor was proclaimed on July 6, 1761 by Governor Benning Wentworth as part of the New Hampshire Grants . The first permanent settlement by a family from Farmington, Connecticut is documented from August 1764. Shortly afterwards the constituent city assembly took place; the exact date is not known.

On July 2, 1777, in Elijah West's Tavern (now the Old Constitution House , a museum) the constitution of the Vermont Republic, which had been proclaimed six months earlier, was passed by 72 delegates from 28 towns of the new state. It was the first written constitution of an independent state on American soil. The constitution gave all adult men the right to vote and explicitly prohibited slavery .

As early as 1793, Windsor was administratively separated into two separate areas, both of which also sent their own delegates to Congress. But it was not until November 4, 1814, that West Windsor split off as an independent town. As early as March 1, 1816, the two towns were merged again under the original name. A final separation of the towns within their current boundaries was only made on October 26, 1848. The new town was given more than 55% of the area of ​​the original municipality of Windsor, but only a third of the residents.

From 1848 the Brattleboro – Windsor railway line was built through the Connecticut River valley. It reached Windsor in 1849, which has since had a passenger station. The railway line was not decisive for the further development of the town, as was the case with some other stations along the line.

As early as the 1935/36 winter season, cross-country trails were drawn on and around Mount Ascutney and winter sports were organized for the first time. However, the development into a winter sports resort did not begin until 1946 with the opening of the first ski lift, which was followed by more in quick succession and supplemented by a hotel complex. After initial success, the Sermons winter sports industry suffered significant losses from the beginning of the 1970s, which led to over-indebtedness in the town and a halt in the development of tourism facilities. In 1983 the operating company of the plants went bankrupt, the affected towns of Windsor, West Windsor and Weathersfield were left with a debt of 2.5 million dollars, which brought their municipal activities to a virtual standstill. A new operating company took out large loans and invested about $ 65 million in the area by 1990, but they didn't pay off. In April 1990 bankruptcy had to be filed again, the plant was closed again in 1991. A third attempt from 1993 to operate the ski center economically had to be abandoned and the site was closed for the 2010/2011 season. Since then, part of the ski lifts and the area has been sold; Town West Windsor has been trying since October 2014 to rebuild operations on a smaller basis on a part of the old area and with the remaining main building and a ski lift.

Population development

Census Results - Town of Windsor, Vermont
year	1700	1710	1720	1730	1740	1750	1760	1770	1780	1790
Residents										1542
year	1800	1810	1820	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890
Residents	2211	2757	2956	3134	2744	1928	1669	1699	2175	1846
year	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990
Residents	2119	2407	3687	4359	4155	4402	4468	4158	4084	3714
year	2000	2010	2020	2030	2040	2050	2060	2070	2080	2090
Residents	3756	3553

Culture and sights

Buildings

The Cornish-Windsor Bridge

There are a number of buildings in the center of the town that are on the National Register of Historic Places . These include, for example, the Old South Congregational Church and the Old Constitution House .

The covered bridge Cornish-Windsor Bridge , which was built in its current form in 1866 as the fourth bridge at this point, spans the Connecticut River with two bridge parts over a total width of 124 m (407 ft). Only its western beachhead belongs to Vermont, as the border with the neighboring state of New Hampshire, which is crossed by the bridge, is on the western bank of the river.

Parks

The Mount Ascutney State Park , one of more than 600 hectares (1500 acres ) large landscape conservation area on Mount Ascutney, was founded in 1935 and serves as a recreational area.

Economy and Infrastructure

Sheep breeding dominated the area until the late 19th century; Merino sheep from Windsor have been exported to South Africa and Australia. After that, dairy farming gained in importance for the region, and since the 1960s it has receded as an economic factor behind ski tourism. Since the closure of the ski area on Mount Ascutney, the city administration has been actively trying to attract medium-sized companies to the town and to diversify the currently mainly agricultural industry, which is primarily limited to a dairy, a meat smokehouse and a schnapps distillery To counteract the emigration tendency of the inhabitants.

traffic

Both Interstate 91 and Vermont State Route 5 run in the valley of the Connecticut River , so there is good access to the US highway network. There is also a train station in town with a daily Amtrak passenger train connection. A helipad, the Windsor Armory Heliport on the southern edge of the settlement, completes the transport offer.

media

A local television station, WVTA, and an FM station, WVPR (on 89th MHz) are located in Windsor. However, there is no daily or weekly newspaper.

Public facilities

In addition to the usual municipal administrations, the public library (the Windsor Public with around 22,000 volumes) and the schools mentioned below, a general hospital, the Mount Ascutney Hospital & Health Center, has been operated in Windsor since 1933 .

education

On October 1, 1939, the Windsor Mountain School, founded by the German emigrant couple Max and Gertrud Bondy , began operating on the "Juniper Hill Farm" .

Windsor is part of the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union with Hartland, West Windsor and Weathersfield .

In Windsor today there is a public elementary school, the six-class Windsor State Street School with around 250 students, and Windsor High School , which runs from 7th to 12th grade and accepts almost 400 students. Private schools are not listed. The closest colleges are in Hanover and Keene , both in the neighboring state of New Hampshire , and in Castleton .

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

• James Dean (1776–1849), astronomer and mathematician
• John Spaulding (1790–1870), businessman, politician, and State Treasurer of Vermont
• Carlos Coolidge (1792–1866), politician and governor of Vermont
• Edward Curtis (1801–1856), lawyer and New York State representative in the US House of Representatives
• Valentine B. Horton (1802–1888), Ohio State politician and Representative in the US House of Representatives
• James L. Howard (1818–1906), Lieutenant Governor of the State of Connecticut
• Henry Dana Washburn (1832–1871), politician and explorer
• William Henry Harrison Stowell (1840–1922), Virginia State Representative to the US House of Representatives
• Andrew Ellicott Douglass (1867–1962), astronomer and founder of dendrochronology
• Walter K. Farnsworth (1870–1929), lawyer and Lieutenant Governor of Vermont
• Johnny Williams (1929-2018), jazz pianist

Personalities who have worked on site

• Elijah Paine (1757), politician and Vermont representative in the US Senate. Practiced as a lawyer in Windsor
• Josiah Dunham (1769-1844), politician and publicist of 1813-1815 Secretary of State of Vermont was

literature

• Zadock Thompson: History of Vermont, natural, civil and statistical, in Three Parts . Part 3. Chauncey Goodrich, Burlington 1842, p. 194 f . ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Windsor, Vermont  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

• Homepage of the municipality (English)
• Profile of the municipality on the official portal www.Vermont.gov
• Entry on VirtualVermont (English) ( Memento from March 26, 2017 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Windsor in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System , accessed October 1, 2014
2. ↑ Population data from the 2010 US Census in the American Factfinder
3. ↑ Coordinates of the locations of the Census Authority 2010
4. ↑ ^{a b c} climate and media data at www.City-Data.com (English)
5. ↑ History of the ski area at Mount Ascutney on NewenglandSkiHistory.com (English)
6. ↑ Population 1790–2010 according to the census results
7. ↑ Entry of the Cornish-Windsor Bridge in the bridge directory of VirtualVermont.com (English)
8. ↑ Entry of Mount Ascutney State Park on the website of the forest authority (English) ( Memento from August 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ Illustrated website about the Windsor - Mt. Ascutney train station (English)
10. ↑ Homepage of the Mount Ascutney Hospital & Health Center (English)
11. ^ Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union , accessed June 11, 2017
12. ↑ School directory for Windsor on the City-Data.com website (English)