Barre Vermont History & Facts

Barre is the most populous city in Washington County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the municipal population was 8,491. Popularly referred to as "Barre City", it is almost completely surrounded by "Barre Town", which is a separate municipality.

Barre is often twinned with the nearby Vermont state capital of Montpelier in local media and businesses. It is the main city in the Barre-Montpelier micropolitan area, which has nearly 60,000 residents and is Vermont's third largest metropolitan area after those of Burlington and Rutland. Barre is also Vermont's fifth largest city.

On November 6, 1780, the land was granted to William Williams and 64 others. Originally called Wildersburgh, it included what is today both the town and city of Barre. It was first settled in 1788 by John Goldsbury and Samuel Rodgers, together with their families. But dissatisfied with the name Wildersburgh, citizens renamed the town after Isaac Barré, a champion of the American Colonies. In 1895, 4.0 square miles (10.4 km2) within the town was set off and incorporated as the separate city. "In 1780 a tract of 19,900 acres of land in Vermont was chartered under the name of "Wildersburgh" to a number of proprietors. At a town-meeting of the inhabitants of this tract held in September, 1793, it was agreed that a house of worship should be erected, and it was voted that the man who would give the most towards building the same should have the right to name the township. Ezekiel Dodge Wheeler bid £62, and was permitted to name the township "Barre"—for Barre, Massachusetts, whence some of the settlers of the new township had emigrated."

Barre is the self-proclaimed "Granite Center of the World". Initially established with the discovery of vast granite deposits at Millstone Hill soon after the War of 1812, the granite industry and the city itself saw a boom with the arrival of the railroad. The fame of this vast deposit of granite, which some geologists say is 4 miles (6.4 km) long, 2 miles (3.2 km) wide and 10 miles (16 km) deep, soon spread to Europe and Canada. Large numbers of people migrated to Barre from Italy, Scotland, Spain, Scandinavia, Greece, Lebanon, Canada, and a number of other countries. The population increased from 2,060 in 1880, to 6,790 in 1890, to 10,000 in 1894. By the turn of the century, Barre was noted as the state's most diverse city.

Millstone Hill is now the site of a recreational, wooded trail network, where the mining holes and grout piles are still peppered throughout.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.0 square miles (10.4 km2), all land. Barre is drained by the Stevens Branch River and Jail Branch River, tributaries of the Winooski River.

The city is served by Interstate 89, U.S. Route 302, Vermont Route 14 and Vermont Route 62. It is bordered by the town of Berlin to the west, but is otherwise surrounded by the separate Town of Barre.

Famous Peoples From Barre Vermont

Gayleen Aiken

(March 25, 1934 – 2005) was an American artist who lived in Barre, Vermont. She achieved critical acclaim during her lifetime for her naive paintings and her work has been included in exhibitions of visionary and folk art since the 1980s. She is considered an Outsider artist.

Aiken was born in Barre, Vermont, on March 25, 1934. She was self-taught as an artist. In the early 1980s she was discovered by Grass Roots Art and Community Effort (GRACE), a Vermont grass-roots arts organization. GRACE's exhibition program exhibited her work for the first time.

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