Business View Civil and Municipal | May 2021

28 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL MAY 2021 ERMONT B L E S S E D T here’s an ideal that underpins a great deal of thinking about Vermont – a generative engine that’s part natural landscape, part dairy farm and sugar shack, part independence of spirit, part neighborly-as-can-be. For those who know them, the City of St. Albans (pop. 6,801) and its surrounding (and separately incorporated) Town of St. Albans (pop. 6,501) certainly connect to these values in a tangible way. Spanning the shores of Lake Champlain to the foothills of the Green Mountains, theirs is a quirky, charming, and exuberant community offering historic points of interest and great recreational opportunities. St. Albans is the county seat of Franklin County, one of several counties created from land claimed by Vermont when it declared itself distinct from New York in 1777. Although the area was chartered as a New Hampshire grant in 1763, its settlement was delayed until 1785 by the American Revolutionary War. When the settlers finally came, they found the lay of the land unsuitable for mills, so they raised horses, sheep, and dairy cattle instead. “At one point in the 1880s, St. Albans was actually the ‘Butter Capital of the World’ because we exported so much butter,” shares Brendan Deso, St. Albans Town Selectboard Chair. “From there, the City was basically spring-boarded by railway AT A GLANCE ST. ALBANS, VERMONT WHAT: A spirited city surrounded by a charming town; combined population approx. 13,000 WHERE: On the shores of Lake Champlain, Franklin County, Vermont WEBSITE: www.stalbansvt.com