Charleston dates to 1780, and 18% of its homes were built before 1940
Its Register listings are the Fox Hall and the J. S. Sweeney Store, Barn, Livery and Hall. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1919 on, and the census since 1810.
Native Abenakis told of how a large pond "ran away" similar to Runaway Pond in the 1780s before the area was explored by the descendants of Europeans.
Commodore Abraham Whipple was given a grant to the town, along with 50–60 of his shipmates. He called it "Navy". Abner Allen, from Barton, Vermont, was the first settler in 1803.
In 1825, the town of Navy changed its name to Charleston, presumably after a naval battle that had occurred off Charleston, South Carolina.
During the Civil War, Charleston furnished 121 enlisted men, 35 of whom were killed in action or died from the effects of wounds or disease contracted while in the service.
Passages that mention Charleston, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Orleans county, Vermont. Civil, ecclesiastical, biographical and military1882 · page 122Read the page →
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Charleston contains two villages, 6 miles apart. Its market facilities are good, the East Village being situated 7 miles from the depot at Island Pond on the Grand Trunk railroad, and the West Village — the larger of the two — situated about 10 miles from Newport on the Connecticut and Passumpsic railroad. The east part of the town contains a
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The history of Orleans county, Vermont. Civil, ecclesiastical, biographical and military1882 · page 111Read the page →
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Lemuel Sturtevant and Stephen Cole built the first grist-mill at "West Charleston, in the year 1810. Stephen Cole also built the first framed house at West Charleston in 1811. The first saw-mill at East Charleston was erected by Jonas Allen in 1824, just above the present site of the dwelling-house of L. N. Melvin.— Stephen Cole put a small run of stone in the
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
Charleston, decade by decade
One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (4), the Library of Congress (2), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1909
2021
2010
2009
2004
