The Eden post office opened in 1832, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Eden Mills (1863), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 1,338194 years
How historic is Eden?
B−
More historic than 50% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Eden post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Eden’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Eden is more historic than 50% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Eden’s overall grade.
Vermont towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Vermont town has 147 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Eden’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (5% of Vermont towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.4 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Eden’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Eden was chartered in 1781 to 72 Green Mountain Boys who fought in the Revolutionary War. However, town history shows that Eden was not settled until after 1800, and none of the veterans to whom the town was originally chartered ever settled there.
An asbestos mine on Belvidere Mountain which operated from 1936 to 1993 left an estimated 3,500,000 cubic yards (2,700,000 m3) of mill tailings. In 2008, the state warned residents of Eden and nearby towns that there was a "health risk" for people living within a 10-mile (16 km) radius of the mine. The aboveground mill tailings had seeped into the ground water systems and were estimated at 16,000,000 cubic yards (12,000,000 m3).
The Eden post office opened in 1832, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Eden rank for history?
Eden is more historic than 50% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Eden?
16% of Eden’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.4 points), against a typical 22% for a Vermont town; the median home was built in 1991.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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