Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1816.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Rochester’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Rochester is more historic than 84% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Rochester’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 Rochester’s 28.8 sits near the middle of its state (39% of Vermont towns have fewer) while its 4 historic buildings outnumber those of 68% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B+ to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.2 points). Two sources give 1780.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Rochester’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
People over time
Rochester, census by census
Peaked at 1,507 in 1860; 1,099 people lived here in 2020.
24 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Rochester’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Rochester, building by building, 1900–1917
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1900Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Rochester was granted in 1780, chartered in 1781 to Dudley Chase, Asa Whitcomb and 63 others, then organized in 1788. It was first settled in the winter of 1781–1782 by David Currier and his family. Rochester's boundaries expanded through annexation of part of Pittsfield town in 1806, annexation of an additional area from Pittsfield town plus a part of Braintree town in 1824, a part of Hancock town in 1834, and finally an annexation of part of Goshen town in 1847.
Passages that mention Rochester, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Windsor County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers1891Read the page →
Read the text
The town of Rochester was brought into existence by virtue of an act of the General Assembly of the State of Vermont, passed on the 6th day of November, 1780, at the session held in Bennington; and the grant then made was subsequently confirmed by a charter to Dudley Chase and others, his associates, which bore the date of July 30, 1781.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Windsor County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers1891 · page 651Read the page →
Read the text
In 1783 the town of Rochester seems to have experienced a change of jurisdiction, but not a change of such character as would in any manner affect the rights or interests of any of the proprietors of or dwellers in the town. The change was simply one of jurisdiction, by which Rochester was annexed to the county of Windsor, and became one of its towns. The act by which this was effected is not readily to be obtained, but was presented to the Legislature at the session held at Windsor on the 25th day of February, in the year named, the pub-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Rochester, 1780 to 1937
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
In 1780, according to Wikidata. Rochester’s post office opened in 1816, and the first U.S. census counted 215 people here in 1790.
How does Rochester rank for history?
Rochester is more historic than 84% 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.
What is on the National Register in Rochester?
One place: the Ezekiel Emerson Farm (listed 2001).
How old are the homes in Rochester?
30% of Rochester’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.2 points), against a typical 22% for a Vermont town; the median home was built in 1967.
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 (13), the Library of Congress (2), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
1912
c. 1915
c. 1915
1937
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