Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 97% of U.S. towns · #15 of 71 in Vermont. What drives it
10 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 90 buildings between them. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1914 on, and old-book passages.
More historic than 97% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, St. Albans is more historic than 97% of U.S. towns, #15 of 71 in Vermont. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
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 St. Albans’ 141 sits near the middle of its state (63% of Vermont towns have fewer) while its 98 historic buildings outnumber those of 89% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: our sources. 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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of St. Albans yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 6,918 in 2010, 6,877 in 2020.
Passages that mention St. Albans, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Railroads center at St. Albans from four directions, and the V illage has attained distinction in the railway world as the headquarters of the Central Vermont Railroad system. It is a notable fact that from the general offices of the management more miles of road are operated and a larger number of employes are directed than from the headquarters of any other railroad company in New England. The Central Vermont Railroad management control and operate nearly 800 miles of main line of road,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Manufactures THE manufacturing interests of St. Albans give employment to a large number of persons. They include the car and railroad shops of the Central Vermont Railroad Co., the bridge works of the Vermont Construction Co., the extensive works of the St. Albans Foundry, the Willard Manufacturing Co., and several others, individual sketches of each of which follow. St. Albans should and must be a large manu-
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveSt. Albans as seen from the residence of Hon. J. Gregory Smith. Lake Champlain and Adiron…
In the archiveCvmemo1882jgregorysmithletterBuiltWarner Home is built
In the archiveStAlbans Library ca1901 Vermont 2
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey3 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of St. Albans. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of St. Albans.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on St. Albans’ page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in St. Albans itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
St. Albans is more historic than 97% of U.S. towns, #15 of 71 in Vermont. 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.
10 listings: 8 buildings, among them the Houghton House (listed 1972, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Central Vermont Railroad Headquarters and the St. Albans Historic District, with 90 contributing buildings. 98 historic buildings in all.
47% of St. Albans’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.3 points), against a typical 22% for a Vermont town; the median home was built in 1945.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (10), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
c. 1865
c. 1865
c. 1865
