A Brief History of Chittenden
The Town of Chittenden, named for the first governor Thomas Chittenden, was granted by the legislature of the independent State of Vermont in March 1780 to Gershom Beach and his 65 associates. On the same day, the Town of Philadelphia was granted to his son Samuel Beach. Philadelphia was slow to settle, and in 1816 the southern half of Philadelphia became part of the Town Chittenden, making Chittenden the largest township in the state.
Once proclaimed the “Spirit Capital of the Universe” from the activities of the Eddy brothers, Chittenden is now home to the Frederic Duclos Barstow Memorial School, Chittenden Reservoir, Mountain Top Inn, the Fox Creek Inn, and Green Mountain National Forest land. In the early nineteenth century the parts of town called New Boston, Slab City, Michigan, Holden and Philadelphia were noted for lumbering and mining, but now maple syrup and Christmas trees are produced.
