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Berlin Vermont
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The Town of Berlin was chartered in June of 1763 by H. Benning Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire. There is speculation that Berlin was named after the capitol of the Holy Roman Empire of Frederick the Great, since Wentworth was a great admirer of Frederick. Alternately, the Town may have been named after Berlin, Massachusetts, a town next to Worcester, since both Berlin and Worcester, Vermont were chartered on the same day. The name has survived for over two hundred years, even though there was an attempt to change it to "Distoma" during world War II.
While the Town of Berlin has never moved, it has been included in a number of different counties over the years. In 1814 the name Washington County was established, and this has persevered ever since. A portion of the Town's area was separated and merged with the City of Montpelier in 1899.
Census records reveal that Berlin grew steadily until 1830 when it reached a population of 1,664. For the next sixty years the Town's population fluctuated between 1,300 and 1,500, then dropped to about 1,000 with the division in 1899. During the first forty years of the twentieth century the Town grew by only 100 persons.
Following world War II, Berlin has experienced steady population growth, most pronounced during the decade of the sixties when some 750 new people located here. While not as dramatic, population growth has continued to the present.
Berlin has always been a rural community, with many farms located along the river and stream valleys, on the relatively flat land between the Berlin Pond and the Stevens Branch River, and in a few suitable highland locations. The original Town Center was located at the top of "Turner Hill" at the intersection of Cross Town Road and Hill Street Extension (which formerly continued south along the Pond to Northfield). When the original meeting house burned in 1838 it was not rebuilt and the center of local government was shifted to the Berlin Corners area where a cluster of home s , businesses (including at least one mill) and a church evolved.
In the 1930s, a substantial portion of the relatively level land between the Berlin Pond and the Stevens Branch River was acquired by the State of Vermont and the E. F. Knapp Airport was constructed. The Barre-Montpelier Road followed the Stevens Branch through Berlin and became the focus of active commercial and industrial development in the post world War II years, a pattern which is still evident today.
In the 1960s, Interstate 89 was constructed along the higher land east of the Pond and west of the airport. While Interstate 89 includes two exits entirely within the Town and a third at its northern border, the facility also necessitated the severance of several local roads, leaving only Cross Town Road to connect the Town across the expressway.
With proximity to the Barre-Montpelier urbanized area, its access to the Interstate, and the rural quality of its landscape, Berlin has attracted considerable development during the past forty years. Residential development has dispersed throughout the Town, generally along existing roads. Commercial development and service activities (associated with health care) have concentrated in the northeast quadrant, generally between the airport and the Stevens Branch.
The Town has grown to contain over 2,500 residents, most of whom live in the rural portions of the town surrounding the commercial/industrial/service center. At the same time, that center has grown to serve the entire central Vermont c region, and contains a hospital, administrative office facilities, a shopping center, mall and a variety of economic activities.
As the town of Berlin looks to the future in the 1990s and beyond, it does so with a strong foundation in the past.
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