Barre, Vermont | |||
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City | |||
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Nickname(s): Granite Center of the World | |||
Location in Washington County and the state of Vermont |
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Country | United States | ||
State | Vermont | ||
County | Washington | ||
Incorporated | 1895 | ||
Government | |||
• Mayor | Thom Lauzon (R) | ||
Area | |||
• City | 4.0 sq mi (10.4 km2) | ||
• Land | 4.0 sq mi (10.4 km2) | ||
• Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) | ||
Elevation | 609 ft (186 m) | ||
Population (2014 est.) | |||
• City | 8,837 | ||
• Density | 2,200/sq mi (850/km2) | ||
• Metro | 59,626 | ||
Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) | ||
• Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) | ||
ZIP code | 05641 | ||
Area code(s) | 802 | ||
FIPS code | 50-03250 | ||
GNIS feature ID | 1456274 | ||
Website | www |
Barre /ˈbæri/ is a city in Washington County, Vermont. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 9,052. "Barre City" is almost completely surrounded by "Barre Town", which is a separate municipality.
Barre is often twinned with nearby Montpelier in local media and businesses. It is the main city in the Barre Micropolitan area which, at 59,564 residents, is the third largest in Vermont (after Burlington and Rutland). Barre itself is the largest city in Washington County, and is the fourth most populous city and tenth most populous municipality in Vermont.
Alfred Hitchcock's movie The Trouble With Harry premiered at the Paramount Theater in Barre on September 27, 1955.
On November 6, 1780, the land was granted to William Williams and 64 others. Originally called Wildersburgh, it included what is today both the town and city of Barre. It was first settled in 1788 by John Goldsbury and Samuel Rodgers, together with their families. But dissatisfied with the name Wildersburgh, citizens renamed the town after Isaac Barré, a champion of the American Colonies. In 1895, 4.0 square miles (10.4 km2) within the town was set off and incorporated as the separate city.
Barre is the self-proclaimed "Granite Center of the World". Initially established with the discovery of vast granite deposits at Millstone Hill soon after the War of 1812, the granite industry and the city itself saw a boom with the arrival of the railroad. The fame of this vast deposit of granite, which some geologists say is 4 miles (6.4 km) long, 2 miles (3.2 km) wide and 10 miles (16 km) deep, soon spread to Europe and Canada. Large numbers of people migrated to Barre from Italy, Scotland, Spain, Scandinavia, Greece, Lebanon, Canada, and a number of other countries. The population increased from 2,060 in 1880, to 6,790 in 1890, to 10,000 in 1894. By the turn of the century, Barre was noted as the state's most diverse municipality.