Mont Vernon, New Hampshire
| Mont Vernon, New Hampshire | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
Town hall
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 Location in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire |
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| Coordinates: 42°53′40″N 71°40′27″W / 42.89444°N 71.67417°WCoordinates: 42°53′40″N 71°40′27″W / 42.89444°N 71.67417°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | New Hampshire |
| County | Hillsborough |
| Incorporated | 1803 |
| Government | |
| • Board of Selectmen | John F. Quinlan, Jr., Chair John M. Esposito James W. Whipple |
| Area | |
| • Total | 16.7 sq mi (43.3 km2) |
| • Land | 16.6 sq mi (43.0 km2) |
| • Water | 0.1 sq mi (0.2 km2) 0.48% |
| Elevation | 820 ft (250 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 2,409 |
| • Density | 140/sq mi (56/km2) |
| Time zone | Eastern (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | Eastern (UTC-4) |
| ZIP code | 03057 |
| Area code(s) | 603 |
| FIPS code | 33-49140 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0873670 |
| Website | www |
Mont Vernon is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,409 at the 2010 census.
It is not clear why it is spelled differently from the many other towns in the United States named after Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. Some say the "u" in "Mount" was accidentally dropped by a town clerk filling out official papers; some say the change was made deliberately to draw attention to the town; some say it uses the French spelling of "mont" as a nod to what was then the region's large French-Canadian population. According to town histories, as late as the 1920s, there was some dispute about how to spell the name, with the post office and one of its most prominent hotels using a "u" for many decades.
Mont Vernon broke away from neighboring Amherst in 1803, following a dispute over the town parish. It later added a small portion of neighboring Lyndeborough.
Mont Vernon's general history follows that of many towns in this region: Originally settled for agriculture, its farms were hard hit after the Civil War when railroads opened up better farming land in the Midwest. Population peaked in 1870 and began to decline.
By the late 1890s it had become a tourist town, drawing summer visitors from points south, notably Boston, who escaped the heat in Mont Vernon's hills. At one point it had five large summer hotels, including the Grand Hotel, located on top of Grand Hill.
The hotel business began to wither with the development of the automobile, which allowed tourists to reach places like the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and it was killed by the Great Depression. The town's population bottomed out at barely 300 in 1930, at which time the Grand Hotel was destroyed in a fire. The remaining hotels were torn down before World War II.
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Wikipedia