VERGENNES
Story by Leon Th ompson
V
ergennes carries the unique title of
being both Vermont’s oldest and
smallest city (only a whopping one
square mile large). A pleasant chemistry
rules the city’s 2,500 residents. Th ey are
natives and fl atlanders, working together
in harmony on Route 22A, more quaintly
known here as Main Street. “Th e sense
of community here is really what makes
Vergennes unique to Vermont,” said Masha
Harris, who moved to Vergennes in June
2018 to become director of the historic
Bixby Library, which opened in 1912. “It’s
a welcoming place. People are happy I’m
here. I feel included.”
Route 22A is commonly known as
midwestern Vermont’s bypass to New
York, just off Route 7 between Burlington
and Middlebury. In the 1970s and 1980s,
Vergennes was still struggling to grow,
but now, it is a destination for people
who want to spend a day where they can
fi ll an entire itinerary with one walk up
and down Main Street. Cafes, stores, and
restaurants—some old, some new—fi ll
Main Street alongside historic homes and
inns.
A hill in the center of town seems to make
Vergennes slope toward New York, a slant
that’s not without charm. At the bottom,
seven miles from its outlet into Lake
92 VERMONT MAGAZINE
Champlain, is Otter Creek. Th e
beautiful falls in Vergennes are a boon to
local commerce; boaters can tie their boats
at the bay dock and walk downtown for
food, shopping, and more—a rarity in
Vermont, outside of Burlington. “Th e
docking is free. So is the water,” said Renny
Perry, mayor of Vergennes from 2017 to
2019, while standing inside the magnifi -
cent Vergennes Opera House that shares a
building with city hall.
Otter Creek is why Vergennes exists.
Donald McIntosh was the fi rst resident
on Comfort Hill in 1766, but most local
dwellers left the area between 1766 and
1783 because the Revolutionary War and
boundary disputes with New York caused
many challenges for settlers. By the late
1780s, though, Otter Creek Falls was
booming with shipping and milling
businesses, in contrast to the agricultural
work happening in bordering communi-
ties. In 1788, residents of three bordering
towns agreed to surrender their land to
establish a separate village on the falls.
Vergennes was incorporated as a city on
September 19, 1788. Ethan Allen, himself,
suggested the name to honor the Comte
de Vergennes, French minister of foreign
aff airs and negotiator of the Treaty
of Paris.
Th e Vergennes Opera House was built
in 1897 and is oft en considered the city’s
centerpiece and gem. Th e opera house
closed in the 1970s, but was restored with
historic integrity for the modern age in
the late 1990s through the formation of
the Friends of the Vergennes Opera House
(VOH). In 1998, Vergennes received a
specifi c designation from the state’s
downtown revitalization program, which
sparked the creation of the Vergennes
Partnership, a nonprofi t downtown
organization charged with recharging
Main Street and boosting economic
growth. (Vergennes is one of 24
“designated downtowns” in Vermont.)
Renny Perry is vice president of the
Vergennes Partnership and a former board
member of the VOH—which is run
entirely by volunteers.
Renny and his wife, Lynne, have lived in
Vergennes for about 21 years. Th ey met
in New Hampshire and lived there while
traveling back and forth to a lakeside
property in Vermont that they co-owned
with relatives. While in Vergennes one
day, they saw a house they wanted, so they
bought it and moved there.
“I love the sense of community here,” said
Lynne Perry, also a former board member
of the VOH. Vergennes operates under a