St. Albans

Situated north of Burlington [1] on the east shore of the lake, St. Albans was one of the first towns to fight and win against the incursion of Wal-Mart in the 1990s. Its main street is still a thriving center of mom-and-pop stores, set down from a town green half the size of a football field. The town’s claim to fame is as the unlikely site of a Civil War “battle,” the so-called Saint Albans Raid [2], which occurred in 1863.

Following the war, St. Albans became a headquarters of the Central Vermont Railroad, which passed through here on its way to Montreal and Quebec. In its heyday, the town was known as “Railroad City,” with some 1,500 workers employed in the town and great wealth from the railroad being invested in the Victorian homes that grace the top of the hill.