Orleans is a village in the northwestern corner of Barton, Orleans County, Vermont, United States. With a population of 788 at the 2020 census, it is the largest village in the county.
History
Roger Enos purchased land in 1820 in the area from Ira Allen. He had been given a land grant as a veteran in lieu of pay after the Revolutionary War; he may also have purchased this parcel from Herman Allen. It was named "Barton Landing"; this was the first place where craft could be safely loaded for transportation down the Barton River to Lake Memphremagog. It was at the confluence of the Willoughby and Barton rivers, providing sufficient water for flotation. Native Americans had used this landing for years before the pioneers.
Enos built the first building, a sawmill, at the confluence. Jesse Cook bought this building in 1830 to convert to a textile mill for weaving cloth, part of the northern economy using cotton from the South. In 1839 John Little converted it into a grain mill.
In 1833, the Valley House was built as a restaurant and tavern. In 1875 twenty rooms were added for an inn. The building was destroyed by fire in 1998.
The railroad reached the village in 1859–1860. Railroad accidents were not uncommon. On November 9, 1909, a crew member was killed in a head-on collision between two locomotives, just north of the rail intersection with Main Street. Near the same place, on March 12, 1913, another head-on collision killed one of the crew.
The railroad requested that the village change its name to avoid confusion with Barton Village.
In the late 1910s, the Ku Klux Klan was first revived in Atlanta. It gradually expanded into northern and midwestern cities, where anxieties about migration, immigration, and social changes had heightened because of rapid industrialization and movement of peoples. The KKK promoted itself as a fraternal organization, among many that had been started since the late 19th century. In this period, it was primarily opposed to Catholic and Jewish immigrants, but kept some of its racist background. A chapter was started in Orleans. A 1918 photograph shows children at the old Opera House, a number of them dressed in KKK hoods, and others in blackface.
In the late 1970s, as efforts were made to improve water quality and the environment, the federal and state governments stopped the village from dumping raw sewage into the Barton River. Orleans built a new treatment plant, which cost $2.8 million, 90% of which was paid for by state and federal governments. The village disconnected its old storm sewers from the sanitary sewage system.
Government
Like all Vermont incorporated villages, the government is run directly by the people. Residents conduct the village meeting on the second Tuesday of March. They elect all officers, including those in the Fire Department.
In 2008, the fire department provided service to the village and to the adjacent town of Brownington.
Water and sewage
The village pumps water from the Willoughby River to its high reservoir during off-peak hours. The water is treated with chlorine, fluoride and polyphosphate. Sewage is treated by an anoxic-oxic system.
Billing and fees are quarterly. Households or apartment buildings pay a flat fee of $39 per quarter, plus $2 for of water beyond . There is a flat fee of $78.12 per dwelling per quarter for sewage. The average in Vermont was $11,548.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 0.7 square mile (1.8 km<sup>2</sup>), all land.
The village is at the northwestern corner of the town of Barton. At the edge of the village, the Willoughby River Falls is a long stretch of river with cascades and a chute. In spring rainbow trout migrate up the river and falls from Lake Memphremagog in order to spawn.
Demographics
The village showed a gain in population in 2000, the first since 1940.
As of the census In 2005 the plant was valued at $7,048,200 and was sited on .
Media
Christian Ministries owns radio station W243AE which broadcasts out of Orleans on 96.5 FM.
Electricity
Orleans operates its own Electric Department which, aside from serving the village, also provides power to the parts of Barton outside the village, as well as West Brownington and East Irasburg. It has 665 customers. It does not generate power but purchases it in bulk. It maintains the distribution system. 70% of the department's expense is allocated for power purchases.
Culture
Orleans has a library which is open 28 hours a week over four days. It is a non-profit corporation. There is one part-time paid librarian. Other help is volunteer. The library is unique in the county for having an endowment left as an estate which also constructed the building.
Education
The elementary school was recognized as being among the ten "most improved" schools in the state in 2008. It also exceeded state averages in every category on the standardized NECAP test and was the only school in the area to do so.
Transportation
Major routes
The opening of the Interstate north on November 9, 1972, and opening south in 1978 affected the town comparable to the opening of the railway a century earlier.
- 20px Interstate 91 – Barton village southbound, Derby northbound
- 20px U.S. Route 5 – Barton village, southbound, to Coventry, northbound
- 20px Vermont Route 58 – To Irasburg westbound and to Westmore eastbound
During the April school vacation since at least 1983, the village has hired school children to clean the village streets for one day as part of a village "spring cleaning."
Bridges
Willoughby Falls Bridge needed replacing in 2007. It will cost $1.6 million. The village must contribute 10% ($160,000). This was the most expensive state project in Orleans County that year.
Local community public and private transportation
Vermont Transit services Orleans.
Railroads
While the Washington County Railroad (The Vermont Railway System) runs through Orleans, it does not service the town.
Notable people
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- Henry Alexander Stafford, pinch hitter for the New York Giants; born in Orleans.