Rockingham is a town along the Connecticut River in Windham County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,832. Rockingham includes the incorporated villages of Bellows Falls and Saxtons River, as well as a large rural area west of Interstate 91.

Rockingham has no formal town center; instead, town offices and the Rockingham Public Library are located in the village of Bellows Falls. The approximate center is the Rockingham Meeting House, passed by Route 103, a popular east–west route across the state. The Meeting House was built in Rockingham Village, once the main settlement in the town, but with the increased use of water power for manufacturing, population shifted to other villages located on the two rivers in the town. Most of what was left of Rockingham Village (over a dozen buildings, also called the Old Town) burned in a fire on April 14, 1908; the fire came close to the Meeting House but it was saved. The houses, hotel, and store that burned were not rebuilt.

History

thumb|left|upright=0.8|Street scene, Rockingham Village,

thumb|Bellows Falls Village, Rockingham, 1915

One of the New Hampshire grants, it was chartered by Governor Benning Wentworth on December 28, 1752, and named for Lord Rockingham. The township was granted to Samuel Johnson and 72 others. When the Town was first settled in 1753 by pioneers, its rivers were sites of fishing for salmon and shad, as they had been for the original indigenous inhabitants. By 1771, the population reached 225. In 1785, Colonel Enoch Hale erected the first bridge over the Connecticut River, and until 1796, it remained the only bridge across. The lowest point is on the Connecticut River at the southern boundary of town, at 73 m/240 ft elevation.

The town is crossed by Interstate 91, U.S. Route 5, Vermont Route 103 and Vermont Route 121. The Bellows Falls train station was once served by three rail lines, and today it has Amtrak service on the Vermonter route, with two trains a day, one heading south to Washington, DC and one heading north to St. Albans, VT.

Demographics

The rural community, based on farming, had its peak of population in 1920.

As of the census

  • Rockingham Meeting House – off Vermont Route 103 (added October 10, 1979)
  • Rockingham Village Historic District – Meeting House Rd., Rockingham Hill Rd. (added January 4, 2008)
  • Williams River Route 5 Bridge – U.S. Route 5 over the Williams River (added December 14, 1991)
  • Adams Gristmill Warehouse – Bridge St., Bellows Falls (added January 22, 1990)
  • Bellows Falls Co-operative Creamery Complex – Bridge St., Bellows Falls (added January 22, 1990)
  • Bellows Falls Petroglyph Site (VT-WD-8) – Bridge St., Bellows Falls (added January 22, 1990)
  • Bellows Falls Times Building – Bridge and Island streets, Bellows Falls (added January 22, 1990)
  • Bellows Falls Downtown Historic District – Depot, Canal, Rockingham, Bridge, Mill, and Westminster Sts. (added August 16, 1982)
  • Bellows Falls Neighborhood Historic District – Atkinson, Westminster, School, and Hapgood Sts., Hapgood Pl., and Burt St., Henry St., South St., Hadley St., and Temple Pl.; also Center, Front, Old Terrace, and Pine Sts., Bellows Falls (added January 17, 2002)
  • Gas Station at Bridge and Island Streets – (added January 22, 1990)
  • George-Pine-Henry Street Historic District – 5-22 George St.; 1-17 Pine St.; 32-44 Henry St., Bellows Falls (added July 13, 2010)
  • Vermont Academy Campus Historic District – 10 Long Walk, Saxtons River (added July 14, 2015)
  • Saxtons River Village Historic District – Roughly bounded by Burk Hill and Bellview Rds., Oak St., the Saxtons River, and Westminster West Rd. (added September 29, 1988)
  • Miss Bellows Falls Diner – 90 Rockingham St., Bellows Falls (added February 15, 1983)
  • Moore and Thompson Paper Mill Complex – Bridge St., Bellows Falls (added March 16, 1984)
  • Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel – Off Pleasant St., Bellows Falls (added November 14, 1991)
  • William A. Hall House – 1 Hapgood St., Bellows Falls (added May 5, 1999)
  • Howard Hardware Storehouse – Bridge St., Bellows Falls (added January 22, 1990)
  • Robertson Paper Company Complex – Island St., Bellows Falls (added January 22, 1990) It was demolished in 2018–19 as a Brownfields Economic Revitalization Alliance (BERA) project.
  • Williams Street Extension Historic District – 51–58, 61–68, 70 Williams St., Bellows Falls (added July 13, 2010)
  • Westminster Terrace Historic District – Along Westminster Terrace, in Bellows Falls and Westminster (added July 13, 2010)

Locations

The following smaller unincorporated villages are within the town of Rockingham, in addition to its two larger, incorporated villages (Bellows Falls and Saxtons River):

  • Bartonsville, a hamlet with mills established by Jeremiah Barton about 1840, once a stop on the Rutland Railroad
  • Brockways Mills, a mill site and former stop on the Rutland Railroad
  • Cambridgeport, a hamlet with mills named after J.T. Campbridge, partially within the town of Grafton

Notable people

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  • John S. Barry, fourth governor of Michigan
  • Henry Adams Bellows, lawyer, state legislator and jurist
  • Jonathan Blanchard, pastor, social reformer, and president of Wheaton College
  • Hetty Green, businesswoman and financier
  • Hugh H. Henry, United States Marshal for Vermont
  • Daniel Kellogg, Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court
  • George Bradley Kellogg, Lieutenant Colonel in the American Civil War
  • Selim Peabody, educator
  • Zera Pulsipher, religious leader
  • Shadrach Roundy, religious leader
  • Henry Franklin Severens, judge

References

Further reading

  • Lyman Simpson Hayes, History of the Town of Rockingham, Vermont: Including the Villages of Bellows Falls, Saxtons River, Rockingham, Cambridgeport and Bartonsville, 1753–1907, with Family Genealogies. Bellows Falls, Vermont: 1907
  • Lovell, F.S. & Lovell, L.C. 1958. History of the Town of Rockingham, Vermont: Including the Villages of Bellows Falls, Saxtons River, Rockingham, Cambridgeport and Bartonsville, 1907–1957 with Family Genealogies. Bellows Falls, VT: Town of Rockingham, VT.
  • Town of Rockingham, Vermont
  • Rockingham Free Public Library