City Directories Guide

City and town directories have been published for many Vermont communities from the mid-19th century onward. They are useful to researchers because they provide an inventory of the residents and businesses in a town for a given year. They almost always provide a listing of residents by street and often indicate the employer of wage earners in households.

Many of these directories are available to researchers in major repositories in Montpelier and Burlington, as well as at many local libraries throughout the state. This document lists the directories that are available for each Vermont city or town by year and publisher and indicates in which of eight large repositories those directories can be found. In some cases, Vermont communities are included in directories for bordering towns in neighboring states. Those directories are included here as well, but references are provided only for Vermont communities.

The directories are organized by alphabet:

A - B    |    C - K    |    L - Q    |    R - S    |    T - W

Use the following Key when referencing the VHS City Directories: 

        APL = Aldrich Public Library (Archive of Barre History), Barre, Vt.
        BML = Brooks Memorial Library, Brattleboro, Vt.
        DOL = Vermont Department of Libraries, Montpelier, Vt.
        FFL = Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, Vt.
        RFP = Rockingham Free Public Library, Bellows Falls, Vt.
        SJA = St. Johnsbury Athenæum, St. Johnsbury, Vt.
        TBM = The Bennington Museum, Bennington, Vt.
        UVM = Bailey-Howe Library, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vt.
        VHS = Vermont Historical Society, Montpelier, Vt.

This Directory was compiled by Robert Murphy for the Vermont Historical Society in 1999. Hard copies may be purchased through the Vermont History Online Store.