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About Essex Junction, Vermont 
Village in the town of Essex, Chittenden County
Originally Hubbell's Falls, after a settler who built a mill at the only usable falls east of Winooski. Renamed Painesville in the mid-19th century to honor then Governor Charles Paine of Northfield.
Paine was a big name in railroading in Vermont, and as close to a crook the state has ever had in executive office. He and other railroad officials stood to gain greatly from railroad routes, so it was they who determined where the roads would go. Never mind grades just short of impossible for the trains of the time. Never mind the communities the routes supposedly were to serve (evidence that main lines missed both Burlington and Montpelier entirely, requiring passengers and freight to be shuttled to the nearest junction).
"Essex Junction" was the railroad designation, and conductors had for years identified it as such as they announced the stop, completely confounding the hapless traveller en route to Burlington, finding himself on a rail platform in a town he had never heard of. That name was offically adopted in 1865.
It is rumored (strongly) that IBM, the largest employer in the state, put a plant here in 1957 because then-chairman Tom Watson, Jr. loved skiing. Not far from Stowe, ski trips could easily be called business trips. Watson was later one of the principal developers of Smugglers' Notch, which is even closer.
Until recently, Essex Junction held the dubious distinction of being the location of the busiest intersection in the state, with Routes 15, 2A and 117 forming what is known locally as "Five Corners" in the center of the Village. Toss in a still-active rail junction (tracks cross all three routes within yards of the intersection), and you got rather frustrating traffic backups. Many were the motorists who found themselves at a dead stop, either unaware of the rail schedule or unable to take an alternate route.
The construction of one leg of the long awaited, long-contested Circumferential Highway (Route 289) in the mid 90s relieved some of that load, allowing much of the traffic to and from what are essentially the bedroom communities further out Route 15 to bypass Five Corners. The Busiest Intersection Award, by the way, now goes to the corner of Williston Road and Dorset Street in South Burlington.
Material excerpted or adapted from Esther Munroe Swift's
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Activities & Points of Interest Goings-on in and near Essex Junction | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Contact Info Emergency Services (Statewide): 911
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Churches, Ministries, Charitables Episcopal : St. James 802-878-4014 |
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Schools Chittenden Central Supervisory Union 802-879-5579 |
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Businesses & Services
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Places To Eat
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Places To Stay
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Utilities
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