Population Comparison

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Created on Wednesday, 16 March 2016 13:54

Written by Julia Rose

AROUND THE NORTHEAST KINGDOM- St. Johnsbury and Lyndon are the two biggest towns in Caledonia County. Together they make up about 43%, according to the Vermont 2012 Economic Demographic Profile Series. While the towns have battled it out on the football field for the last 120 years, that is not the only way they are competing. 

The towns strive to be better in their economy as well as have the highest amount of residents living in their town. When the towns were first starting off, St. Johnsbury had double the size of Lyndon residents. However now the towns are only separated by 1,600 people. Back in 2000, the town believed they would outpace the St. Johnsbury in residents in 15 years, so far that has not happened.

The town of St. Johnsbury dates back to 1786 when it was established with the name of Dunmore. By 1791 the town took the name of St. Johnsbury and had a total of 143 residents. Every ten years, the town continued to grow. Just nine years later in 1800 the town had 651. By 1900 the town had increased to 7,010 residents. But 30 years later St. Johnsbury had reached their highest amount of residents, 9,696. From then on the town declined. In 1940 only 9,095 people lived in the town, the year 2000 only saw 7,571, and by 2010 they had a slight increase to 7,603 residents. 

In the next town over Lyndon had a better past when it came to its increasing residential history. The town was founded in 1780. By 1791 only 59 people lived in the towns limits. In the year 1800 that number rose to 542. From then the number continues to grow, in 1900 the town had 2,956. And by 2010 5,981 lived in the town. 

Both towns have multiple sections that make up Lyndon and St. Johnsbury, but for this specific story the parts of each town have been combined. Lyndon can be described as a box within a box. There is the Town of Lyndon and the Village of Lyndonville. St. Johnsbury has more than 2 parts to its town; you have the Village of St. Johnsbury, St. Johnsbury Center, and East St. Johnsbury Village. There are also smaller sections of the town that are distinguished by the schools that are built there. 

Lyndon's increase in residents is partially from the outcome of the growth from Lyndon State College.

"One of the biggest things is that in the 1960s, the college obviously changed from more or less a teaching college into a full scale college that had a lot of offerings. So I think that as time has gone on, certainly more teachers have moved to the area to cover all the different offerings that LSC has. In addition, obviously more students have come to the area. And hopefully some fall in love with the town that we have and choose to stay here," stated Municipal Administrator Justin Smith. The school employs 57 full time faculty and 70 part time. 

However that is not the only reason for the steady climb in residents. "In the late '90s into the early 2000s, Lyndon had a lot of subdivisions that were developed that houses were built in, ready to buy ready to own. So we had a lot of people move in," Smith said. Lyndon still has areas outside of the Village that are open for development. 

When it comes to St. Johnsbury the town has been built out more than its next door rival, but this is not the main reason for the decrease in residents. 

24 yr old Michelle Farnham now lives in Lyndon, prior to moving here she lived in St. Johnsbury where she works. 

"I say, 'Hey I live in St. Johnsbury.' And they're like, 'Oh, I'm sorry'. And I was just like 'I'm not; I'm not having a bad experience.'" Farnham grew up in Woodsville, New Hampshire and had never heard anything bad about the town.  It wasn't until she moved up here that she started to understand why people felt the way they did about the town. 

"Well, 80 years ago St. Johnsbury had a lot better of a reputation, and now St. Johnsbury is known for the poverty and homelessness and low income. And you know it's just a switch in the total mindset of the way the people think about the town," stated Farnham. "I think people's opinion of Lyndonville is a lot more neutral."

St. Johnsbury holds facilities like the Methadone Clinic, Prison, and the Work Camp which have given the town a stigma to some of its residents. 

St. Johnsbury's Town Manager, Chad Whitehead agrees with the idea of the town having a stigma. "Oh there certainly is and St. Johnsbury does have a lot of services. We do support a lot of the services in the county. It falls on our shoulders, we know that. We're always managing it, we're trying to plan our communities in the best way we can."

The Clinic and Warming Shelter have since moved out of the downtown area, but still the idea of the town holding facilities like these as well as other Human Services make people want to leave the town. Whitehead added, "The services are inevitable. We know it's going to happen, we know it's going to be there. But the community works pretty well to manage that in a way that doesn't affect our down town." 

Whitehead concluded his interview saying, "I think St. Johnsbury is growing again. Maybe not in population immediately. Things aren't going to happen overnight. Like I said there is a lot of opportunity here." Opportunity that St. Johnsbury hopes will keep it bigger than its long time football rival Lyndon.