Brattleboro

Town in southeastern Vermont, on the Connecticut River where it is joined by the West River, 27 km/17 mi north of Greenfield, Massachusetts; population (2000) 12,000, including Brattleboro village (population (2000) 8,300) and West Brattleboro (2000) 3,200. Situated in an apple, maple, and dairy area, the town is a commercial and winter sports centre. Industries include printing, feed and flour milling, and the manufacture of wood products, textiles, optical goods, precision equipment, paints, and granite monuments and tombstones.

History As Fort Dummer (1724), it was Vermont's first English settlement. It was named Brattleboro in 1753. From 1845, mineral springs attracted health seekers. Estey organs were manufactured here from 1846. ‘Naulakha’, north of the village, was the home (1892–96) of the English writer Rudyard Kipling, who married a Brattleboro resident.