Windsor County is a county in Vermont, United States, about 90 miles south of Burlington and 130 miles north of Boston. It had a population of 57,753 at the 2020 census, an estimated 59,700 by 2024, and covers 969 square miles (2,510 km2) centred near 43\u00b034\u2032N 72\u00b034\u2032W — Vermont’s largest county by land area.<\/p>\n
Woodstock is the county seat, known locally as the shire town; its postal code is 05091. The county holds 24 towns and no separate cities — Vermont towns double as the primary unit of local government, so there is no county-level township layer beneath them — and it runs on Eastern Time. County government itself is limited: Vermont counties have no elected county council or county-wide services beyond the courts, sheriff and registry of deeds, and most day-to-day government happens at the town level.<\/p>\n
Windsor County has 24 incorporated towns, each functioning as its own municipal government, plus several unincorporated villages that carry their own ZIP codes and local identity without a separate town charter. The table below lists all 24 towns and the county’s best-known unincorporated villages (marked CDP, for census-designated place).<\/p>\n
| Place<\/th>\n | Type<\/th>\n | Pop.<\/th>\n | ZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hartford<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 10,686<\/td>\n | 05001<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Springfield<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 9,062<\/td>\n | 05156<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Norwich<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 3,612<\/td>\n | 05055<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Windsor<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 3,559<\/td>\n | 05089<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Hartland<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 3,446<\/td>\n | 05048<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Weathersfield<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 2,842<\/td>\n | 05151<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Chester<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 3,005<\/td>\n | 05143<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Woodstock<\/td>\n | Town · seat<\/td>\n | 3,005<\/td>\n | 05091<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Royalton<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 2,750<\/td>\n | 05068<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Ludlow<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 2,172<\/td>\n | 05149<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Bethel<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 1,942<\/td>\n | 05032<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Sharon<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 1,560<\/td>\n | 05065<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Cavendish<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 1,392<\/td>\n | 05142<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| West Windsor<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 1,344<\/td>\n | 05089<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Rochester<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 1,099<\/td>\n | 05767<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Barnard<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 992<\/td>\n | 05031<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Pomfret<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 916<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Bridgewater<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 903<\/td>\n | 05034<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Stockbridge<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 718<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Reading<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 687<\/td>\n | 05062<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Plymouth<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 641<\/td>\n | 05056<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Weston<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 623<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Andover<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 568<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Baltimore<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 229<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| White River Junction<\/td>\n | CDP<\/td>\n | 2,528<\/td>\n | 05001<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Quechee<\/td>\n | CDP<\/td>\n | 831<\/td>\n | 05059<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| South Royalton<\/td>\n | CDP<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 05068<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Perkinsville<\/td>\n | CDP<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 05151<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Proctorsville<\/td>\n | CDP<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 05153<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Brownsville<\/td>\n | CDP<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 05037<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n Two pairs of names cause confusion. Hartford, Vermont is not Hartford, Connecticut — Vermont’s Hartford has no city government of its own and is best known through its largest village, White River Junction. Windsor, the town, and West Windsor, a separate town six miles southwest, are two different municipalities that happen to share a ZIP code because West Windsor’s post office closed decades ago and mail now routes through Windsor. Chester (population 3,005) and Woodstock (population 3,005) are coincidentally the same size but are 20 miles apart with no other connection.<\/p>\n ZIP Codes<\/h2>\nPomfret, Stockbridge, Weston, Andover and Baltimore have no working post office of their own; residents use a neighboring town’s ZIP, and none is listed here to avoid guessing which one.<\/p>\n Geography<\/h2>\nWindsor County straddles the eastern edge of Vermont’s Green Mountains, running from the Connecticut River on its New Hampshire border west into forested highlands that include part of the Green Mountain National Forest. The land is almost entirely hill and valley terrain, with 969 square miles of land against about 7.4 square miles of water. The Connecticut, White, Black, Williams and Ottauquechee rivers all cross the county; Quechee Gorge, carved by the Ottauquechee River, is the deepest gorge in Vermont. Mount Ascutney, at 3,143 feet, rises over Windsor and West Windsor and is the county’s most visible peak.<\/p>\n Windsor County borders Orange County to the north, Windham County to the south, and Rutland County to the west, all in Vermont; Addison and Bennington counties touch its northwest and southwest corners. Across the Connecticut River to the east and northeast lie Sullivan and Grafton counties in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n Demographics<\/h2>\nWindsor County had a population of 57,753 at the 2020 census, up from 56,670 in 2010, and an estimated 59,700 residents by 2024. Hartford is the largest town at 10,686 residents, followed by Springfield at 9,062; together they hold about a third of the county’s population. Median household income runs close to the statewide Vermont figure of roughly $72,000, though it varies sharply by town — commuter towns near Hanover, New Hampshire such as Norwich rank well above the county average, while former mill towns such as Springfield rank below it. Population density is about 60 people per square mile, low even by Vermont standards, reflecting the county’s mountainous western half.<\/p>\n Economy & Local Life<\/h2>\nSpringfield anchors what was once called Precision Valley, home through the 20th century to machine-tool makers Jones and Lamson, Fellows Gear Shaper and Bryant Chucking Grinder; wartime production there was significant enough that the U.S. government ranked the town the seventh most important bombing target in the country. That manufacturing base has thinned, and the Black River Innovation Campus in downtown Springfield now runs co-working space and technology programs on former mill-company land.<\/p>\n Tourism and skiing carry much of the rest of the county’s economy. Okemo Mountain Resort in Ludlow is the county’s largest single employer during ski season and anchors a second-home real-estate market that supports much of the town’s tax base. Woodstock, marketed for decades as one of New England’s best-preserved small towns, draws visitors to its historic district and the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, the first national park to focus on conservation history. Hartford’s largest village, White River Junction, has rebuilt around the arts — the Center for Cartoon Studies and Northern Stage theater both operate out of former railroad-era commercial buildings — after the freight and passenger rail traffic that built the village declined sharply after 1960. South Royalton, a village in Royalton, is the seat of Vermont Law and Graduate School, the state’s only law school. Cheesemaking survives in Plymouth, where the shop Calvin Coolidge’s father ran still produces Plymouth Artisan Cheese.<\/p>\n History<\/h2>\nWindsor County was established on February 16, 1781, carved from Cumberland County and named for the town of Windsor, itself named after Windsor, Connecticut. The town of Windsor holds the county’s most consequential historical claim: delegates meeting at a tavern there, now preserved as the Old Constitution House, adopted the Constitution of the Vermont Republic on July 8, 1777, the founding document of an independent republic that governed itself for 14 years before joining the United States in 1791. Vermont was the first American state or republic to abolish adult slavery outright in that constitution.<\/p>\n The county produced two U.S. presidents’ worth of national history without either man staying: Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, was born in Sharon in 1805, and Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president, was born, raised and is buried in Plymouth, where he took the presidential oath of office from his father, a notary public, by kerosene lamp after President Harding’s sudden death in 1923. Springfield’s 20th-century industrial rise and White River Junction’s railroad boom and bust are the county’s other defining economic chapters; both towns’ historic downtowns, and Chester’s granite-built Stone Village, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.<\/p>\n Getting There<\/h2>\nNo interstate crosses Windsor County east-west, but Interstate 91 runs north-south along its eastern edge through Hartford, Windsor and Weathersfield, and Interstate 89 clips its northeastern corner at White River Junction, where the two interstates meet. U.S. Route 4 and Vermont Routes 12, 100 and 106 carry most of the remaining traffic.<\/p>\n
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