Fair Haven Map
Fair Haven is a town in Rutland County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,928 at the 2000 census. Within the town is located the census-designated place of Fair Haven. The town is noted for its Victorian architecture, considered some of the finest in the state.
It was chartered on October 27, 1779 to Ebenezer Allen and 76 associates, and first settled the same year. The township originally included West Haven, which was set off on October 20, 1792. In 1783, Colonel Matthew Lyon moved to Fair Haven and began building mills at the falls on the Castleton River. His enterprises included a gristmill, sawmill and papermill, in addition to a forge. This began Fair Haven's legacy as a small, prosperous mill town, which by 1859 included a marble mill, rolling mill, nail factory, papermill producing wall paper, three sawmills, a wagon shop, a machine shop, two blacksmith shops, and two shoe shops.
The quarrying and manufacture of slate began in 1846. Fair Haven would develop extensive quarries for the stone, believed at the time to be inexhaustible, which was supplied to cities along the Atlantic coast and in the West. Some of it was made into the framed, book-sized writing slates that students of the time used.
Nearby cities include West Rutland, Wells, Granville, Pittsford, Rutland.