Burlington began as a railroad town, but it became known across the world as a textile center. In the 1850s, the newly formed North Carolina Railroad Company needed a maintenance facility halfway between Goldsboro and Charlotte. The location was given a generic name, Company Shops, which was simply an expression of the railroad's operation. In 1886, the shops were moved to a new location, so in 1887, people here chose a new name--Burlington--and the little town moved on. Burlington became known as the "Hosiery Center of the South," and in 1923, Burlington Mills was formed. It became the largest maker of textile products in the world and carried the name of this community around the globe. In addition to textiles, industries over the years have included aircraft, telephone components, and military radar equipment, and by the beginning of the 21st century, Burlington was home to Labcorp, the nation's second largest medical testing laboratory.

In Burlington Volume II, authors Mary Ann DiSpirito and David Robinson continue the detailed look at this intriguing Vermont city. Discovered by Samuel de Champlain in 1609, the next few centuries saw Burlington evolve from a wilderness to a small settlement, and eventually, flourish into Vermont's largest city. Situated on the shores of Lake Champlain, Burlington's waterfront area became the early center of commerce in the late eighteenth century with the rise of the lumber industry and the use of ships for transport. By 1865, when Burlington was incorporated as a city, the industries that profoundly shaped Burlington's personality were already well established--these included lumber, textiles, shipping, and the railroad, as well as higher education.

In the early 1970s, the quiet Ohio village of New Burlington was abandoned to allow construction of a dam.

Located on the Farmington River, Burlington is a place of natural beauty, with five mountains and valleys filled with brooks, forests, and stone walls. Most of the area's earliest settlers came from England to Hartford and then followed the river, with its fertile banks and meadowlands, into the West Woods or Great Forest, as Burlington was known at the time. The town was incorporated in 1745 and was named Burlington in 1806. Burlington shows the faces of earlier generations of the same families who live in these hills and valleys today. It depicts the homes, barns, orchards, fields, schoolhouses, and mills when they were thriving with life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book captures the tenor of everyday situations as well as the drama of the Blizzard of 1888 and the flood of 1955.

Known as Shawshin by the Native Americans who originally inhabited the region, the town of Burlington has a rich history dating to Colonial and Revolutionary War days. Drawing upon the John Fogelberg collection, the Burlington Historical Commission collection, and the Crawford collection of photographs, now housed in the Burlington Archives, this book presents a vision of Burlington that few will recognize. In Burlington, you will see the people, places, and events that are known today only as legends or place-names. Meet Marshall Simonds, whose generous gift in 1905 gave the town a beautiful park and Burlington Common, as well as its first high school. Experience how townspeople used to celebrate the Fourth of July with a large bonfire on the hill at Simonds Park. Learn of mysteries and disasters, such as the collapse of the parsonage building on the town common after a move in 1956. Explore the historic homes and the buildings and early businesses, which feature scenes from the Reed Ham Works to aerial views of the emerging Burlington Industrial Park. See the images of the Walker, Crawford, and Skelton farms, which showcase the town's fast-disappearing agricultural history.

For a century the 'Burlington Magazine' has maintained a high reputation for authoritative writing on art history.