In the foothills of Vermont’s Green Mountains, Rutland is the small-but-growing seat of Rutland County. “If you like the outdoor, arts or food lifestyles, Rutland is a great place to live. I like to call it a lifestyle location,” says Rutland Mayor Mike Doenges. Although the original township was settled before the American Revolution, Rutland’s first big growth spurt started when marble quarrying and building-stone manufacturing took off in the late 1800s. Marble is no longer a leading industry, but this part of Vermont is still known as Marble Valley. Modern Rutland’s top employers include GE Aerospace, the Rutland Regional Medical Center and Casella Waste Systems, a regional trash and recycling management company. “Everything else is small businesses and offices,” Doenges says. But he says Rutland is a “great place to grow” as a company. “CEDRR has opened a great coworking space here, and they have a startup group with a cohort of six companies that are currently in development,” he says, referring to the Chamber and Economic Development of the Rutland Region’s The Hub CoWorks space downtown. Doenges: “We’re a welcoming community and we’re striving for growth.”
The City of Rutland,VT on a cold, but clear winter morning with it's several church steeples defining the skyline.
The Rutland Regional Medical Center is both a major employer in the region but also a valuable community asset in the city of Rutland, VT.
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Competitively priced homes and big, updated Victorians
“The thing about Rutland, especially for people moving here from outside the area, is that it’s still affordable," Doenges says. "You can still buy a 3,000-square-foot single-family home for $250,000 in some areas. We’re always working to bring more housing units online, so there’s a lot of variety in the market.” According to the Vermont Association of Realtors, the median sales price for single-family homes in Rutland County is $306,000, while the median in the city is under $280,000. Both figures are well below the national median. But homes here can list for as high as $1.3 million, like the massive, fully updated Queen Anne-style Victorians that dot Main Street. “Rutland has some pretty palatial Victorian homes. That was the type of home trending when the city was growing,” the mayor says, adding that neighborhoods fanning out from the middle of town are “a mix of well-established areas with deep history and newer communities where we continue to see growth.”
A row of commonly found New Englander styled homes in the city of Rutland, VT.
A large and well taken care of Victorian styled home along the Main Street in Rutland, VT.
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Skiing in the Green Mountains, water sports on Lake Champlain
Between ski resorts in Mendon and Killington, less than 20 miles east of Rutland, and waterfront amenities at Lake George and Lake Champlain, about 55 miles west, there’s no shortage of outdoorsy day-trip activities. “A lot of people who move to Rutland come for the outdoor experience, because we are so centrally located to those natural resources,” Doenges says. Within the city proper, over half of Rutlanders live within a 10-minute walk of a park, from the city pool and tennis courts at White Memorial Park to the sports fields at the Cioffredi Complex.
The Pico Ski Area is one of several in the region that provide both recreational opportunities and tourist visits to the area.
Take a stroll through the Pine Hill Park in Rutland, VT year round.
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Rutland’s artsy, historic downtown
Downtown Rutland is the core of the small business, dining and entertainment scenes for both the city and the county. Many of the historic district’s tall storefronts are made of Rutland’s famous marble; some are smooth, black stone with thin grey veins, while others are matte white, with rough-hewn edges. “There’s also a marble sculpture trail, with sculptures all made by local artists to highlight the local history. And we have lots of murals that really beautify the downtown cityscape,” Doenges says, observing that with the mountain ranges in the background, the effect of the art and the buildings is striking. National chain retailers and restaurants are concentrated at the south end of town, near the Vermont State Fairgrounds, where the state fair has been held since 1856.
The downtown Rutland, VT area features a variety of local shops and restaurants for residents to visit.
A detail of the Steampunk Locomotive art display found in the downtown Rutland, VT area.
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Rutland City Public Schools and the Community College of Vermont-Rutland
Rutland City Public Schools earns a C-plus grade from Niche. The district has seven schools, counting the Stafford Technical Center and Rutland Allen Street Campus, a therapeutic school for kids between fifth and 12th grades. Rutland High, the city's only high school, offers global studies and STEM concentration programs. Vermont offers open enrollment at the high school level state-wide. “We have a really robust public school system with some of the best teachers in the country,” Doenges says, adding that private options are also available, including Christ the King School, Rutland Area Christian School and Mount St. Joseph Academy. Christ the King is not rated, but Rutland Area Christian School earns a B-plus, and Mount St. Joseph Academy gets an A. The Community College of Vermont’s Rutland campus is in the middle of town.
The Rutland High School is a part of the local public school system and serves the city of Rutland, VT.
The Mount St. Joesph Academy is a private, religious school serving the Rutland, VT community.
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The crossroads of U.S. routes 4 and 7 in central Vermont
U.S. routes 4 and 7 meet in the middle of Rutland, branching north, south, east and west to the rest of the state. The Marble Valley Regional Transit District provides public bus service in Rutland. “It’s a great bus system; we call it ‘The Bus,’ and there are routes within the city and routes that leave and go to the three closest ski resorts and the university in Castleton,” Doenges says, referring to the University of Vermont’s Castleton campus, about 14 miles west. The downtown James M. Jeffords Amtrak Station offers direct trains to New York City, and the Rutland Southern Vermont Regional Airport, south of the city, flies Cape Air direct to Boston.
Declining violent and property crime numbers
The FBI reports about a 17% decline in the number of both violent and property crimes in Rutland between 2022 and 2023.
Specialties: All aspects of real estate, especially historic homes, antique houses, and land
Background: Laura Beckwith has been Principal Broker of Josiah Allen Real Estate since purchasing it from founder Josiah Allen in 1984. A lifelong New Englander, Laura has in her genes a passion for slate roofs, white clapboard and egg-and-dart molding. She is also the first, however, to voice enthusiastic appreciation for modern design, with dramatic glass walls to the view, bright, open interiors and tremendously efficient and appealing technologies (think radiant floor heating or smart house lighting). Laura's special talent? Matching buyers to just the right property, time after time after time.
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