The George Maxwell Memorial Library, Vernon

The George Maxwell Memorial Library, Vernon

Incorporated from Bolton in 1808, Vernon is a Tolland County town that today encompasses the former city of Rockville and the villages of Talcottville and Dobsonville. In the 19th century, the success of the Rock Manufacturing Company, the first mill on the Hockanum River, gave rise to a booming textile industry, known for its woolen products, and to the city of Rockville. After World War II, the textile industry waned and that, together with the suburbanization of once-rural Vernon, shifted the community’s commercial hub to areas nearer the highways that had sprung up. Famed town residents include 19th-century still life painter Charles Ethan Porter and “The Rockville Rocket,” singer Gene Pitney.

Learn More

Places

Connecticut Freedom Trail. “Charles Ethan Porter House,” 2017. Link.
Department of Energy & Environmental Protection. “Hop River State Park Trail,” 2017. Link.
“New England Civil War Museum,” 2012. Link.
Connecticut Freedom Trail. “Porter Family Plot,” 2012. Link.
“Vernon Historical Society,” 2012. Link.

Documents

O.H. Bailey & Company. “Rockville, Connecticut. 1895.” Bird’s-eye. Boston, MA: O.H. Bailey & Company, 1895. Connecticut History Online, Connecticut Historical Society. Link.
Connecticut State Library Digital Collections. “Vernon - WPA Architectural Survey,” 2014. Link.
“Vernon Collection.” Connecticut Digital Archive, n.d. Link.
O.H. Bailey & Co. “View of Rockville, Conn. 1877.” Bird’s-eye. Boston, MA: O.H. Bailey & Company, 1877. Connecticut History Online, Connecticut Historical Society. Link.

Books

Smith, Harry, ed. A Century of Vernon, Connecticut, 1808-1908. Rockville,  CT: T.F. Rady & Company, 1911. Link.
Commemorative Biographical Record of Tolland and Windham Counties, Connecticut: Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and of Many of the Early Settled Families. Chicago, IL: J.H. Beers & Co., 1903. Link.
Abbott, Ardis. Vernon and Historic Rockville. Dover,  NH: Arcadia, 1998.
Abbott, Ardis, and Jean Luddy. Vernon-Rockville in the Twentieth Century. Charleston,  SC: Arcadia, 2002.