Rutland

Vermont's second-largest city, Rutland grew on marble and railroads. The marble quarries of the surrounding region — Proctor, West Rutland, Danby — made Rutland a center of the stone trade in the 1800s, and the railroad hub that developed to ship that marble turned the city into a commercial crossroads for western Vermont. At its peak, Rutland was a small industrial city with the hotels, theaters, and bustle to match.

Chartered as a town in 1761, Rutland became a city in 1892. Today's population of about 15,800 makes it the state's second city after Burlington, though the two have very different characters. Rutland's downtown has experienced the same challenges as many small American cities — competition from big-box stores, population decline, the opioid crisis — but reinvestment efforts, including the Rutland Downtown Partnership, have brought new energy to the commercial core.

The Paramount Theatre, built in 1914, has been restored to its original grandeur and anchors the cultural scene. The Rutland Herald, one of the state's oldest newspapers, continues to cover local and state affairs. Rutland operates under a mayor and board of aldermen, a more urban governance structure than the selectboard model, but the principle is the same: the people who live here decide how the city is run.