Historic Markers in the Town of Barre

(Click on map for larger view)

The Town of Barre remains much the same today as when it was founded.  It is still basically a friendly agricultural community.  The farms in the town are small family owned operations and among these are several Century farms.  The town also contains approximately four thousand acres of muck land.  In the south part is a 460 acre retreat called Stonewood Ponds.  Along with the farms are some small businesses and other community services including two churches, a volunteer fire company, and airport, two veterinarians, and a deli-grocery store.  This year a three million gallon water tank was constructed near 98-31A Intersection to bring water to the town.  Scattered through the town are eight old cemeteries.  There are also two sportsmen clubs in town and many acres of wide-open spaces providing countless opportunities for outdoor fun, hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, and trail riding.  

The Town of Barre has the following Town officials that are elected every two or four years.  Supervisor, town clerk, two town justices, four councilmen, a highway superintendent, an assessor, a zoning officer, a town historian, a town attorney, and five persons on the Zoning Board of Appeals.  Election day is always the first Tuesday in November.  Each year the town board has to make out a budget to pay the expenses of the town.  In order to pay these expenses, the people owning property are taxed.  In September they pay a school tax that is also based on their property.  This helps to support the schools in Albion as we no longer have schools in Barre.  The Town of Barre has an old supervisor account book (1864) with the school districts listed.  At that time there were 28 districts (Albion was included as it was called Barre until 1875).  The cost for running these schools was $2,319.00.  Average teachers’ salary was $55.00.  Today, the names of those old school districts simply denote an area of our town, but when they were named there was a significance attached.  We know these areas as Bentons, Lees, Round School House, South Barre, Gillettes, Porters, Center, Braggs, Pine Hill, Jackson’s Corners, Burmah, Love, and Tin Pan Corners.  These names all had a meaning a century ago.  July 1953, centralization took place and all the schools except the Center were absorbed into the Albion Central School District.  In 1957, the Center School closed.

The Town of Barre was formed from Gaines on March 6, 1818.  It forms the south-middle part of Orleans County.  There are 14,513 acres of land and the 1990 census shows 2093 people living in the town.  It was named after Barre, Mass., by a native of that community, Judge John Lee. 

Settlers coming to the Holland Land Office in 1820 to purchase land wanted to learn about the new and thriving village of Barre.  The most important factor in the early growth of “Barre Center” was the Oak Orchard Road known as Route 98 today.  About 1845, the road was planked between Barre Center and Albion and tools were collected for using it.

Roads in the Town of Barre Today:

6.70 miles of State Highway

25.70 miles of County Highway

51.03 miles of Town Highway^__Black Top

13.00 miles of Town Highway^__Dirt

Historian, Town of Barre