SAINT ALBANS, a city of north-western Vermont, U.S.A., a port of entry and the county seat of Franklin county; 3 m. from Lake Champlain (St. Albans bay) and 15 m. from the Canadian border. It is on Federal highway 7, and is served by the Central Vermont railway. Pop. (1920) 7,588; 1930 it was 8,02o. The city is 300 ft. above the level of the lake and is sur rounded by hills commanding fine views of the Green mountains, Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks beyond. St. Albans bay is a famous fishing ground. The city is a summer resort and touring centre; headquarters of the railway, which employs some 500 per sons in its offices and shops, and of various activities of the Fed eral Government (including the Bureau of Customs, the Bureau of Prohibition, the Immigration Service, and the Canadian Border and Lake Patrol) ; and a shipping point for maple sugar and dairy products, variegated marble and various other products of the region and its own factories. Exports of the customs district of
Vermont (of which St. Albans is the headquarters) in 1927 were valued at $50,628,412; imports at The first settle ment here was made in 1774. The town was organized in 1788, in corporated in 1859 and chartered as a city in 1897. It has a com mission-manager form of government. On Oct. 19, 1864, it was raided from Canada by a party of Confederate soldiers (not in uniform), who looted three banks and wounded several citizens. They escaped to Canada, where the leader and 12 others were arrested, but were not deprived of the $75,0oo they had taken.
Later this amount was refunded by the Canadian Government. In 1866 and 1870 the Fenians made St. Albans a base for attacks on Canada, and U.S. troops were sent here to preserve neutrality.