Lebanon

History

Lebanon was chartered as a town by colonial governor Benning Wentworth on July 4, 1761, one of 16 along the Connecticut River. It was named for Lebanon, Connecticut, from where many early settlers had come or would come, including the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, who arrived in 1770 and founded Dartmouth College. Lebanon, Connecticut, was the original home of Moor's Charity School, the antecedent of Dartmouth College. Early settlement concentrated along the Connecticut River in what is now West Lebanon, and in the Mascoma Lake region near Enfield. In the mid-19th century, a mill district developed at falls on the Mascoma River. Industries included, at various times, furniture mills, a tannery, several machine shops, a woolen textile mill, and a clothing factory. In the mid-19th century, this district attracted many French workers from Canada's Quebec province. This became the center of town, although West Lebanon grew into a railroad hub with a separate identity after lines entered from Boston. This rail center would become known as "Westboro" after two trains collided when West Lebanon was mistaken for Lebanon. The mill district, like the railroad, declined into the 1950s and 1960s. The town suffered two major fires; the second, in 1964, destroyed a large portion of the old mill district. Reconstruction resulted in a controversial urban renewal project featuring a closed-off district, called The Mall, built to replace the destroyed Hanover Street area. Partly in defiance of economic decline, and partly to counter a movement by West Lebanon to declare itself an independent town, Lebanon re-incorporated as a city in 1958. The routing of Interstates 89 and 91 through Lebanon and nearby White River Junction, Vermont, in addition to the growth of Dartmouth College, led to…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and are water, comprising 2.35% of the city. The western boundary of Lebanon is the Connecticut River, which is also the state boundary with Vermont. The village of West Lebanon occupies the western part of the city, along the Connecticut River. Downtown Lebanon is to the east, along the Mascoma River, a tributary of the Connecticut. The city is fully within the Connecticut River watershed. The southern end of Moose Mountain is in the northeast. The highest point in Lebanon is the northern end of Shaker Mountain, at above sea level, on the eastern border of the city. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Lebanon has a warm-summer humid continental climate, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps. The hottest temperature recorded in Lebanon was on June 24, 2025, while the coldest temperature recorded was on January 14, 1957. |source 2 = National Weather Service }}

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  24,103
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  23,673
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  20,162
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  16,767
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  16,550
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  15,682
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  14,598
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  13,917

Most recent

• M 2.6 — 2024-06-18
  3 km SE of Haverhill, New Hampshire
• M 2.7 — 2023-12-23
  5 km SW of Chichester, New Hampshire
• M 2.9 — 2023-04-25
  4 km SW of Center Sandwich, New Hampshire
• M 2.8 — 2016-03-21
  4 km ESE of Warner, New Hampshire
• M 2.61 — 2013-10-11
  New Hampshire
• M 2.51 — 2011-07-08
  4 km NE of Newbury, Vermont