New England town

Towns are laid out so that nearly all land within the boundaries of each state is allocated to a town or other corporate municipality. All land is incorporated into the bounds of a municipal corporation's territory, except in some very sparsely populated areas of the three northern New England states (primarily in the north).

Towns are municipal corporations, with their powers defined by a combination of municipal corporate charter, state statutes, and the state constitution. In practice, most New England towns have significant autonomy in managing their own affairs. In most of New England, the laws regarding their authority have historically been very broadly construed, and towns in these states have nearly all of the powers that cities and towns with typically have in most other U.S. states. New Hampshire and Vermont follow Dillon's Rule, which holds that local governments are largely creatures of the state.

home rule

Traditionally, a town's legislative body is the , which is a form of direct democratic rule, with a board of selectmen possessing executive authority. Only several Swiss cantons with Landsgemeinde remain as democratic as the small New England town meetings.^[4]

open town meeting

A town almost always contains a built-up populated place (the "") with the same name as the town. Additional built-up places with different names are often found within towns, along with a mixture of additional urban and rural territory. Many (though not all) of these population centers have been designated by the U.S. Census Bureau as census designated places (CDP), which can be used by the Census Bureau for a separately named population center, or for an arbitrarily defined concentration of population within a town.

town center

There is no territory that is not part of a town between each town; leaving one town means entering another town or other municipality. In most parts of New England, towns are irregular in shape and size and are not laid out on a grid. The town center often contains a town or town green, often used today as a small park.

common

Virtually all residents of New England live within the boundaries of a municipal corporation. Residents receive most local services at the municipal level, and county government tends to provide no services in the southern three states, and limited services in the northern three states. Differences among states do exist in the level of services provided at the municipal and county level, but generally most functions normally handled by county-level government in the rest of the United States are handled by town-level government in New England. In Connecticut, , and most of Massachusetts, county government has been completely abolished, and counties serve merely as dividing lines for the judicial system. In other areas, some counties provide judicial and other limited administrative services. In many cases, the house numbers on streets and roads in New England reset to zero upon crossing a town or city line.

Rhode Island

Residents usually identify with their town for purposes of civic identity, thinking of the town in its entirety as a single, coherent community. There are some cases where residents identify more strongly with villages or sections of a town than with the town itself, particularly in Rhode Island, but this is the exception, not the rule.

More than 90% of the municipalities in the six New England states are identified as towns. Other forms of municipalities that exist are generally based on the town concept, as well—most notably cities. Most New England cities have adopted a city form of government, with a council and a mayor or manager. Municipal entities based on the concept of a compact populated place are uncommon, such as a or Connecticut borough. In areas of New England where such forms do exist, they remain part of the parent town and do not have all of the corporate powers and authority of an independent municipality.

Vermont village

New Hampshire: Coos County contains a total of seventeen grants, purchases and locations. Together, these cover a significant amount of land area, but had only 61 residents as of the 2000 Census (44 of whom lived in a single entity, ). The only remaining unincorporated gore-like entity outside of Coos County is Hale's Location, in neighboring Carroll County, a 2.5-square-mile (6.5 km²) tract, which has reported population in only three censuses since 1900. (Hart's Location, also in Carroll County, has been incorporated since 1795,^[11] although it continues to carry the word "location" in its name. Wentworth Location was similarly incorporated as a town at one time.^[12])

Wentworth Location

Vermont: Essex County contains two gores and one grant, which border each other in the northern part of the county. Together, they cover about 25 square miles (65 km²), and reported 10 residents in the 2000 Census. The only remaining unincorporated gore-like entity outside of Essex County is , in Chittenden County, a 5-square-mile (13 km²) tract, which reported 30 residents in 2010. Up until the 1960s or 1970s, Franklin County contained a gore as well, which was ultimately eliminated by dividing it between two neighboring towns.

Buel's Gore

Maine: the interior of the state contains a number of entities of this type. There are a few remaining in more populated areas of the state as well. Examples include , in Lincoln County, and Batchelders Grant, in southern Oxford County.

Hibberts Gore

List of towns in Connecticut

List of towns in Maine

List of municipalities in Massachusetts

List of cities and towns in New Hampshire

List of municipalities in Rhode Island

List of towns in Vermont

The largest municipality in Connecticut, by population, is the city of (pop. 148,654).

Bridgeport

The largest that is a town and not a city is (pop. 64,083).

West Hartford

The smallest that is a city and not a town, only including cities that are coextensive with their towns, is (pop. 12,325). The city-within-a-town of Groton, however, is smaller (pop. 9,387), and to the extent that Winsted is recognized as a non-coextensive city, it is even smaller than Groton is (pop. 7,192).

Derby

The smallest town is (pop. 785).

Union

The largest municipality by land area is the town of (61.6 square miles (160 km²)).

New Milford

The smallest town-level municipality is (5.06 square miles (13.1 km²)).

Derby

Minor civil division

 – U.S. Census statistical area and terminology for metropolitan areas using New England towns as building blocks, rather than counties

New England city and town area

 – a concept for named localities within towns that are not separately incorporated, similar to a "village" in New England

Unincorporated community (New Jersey)

Fairlee, J. A. Local government in counties, towns, and villages (The Century Co., New York, 1906), Chap. 8

(online version)

Garland, J. S. New England town law: a digest of statutes and decisions concerning towns and town officers (Boston, Mass., 1906), pp. 1–83.

(online version)

Green, A. New England's gift to the nation—the township.: An oration (Angell, Burlingame & Co., Providence, 1875),

(online version)

Murphy, R. E. "Town Structure and Urban Concepts in New England", The Professional Geographer 16, 1 (1964).

Parker, J. The origin, organization, and influence of the towns of New England: a paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society, December 14, 1865, (Cambridge, 1867)

(online version)

United States Census Bureau. This document indicates that the US Census distinguishes between New England towns and Midwestern townships while including them in the same statistical category.

Census Bureau Geographic Area Reference Manual, Chapter 8

Whiting, S. The Connecticut town-officer, Part I: The powers and duties of towns, as set forth in the statutes of Connecticut, which are recited, (Danbury, 1814), pp. 7–97

(online version)