Claremont, New Hampshire

Claremont is a city located in Sullivan County, New Hampshire. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 13,151.

Geography

Claremont is located at 43°22'38" North, 72°20'40" West (43.377207, -72.344555)¹.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 114.2 km² (44.1 mi²). 111.7 km² (43.1 mi²) of it is land and 2.5 km² (1.0 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 2.18% water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there are 13,151 people, 5,685 households, and 3,428 families residing in the city. The population density is 117.8/km² (305.0/mi²). There are 6,074 housing units at an average density of 54.4/km² (140.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 97.67% White, 0.31% African American, 0.33% Native American, 0.62% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.12% from other races, and 0.92% from two or more races. 0.50% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 5,685 households out of which 27.4% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.5% are married couples living together, 10.3% have a female householder with no husband present, and 39.7% are non-families. 32.2% of all households are made up of individuals and 14.7% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.28 and the average family size is 2.86.

In the city the population is spread out with 23.3% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 28.5% from 25 to 44, 23.5% from 45 to 64, and 16.9% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 39 years. For every 100 females there are 92.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 89.4 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $34,949, and the median income for a family is $42,849. Males have a median income of $30,782 versus $22,078 for females. The per capita income for the city is $20,267. 10.0% of the population and 5.4% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 9.2% are under the age of 18 and 11.3% are 65 or older.

Cultural Status

Claremont, NH (postal ZIP 03743) is a small industrial town located in the Connecticut River Valley on the New Hampshire side of the Connecticut River. Through it from the East runs the Sugar River, which egresses into the Connecticut River, the official boundary between New Hampshire and Vermont. Claremont is the only city within the country, Sullivan, of which it resides. The city has an official AMTRAK terminal and small municipal airport, and is located 30 minutes south of Interstate 89 in Lebanon and 5 minutes east of Interstate 91 in Weathersfield, VT.

With a population of approximately 13,000 citizens, Claremont finds itself with several elementary schools, a single middle school, and a single high school, Stevens High. To the north end of the town lies the Valley Regional Hospital, an out-patient resource of the pretigious Mary Hitchcock Medical Center of Hanover, NH.

Claremont is a city with a black mark upon it; in the 1990s the city brought forth a suit against the state for misappropriation of education funds. Subsequently, rich communities within New Hampshire were forced to give portions of their budgets to Claremont and other poor communities, causing a topic of much debate at the state level. "The Claremont Decision", as the suit became known for, still leaves a sour taste in the mouth of those communities which gained nothing by the movement.

The main cultural, social, and economic hub is the Walmart "Super Center" chain store located at the center of the town; sampling the ingress traffic reveals an overwhelming saturation of out of state traffic, typically this consists of Vermont origin as Vermont has no Walmarts per state mantra. This location is the center point of the downtown Washington Street, Claremont's primary commercial district.

Uptown lives the Italian Renaissance styled City Hall, which faces Broad Street Park, a rotary style town square. From this square interconnects Washington Street, Broad Street, and Main Street, each branching into different portions of the city. Parallel to Broad Street lies West Pleasant Street, which is home to a dying row of yesterday's commercial zone. If not but bittersweet, the nostalgic brick rows were, in the 1960s, the hot zone of entertainment for Western New Hampshire.

Claremont continues to struggle with its economic rebirth vision, but due to its lack of major commuter artery, this goal remains difficult to attain.