Cavendish is a census-designated place, the central village of the town of Cavendish, Windsor County, Vermont, United States. Until the mid–nineteenth century it was known as Duttonsville.[3] As of the 2010 census, the population of the CDP was 179,[4] compared to 1,367 for the entire town of Cavendish.
Cavendish is the site of the 1848 accident where Phineas Gage got an iron rod shot through his skull while preparing a railroad bed. He survived, and after treatment became a case study for brain researchers. The town has erected a memorial to Gage.[5] The town is also the birth place of Nettie Stevens, the scientist who discovered the Y chromosome.[6] Today, the village is home to Cavendish Labs, an AI alignment and pandemic prevention research institute, as well as a branch of Mack Molding.[7][8]