McAllister made a photograph after much of the work was completed. This image offers very little in the way of views of buildings not shown in the previous two images, however we know are presented with a scene of very different North Street.  The “old electric rails” are gone, replaced by the bus of the “Burlington Rapid Transit Company”, which has stopped in the middle of the intersection to have its picture taken. [1]   The driver rested his elbow on the wheel and looks out though and open door at the photographer.  The change from public transportation fueled by electricity to mass transit powered by gasoline has occurred in the Burlington in August of 1930.  The nation’s obsession with the automobile was running to catch up and the neighborhood would be changed forever; the loss of the electric rail line was only the beginning.

 



[1] Burlington City Annual Report. 1930, p 214.

 


Back to Paired Image Index for North Street between Elmwood Avenue and North Champlain

 

Historic Burlington Project
Burlington 1890 | Burlington 1877 | Burlington 1869 | Burlington 1853 | Burlington 1830

Produced by University of Vermont Historic Preservation Program graduate students
in HP 206 Researching Historic Structures and Sites - Prof. Thomas Visser
in collaboration with UVM Landscape Change Program
Historic images courtesy of Louis L. McAllister Photograph Collection University of Vermont Library Special Collections