372 - 346 North Avenue, photograph by Louis McAllister, 1934

GPS reading: 18T 060904, UTM 4927963

This image was taken from the west side of the road, looking south; the grounds of the Providence Orphan Asylum are on the right. On the left is a row of homes. The closest, 372 North Avenue was built in or around 1887.[1] Two bays wide, it is a simple gable-front clapboarded house with a side entry. It has a deep front porch featuring columnar posts and a solid balustrade. The first residents at this address were Walter Hathaway, a teamster, and his wife Jesse.[2] At the time of the photograph, it was home to a Mrs. Leona Barney and Napoleon Beadoin.[3]

Just beyond 372, is 366 North Avenue, another gable-front clapboarded house with a side entry. Across the front of 366 is a hipped-roof porch with columnar posts and a low wood railing.  Built as a single-family home in or around 1873, the first resident here was William Newton a steamboat pilot for the Adirondack, the Mariquita and the Reindeer. It is William Newton, Jr., however, whose name appears associated with the property on the 1890 Hopkins map of Burlington. John H. Demag, a trucker, resided at this address the year McAllister took the photograph.[4]

The next house down the street is 360 North Avenue, built in 1907 or early 1908 as a duplex. This house is clapboarded, has a flat-roof and a porch across the front featuring turned posts and a low wood railing. The windows are double-hung with shutters and there is a central entry. The first two residents here were Mrs. Rose Newton and Peter G. Lavery. The Sanborn Insurance Map for 1912 shows a barn and a hen house out back. By 1914, a carpenter and contractor named Frank Bergeron was living at this address and at the time of the photograph he was still one of the residents. The other was J. Edward Moran, a clerk at Abernathy, Clarkson and Wright, Inc., a department store on Church Street.

Just beyond, 360, a bit of the front façade of 358 is visible. Built in the mid 1890s, the house is square with a hipped roof and a central front dormer. It has a front porch with columnar posts and a low wood railing.

The house at 352 North Avenue, although constructed by 1934, does not appear in this image, due to its deep setback.

Further down the street is 346 North Avenue. This home was built sometime between 1890 and 1896. (It does not appear on the 1890 Hopkins map of Burlington). Frank P. Robinson, an employee of L.G Burnham Co., lived here in 1897 and, at the time of the photograph, it was the home of a Mrs. Henrietta Linsley, a widow.[5]

[1] Amanda Ciampolillo, North Avenue, Burlington 1890 website, www.uvm.edu/%7Ehp206/204-1890/burlington1890/website/aciampol/northavenue.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Burlington City Directory, 1934.

[4] Burlington City Directory, 1934.

[5] Burlington City Directory, 1897;1934.

372 - 346 North Avenue, photograph by T.N. Martin, 2005

GPS reading: 18T 060904, UTM 4927963

A number of changes are immediately noticeable in the contemporary photograph of this view. Chief among them is the loss of the elm trees, which has a dramatic effect. Lower growing trees obscure the view from house to house. Power poles and wires crossing the road are much more in evidence in the contemporary view. Streetlights are an additional layer of infrastructure not seen in McAllister’s photograph.

All the structures visible in McAllister’s view of this stretch of North Avenue still stand today, but most have undergone significant changes, both structural and cosmetic since 1934.

The house at 327 North Avenue no longer has a front porch although evidence remains of the porch roof line. A side entry porch is, however, visible in the contemporary photograph. In addition, a bit of “gingerbread” has been added to the front gable of this house.

At 366 North Avenue, the porch survives, although it has been enclosed. All the original windows on this house have, however, been replaced with modern windows of different dimensions. At 360 North Avenue, the porch has also been enclosed. The houses south of 360 are no longer visible in this view of North Avenue.