Views of Church Street and Maple Street

Ashley L. Bushey

Church Street Images

1. Church Street looking north towards Pearl Street

2. Church Street looking North between Bank and Cherry Streets

3. Church Street looking South from Pearl Street

4. Church Street looking North across Bank Street

5. Church Street looking North toward Pearl Street

6. Church Street looking South from Pearl Street

7. Church Street looking South from Pearl Street

8. Church Street looking South from Pearl Street

9. Church Street looking North from Bank Street

10. Church Street looking North from City Hall

11. Church Street looking North from City Hall

12. Church Street looking South to City Hall

13. Church Street looking South from City Hall

Maple Street Images

14. Maple Street looking East from Battery Street

15. Maple Street looking West from Pine Street

16. Maple and Pine Intersection looking Northwest

17. Maple Street looking East from Summit Street

18. Maple Street looking East towards South Prospect Street

19. Maple Street looking East from Summit Street

20. Maple Street looking East from Summit Street

 

 

The area of Burlington, Vermont encompassed by Church Street, running north-south from its namesake the Unitarian Church at the head of Pearl Street, across Main Street, to Adams Street, and Maple Street, running east-west from Battery to South Prospect Street is an area of central importance to the city.  Activity along this axis covers the spectrum of small city life, from residential to economic, political to social.

Economic and governmental life in the city of Burlington has revolved around Church Street for much of the city’s history.  Since being chartered as a city, Burlington’s Church Street has been home to City Hall, the court house, a fire station, city police headquarters, multiple banks, various retail stores, a hotel, booksellers, a shopping mall, and more.  It is central in the life of the city politically, economically, even geographically, as it is located between the state university and Burlington’s waterfront.  For the past three decades the creation of the Church Street Marketplace has closed the street to motorized traffic, an innovation that made Church Street a popular destination for pedestrians, eventually becoming the social center of Burlington and its surrounding area.

            Maple Street cannot claim central importance to the functioning of the city, owing to its primarily residential nature.  However, its western end at the intersection of Battery Street was, at its height in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, an economic hub of no mean degree.  While Church Street could boast centricity, this area could boast access.  Location was key in this area where roads, railways, and waterways converged.  Businesses took advantage of this access to transportation and sprung up around the intersection. 
   
Historic Burlington Project
Depression Era Streetscapes: Old North End | 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 University of Vermont Library Special Collections, Louis L. McAllister Photograph Collection