Main Street: East from Willard Street UTM: 180642710E; 4926331N |
 Louis McAllister c. 1926-1936 |
 Sarah L. Graulty October 15, 2006 |
The house on the left aide of this image, taken by McAllister between 1926 and 1936 is 360 Main Street. According to historian David Blow, Frank Dudley commissioned Burlington architect and builder John McLaughlin to construct a house in 1881[1]. The design of the house supports Blow's assertion that McLaughlin took plan directly from Comstock’s 1881 pattern book.[2] Jonas G. Reed, a wholesale tobacconist, was the house's first occupant and lived here from 1883-84, and his widow Jane A. occupied the house until 1914.[3] The second house up the hill from 360 Main was built circa 1883 for Mr. Henry Wells, of Wells, Richardson & Co., wholesale druggists. A notice in the Burlington Free Press on April 3, 1883 stated, "Henry Wells, Esq., will erect the coming season, a handsome residence one the land recently purchased by him at the corner of Main and Willard Streets."[4] The property is first listed in the Burlington directory in 1886-87. Wells, and then his widow, lived here until 1913, at which point Mr. Daniel L. Cady moved in.[5] After Cady’s death, his widow, Mary E. Cady, stayed at 368 Main until 1935[6], so it is likely that the Cadys owned the house when the image was captured by McAllister.[1] David Blow, Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods, Volume III (Burlington, VT: Chittenden County Historical Society, 2003) 123-4 |
While 360 Main Street looks quite similar to its McAllister-era appearance (it was acquired by Lang Associates in the mid-seventies and today is an upscale Bed and Breakfast, the Lang House), 368 has not survived. In 1938, just a few years after McAllister photographed this scene, In 1938, the Kappa Sigma fraternity from the University of Vermont moved into the building[1], where they stayed until the house tragically burned early in the morning of March 16, 1975.[2] After the fire, the fraternity built a new house and continues to use it to the present day.
[1] Burlington City Directory, 1938 (Burlington: H. A. Manning Co., 1916-1986)
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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 |