Louis L. McAllister
April 20, 1938
Sarah L. Graulty
October 30, 2006
Main Street: West from Willard Street UTM: 180642705E; 4926334N |
Louis L. McAllister April 20, 1938 |
Sarah L. Graulty October 30, 2006 |
Louis McAllister shot this photo on April 20, 1938 standing in the intersection of Main and South Willard Streets looking west on Main Street toward downtown Burlington and Lake Champlain. The street is undergoing a paving project, and workers are operating a dump truck in the background. A slightly later McAllister photograph, taken May 9, 1938, shows this same scene at a different stage in the project. Please click here to view a comparison of the two 1938 photographs. The oldest building in this photograph is 325 Main Street, the 1-story, brick, gable roofed, Greek Revival structure with fluted Ionic columns supporting a full entablature and portico. Originally, this building was part of an estate that fronted onto South Willard Street. The Main Street-College Street Historic District National Register nomination notes that Don Carlos Baxter, a renowned Burlington attorney, purchased the estate in the 1830s.[1] He later built 325 Main Street to serve as his law offices circa 1845.[2] In its first incarnation, the rear of the building also featured a similar portico to the front, but a subsequent owner removed it in favor of more interior space. Gustavus Apollus Austin bought the property when Baxter sold it in 1870, a few years before his death, and his descendents owned the property until the mid 1920s.[3] The Austins last appear in the Burlington directory at this address, 163 South Willard Street, in 1925 and the following year, the property is marked vacant.[4] In the late 1920s, Joseph Winterbotham, a retiree, purchased the estate. He is first listed in the Burlington directory at this address in 1927 and he owned 325 Main Street at the time of the photograph in 1940[5]. It is unclear how he used this structure, but Sanborn Maps from this era mark it as vacant. Directly across from 325 Main Street on the right edge of the photograph sits 324 Main, the Ridgewood Apartments. The Ridgewood appears to have opened with twelve units in 1937, when its tenants are first listed in the city directory. According to the Main Street-College Street Historic District National Register nomination, 324 Main Street was deigned by Louis Newton, a noted local architect.[6] The next house down the hill, to the left of the Ridgewood Apartments, is 316 Main Street, marked by its pedimented entrance porch and tall gable-front roof. This house was built by Dr. Walter S. Vincent circa 1884. Historian David Blow cites an April 3, 1884 notice in the Burlington Free Press that reports, “Dr. W.S. Vincent has bought of J.W. Hickok a lot having five rods of frontage on Main Street on which he will erect a residence the coming season.”[7] The house was designed by A. B. Fisher[8], who also built a house for himself next door, at 308 Main Street. Walter Vincent was an important member of the community. On May 20, 1908, the Burlington Free Press read, “Dr. Vincent is a pioneer in the way of things electrical in Burlington, having introduced the telephone here, installed the first electric motor in this city and has now brought the first electric carriage to the city.”[9] He died on November 10, 1921 and his widow, Mrs. Mary W. Vincent, resided in the house until 1923. In 1925, the Burlington directory lists the address as the Sigma Delta Frat House, who would have been the occupants at the time Louis McAllister took the photograph. After the Vincent House, at 308 Main Street, is a large Queen Anne, although trees and other houses obscure all but the sloping roof plane and turned porch posts. This house was the home of architect of Alfred Benjamin Fisher, a prominent architect who designed many of Burlington’s late 19th century buildings. Some consider Fisher to be the city’s first professional architect. In the 1879-81 Burlington directory, there is no “architect” category in the business listings, but by the 1881-1883 directory, this section exists and it lists only one name: A. B. Fisher. Fisher designed and built his home at 308 Main Street circa 1884-85 and is first listed at the residence in 1886-87. Fisher’s son, C. W. Fisher, who would later become his father’s business partner, is also listed at this address. The Fishers only lived in the house for a few years, however, and sold the property to William M. Curtis in 1888 for $10,000.[10] By 1938, the directory lists Jennie E Lattin at the residence. The fourth house on this side of the street, 300 Main Street, was the Italianate home of Captain Dan Lyon. The Main Street-College Street Historic District National Register nomination dates this building to 1856 and the 1865-66 city directory (the earliest available for research) confirms that Lyon was already living in the house. This building is distinguished in the image above by the elaborate Italianate porch surrounding the entrance. [1] National Register of Historic Places, Main Street-College Street Historic District National Register nomination. |
Today, very little has changed, with the glaring exception of the missing canopy of elm trees. As mentioned earlier, Joseph Winterbotham, a retiree, purchased the estate at 325 Main Street, on the left, in the 1920s. He is first listed in the directory at this address in 1927 and lived here until his death in 1954, at which point the property was willed to the University of Vermont. The Burlington directory marked the property vacant in 1956, but by 1958, it was purchased by the city. The main estate, on South Willard, was used by the Burlington Board of Education soon after, 325 Main Street was sold to the city of Burlington. In 1958, the city Board of Education was using the building by 1958 325 Main Street was sold to the city of Burlington, who eventually used it to house the Chamber of Commerce. Today, the building is owned by Champlain College. Across the street, very little appears altered. The exterior of the Ridgewood Apartments at 325 Main Street remains the same. In 1925, the Burlington directory listed 316 Main Street as the Sigma Delta Frat House, which remained in the building until 1939, when Lincoln Apartments, with six units, took over. The Lincoln Apartments remain in the house today. The most exterior alterations have taken place at 300 Main Street, where the door surround and eave brackets were removed when the building turned to condominiums in 1991.
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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 |