In 1935, new sewers were constructed and pavement surfaces replaced utilizing the mixed-in-place method. The project cost a total of $29, 929.97 with a total of $21, 438.45 allocated for labor via V.E.R.A.[1] A close look at the photograph reveals the following: “V.E.R.A. Proj. No. 402-B-7-10.” V.E.R.A. is one of numerous federal employment prospects aimed at combating unemployment during the Great Depression.[2] The Street Department was frequently targeted to provide jobs en masse. According to the Report of the Street Commissioners in the 1934 Annual Report of Burlington, “The Street Department has fallen, in a large measure, the responsibility during the past year, of carrying on various projects aimed to relieve unemployment.”[3] The report then went on to discuss the strenuous burden the additional responsibility has placed on the Street Department.[4]

The mixed-in-place method, as the name indicates, consists of crushed stone mixed-in-place with asphalt binder; warm, dry weather is ideal for the mixed-in-place method of construction.

On the left-hand side of the photograph, the partially visible structure is part of the estate owned by Mrs. Louise C. Clark. In 1977, an investment firm purchased the Clark Estate and construction began on the Overlake Condominiums, which are present today, in 1980. This particular section is not covered on the Sanburn Insurance Maps until 1960. It is unclear whether the Overlake Condominiums incorporated the vestiges of the structure into the complex or whether the structure was demolished entirely (a more likely scenario).

[1]City of Burlington, Vermont, Sixty-eighth Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont: For the Year Ended December 31, 1932 (Burlington, VT: Lane Press Inc, 1932) ,  224.

[2]City of Burlington, Vermont, Seventy-first Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont: For the Year and One-half ended June 30 (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1936), 298.

[3] William W. Bremer, “Along the ‘American Way’: The New Deal’s Work Relief Programs for the Unemployed,” The Journal of American History 42, no. 3. (1975): 636.

[4] City of Burlington, Vermont, Seventieth Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont: For the Year ended December 31, 1934 (Burlington, VT: Free Printing Press, 1934), 151.

[5] Ibid, 153.

On the left-hand side photograph, the Overlake Condominiums, constructed in 1980, are obscured by various trees and bushes. Still present along each side of the road are the power lines. "No Parking" signs, which are commonplace in Burlington, now line both sides of the road. A concrete sidewalk is now visible on the right-hand side of the road. Longitudinal cracks are evident throughout the road surface.