United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service
National Register of Historic Places
Continuation Sheet
Section number 7
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UVM Communications, 86 South Williams St., c1900.
Facing west on the residential street of South Williams, just north of College St., this two-story, eaves front Colonial Revival, Georgian plan, wood-frame house with clapboard siding was built c1900. Also known as the Booth house, it stretches five bays with a porte-cochere to the left (north) and a one-story addition adding three bays to the right (south). The main entrance is through a central doorway at the top of seven concrete steps, tapering in width as they rise, and under a c.1920 porch, which expands the full length of the front facade, including the porte-cochere and addition to the right (south).The slate gable roof has a moderate pitch, rising to a ridgeline bedecked with two brick, corbelled chimneys, one on the far right at the gable-end eaves, and the other just right-of-center. A central, grand gable projects at the eaves line, forming a full pediment with closely-spaced modillions and containing a lunette.
The exposed foundation, which is rough-cut, coursed quartzite, is hidden on the front facade by the latticework skirting the porch. The concrete steps rising to the porch are splayed, tapering in width as they rise with short railing walls of rough-cut, coursed quartzite capped with cast-concrete coping. The one-story porch roof supports are slender Tuscan columns, in groups of one, two and three, with a balustrade of turned balusters between each grouping. The cornice of the porch roof contains closely-spaced modillions. The porch extends to include the porte-cochere, which has a shallow hipped roof, supported by four groups of Tuscan columns on pedestals of rough-cut, coursed quartzite. Across the tongue-in-groove wood porch floor from the steps rising from the lawn is the central, paneled main entrance door with three-quarter sidelights.
The windows are 6/6 double-hung and flanked by wooden, louvered shutters, with the exception of the one-story enclosed porch to the right (south), which has full-length sliding glass doors.
On the left side (north façade), one finds that the house is two bays deep, the first story having 8/8 double-hung windows and the second story having 6/6 double-hung windows. There has been a very large, one-story, projecting bay addition (c.1925) to the lower left corner of this facade. The cornice extends fully across this gable end forming a full pediment, which contains closely spaced modillions and a Palladian window.
On the right side (south façade), which is two bays deep, the first floor has been obscured by the porch enclosure with full-length, single-pane windows. The gable forms a pediment, which is intersected by the end chimney. The chimney is left-of-center, flanked by a quarter-circle windows and a doorway leading to the metal fire escape steps.
The rear of the building has several layers of additions to the main block, lending to an irregular, "piled-on" character.
Referred to as "new" in 1900, the
Booth House was the home of UVM professors until 1913 when purchased by
Col. E. J. Booth. John E. Booth, the grandson of the founder of Booth Lumber
Co., moved into the home in 1916. John E. Booth became president of Booth
Lumber Co., the largest and most prosperous lumber yard in Burlington,
in 1925. It is at this time when the porch and porte-cochere were added
to the house, with remodeling continuing from 1920-1926. John E. Booth
was a collector of plants rare in Vermont and cultivated 30 Katsurn trees
at the southern edge of the lot, as well as other species of trees including
Dawn Redwood, flowering dogwood and saucer magnolias. The home stayed in
the Booth family until 1977 when purchased by the University of Vermont
and subsequently used as the Alumni House.