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280 North Winooski Avenue pre-1853   By Eric L. Martin

This house's exact date of construction is unknown, but its footprint and the existence of a similar structure at this location on the 1877 "Birds-Eye View of Burlington," indicates it probably dates from before 1853. The first deed records Elias Lyman, who lived on Pearl Street at the time, selling the property to John Norton in 1868 for $200; Norton, a carter, probably rented this house prior to owning it as the 1865 Burlington City Directory lists him residing on "Winooski Ave. north of North Street" (1). After obtaining the property at an unspecified date from Eli Chittenden, grandson of Vermont Governor Martin Chittenden, Orville Sinclair's estate sold the property to Peter McGettrick in 1884 for $600 (2). McGettrick worked for a time as a gardener for Horace J. Brookes at his home at 262 South Prospect Street; after McGettrick's death around 1888, his widow, Mary, and then his daughter, Margaret Ann, continued to reside here until 1939, when Leo and Alice Barlow purchased the house (3). Over the next thirteen years a succession of people owned the property for short periods; Herman and Allen Machanic, of the neighboring Vermont Cleansing Company, purchased it in 1944, followed by Holger C. Peterson in 1946, Charles H. and Mildred E. Durivage in 1947, and Foster J. and Lorraine H. Graham in 1952 (4). By 1960 a one-story frame addition had been constructed to the rear of the home. For over twenty years John, an employee of Burlington Electric Light Company, and Lorraine Graham lived here until selling the property in 1984 to real estate investor Clark W. Hinsdale, Jr. for $60,000 (5). The property has since been vacant; Hinsdale is currently planning to demolish the structure in order to increase the size of the surrounding parking lots.