89 North Champlain Street

c. 1840

 

By Eliot H. Lothrop

89 North Champlain street was listed on the Historic Sites and Structures Survey (HSSS) in 1978. It is adjacent to 83 N. Champlain and currently part of the same apartment complex. It was built around 1840 although the first known resident was James Blethen in 1865. Blethen worked in Lawrence Barne's lumberyards where he was a foreman.1
Part of John Johnson's survey of North Champlain Street

 

 

Although it is not dated, a survey done by John Johnson labeled simply "Champlain Street North of the Glass Factory," shows a house at this location. Like most of Johnson's surveys and maps this was probably done somewhere around 1840. It shows the "L" configuration still present today. In the front section, running lengthwise parallel to Champlain Street, there is a central fireplace open on both sides. In the perpendicular back section, which would have been a kitchen, there is a beehive fireplace shown.2

The house is somewhat irregular for Greek Revival fashion in that it faces North Champlain with its long eaves side. It is a large brick building with pointed windows in the eaves and boxed cornices.

1 Historic Sites & Structures Survey, 1978. #78-A-147. 89 North Champlain St. Burlington, VT. Bailey-Howe Library Special Collections, UVM.
2 "Champlain Street North of the Glass Factory." John Johnson papers. Bailey-Howe Library Special Collections, UVM.