click for image showing the same angle before construction

This image shows the building occupying 139 to 143 North Champlain Street on the corner of North Street and North Champlain Street, as well as the building on the opposite corner of the street.  The building on the left is a two-story, wood framed commercial and residential structure extending 4 bays on the North Street side.  The first floor has large storefront windows on the North Champlain side and a recessed entrance. Above the second story windows a band of shingles rises to meet the bracket cornice.  The structure first appears on the Sanborn Maps in 1894 and on the 1900 Sanborn Map it is listed as a private school at 143 North Champlain and a barbershop at 141. [1]   A 1905 city directory lists Simon Allen as operating a “confectionary and fruit” store at 143 North Champlain. [2]   Over the years the businesses would come and go and most recently Scrumptious Neighborhood Café came and went.  During the last incarnation of this late 19^th century commercial block extensive work was done to the building’s exterior, including a fresh coat of paint and replacing shingles in the band that runs from the second store window line to the cornice.

            Across the street, on the opposite corner of North Street and North Champlain Street at 106 tto110 North Street, sits a two-story brick building extending ten bays along North Street and at least three bays down North Champlain Street.  The first floor of this building presents two storefronts to North Street with large display windows and various signs advertising things for sale.  The 1889 Sanborn map shows a building at 108 North Street as being two stories and brick veneered. [3]   This may be part of an original block that would later become the building shown in McAllister’s image.  In 1912 the Sanborn Maps show the structure as being occupied by a “flour and seed” store. [4]   A 1901 city directory attaches John Madigan’s name to the structure at number 108 and he would remain constant there through the to end of that decade. [5] Fire would strike this building as well, and on February 12, 1972 the Burlington Free Press reported that a fire started in the doorway leading to the upstairs apartments, spreading to the second story and engulfing the roof. The blaze destroyed the building, which at the time housed Yeaccco’s Restaurant and Pop’s Variety Store, as well as three apartments. [6]