328 - 346 North Avenue, photograph by Louis McAllister, 1934

GPS reading: 18T 0641051, UTM 4927716

This image was taken above Berry Street looking north up North Avenue. The undeveloped area to the right is an escarpment where the railroad passes under North Avenue. Construction on this underpass was completed and the underpass opened in 1861.[1]

In the distance at the left, 311 North Avenue is visible through the trees. Built in 1923, 311 North Avenue was a residence for the chief administrator of the Lake View Sanitarium. Dr. Waldo G. Upton owned and operated the Sanitarium when the house was built and was still in that position eleven years later when McAllister took this picture. A relative, one Hiram E. Upton, physician and instructor at the University of Vermont, was living in the rear of the house at the time.[2]

The cupola of the Lake View Sanitarium, 329 North Avenue, can be seen above 311.  The Sanitarium, built in 1882, was run as a private institution specializing in mild mental illness.[3] It appears as the Lake View Reatreat on the 1890 Hopkins Map of Burlington. Dr. John Murray Clark, founder of the Sanitarium, was a graduate of the University of Vermont College of Medicine.[4]

The house that originally stood at 328 North Avenue is visible in the distance on the right. This large Queen Anne style home was built in or before 1892 and was the long-time residence of Augustus and Mary Barrows.[5] Augustus was a real estate agent with an office at

43 Church Street. He apparently died in 1897 or 1898, as the City Directory for 1898 lists Mary Barrows alone at the address as a “widow of Augustus.” When this photo was taken, George L. Preston, President and General Manager of the Bero Company (a jewelry business), was in residence at this address.[6]

Beyond 328, a bit of the front of the house at 342 North Avenue can be seen. The house may have been built in or around 1922. The first resident identified with this property as a result of this research is a Mrs. Lottie G. Skelton in 1923.[7] Interestingly, in the same year, a Joel W. Skelton was boarding next door at 346 North Avenue.[8] When McAllister photographed this stretch of  North Avenue in 1934, however, the property was vacant.[9]

[1] David J. Blow, A Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods, vol. 3 (Burlington, VT: Chittenden County Historical Society, 2003), 20.

[2] Burlington City Directory, 1934.

[3] Blow, vol. 3, 94.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Burlington City Directory, 1892.

[6] Burlington City Directory, 1934.

[7] Burlington City Directory, 1923.

[8] Burlington City Directory, 1923.

[9] Burlington City Directory, 1934.

328 - 346 North Avenue, photograph by T.N. Martin, 2005

GPS reading: 18T 0641051, UTM 4927716

This view of North Avenue has undergone significant change since McAllister took his photograph. The tall elms that lined the avenue are completely gone. The post fence that once ran along the escarpment is also gone, but has been replaced by thick brush and low trees. There are actually fewer power poles in the contemporary image, but additional street signs. Double yellow line dividing lanes have also appeared. The vegetation along the escarpment completely blocks the view of 311 North Avenue. And, although the Sanitarium (329 North Avenue) was demolished in 1975-76, it is impossible to see that it is gone.[10]

On the right side of the image, the large home that once stood at 328 North Avenue is also gone (demolished in 1957-58) and has been replaced by a service station.[11] Listed first in the 1958 City Directory as Jerry LaPoint’s Gulf Station, it is now a Shell station. Beyond that, the house at 342 still stands, though it is barely visible in this image.

[10] Burlington City Directory, 1975-76.

[11] Burlington City Directory, 1957-1958.