476 - 480 North Avenue, photograph by Louis McAllister, 1931

GPS reading: 18T 0640743, UTM 4928255

Taken from the center of North Avenue looking north toward Institution Road, this photograph shows the edge of the Lake View Cemetery property to the left and two very similar houses, 476 and 480 North Avenue, on the right. Built in 1922 or early 1923, these gable-front and wing plan houses were designed as mirror images of each other. The house at 476, has a side entry porch on the south side, 480 has a similar porch on the north side. Just beyond 480, the front of a flat-roofed shed or garage is visible. When these properties first appeared in the City Directory for 1923, Wallace J. Bissonette lived at 476 and David D. Market lived at 480. Eleven years later, when McAllister took this photograph, a retiree named Joseph Terry lived at 476 and Patrick H. Maguire, a bricklayer, lived at 480.

All that can be seen of the cemetery property is a hedge and the iron fence. Lake View Cemetery was developed in the late 1860s in response to a shortage of space at the city’s other burial grounds. Lake View was part of a nation-wide trend toward more park-like cemeteries.[1] The architect, E.C. Ryer was hired to design the cemetery, a design that came to include numerous winding paths, lawns and scenic views.[2] Soon after its dedication in 1871, the cemetery became the most prestigious burial place in the city.[3] The cemetery was extended in 1922 when 16 acres of additional land was acquired to the north.[4]

[1] Douglas S. Terpstra, Howard Mortuary Chapel nomination for the National Register of Historic Places, 1998, section 8, 3-5.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] David J. Blow, A Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods, vol. 1, (Burlington, VT: Chittenden County Historical Society, 1991), 15.

476 - 480 North Avenue, photograph by Tracy N. Martin, 2005

GPS reading: 18T 0640743, UTM 4928255

The contemporary comparison photograph shows that what began as a hedge along the cemetery fence has now grown into trees. The iron fence, however, appears unchanged. The two houses, 476 and 480 North Avenue are both still standing. Both houses have been sided and 476 has had its original widows replaced with smaller, insulated windows. The small garage north of 480 has been replaced by a larger gable-roofed garage or shop. The power poles and lines on this stretch of North Avenue are on the same side of the street and are in close to the same positions as those that appear in the McAllister shot. The tall streetlights, however, are new.