Louis McAllister 1930 (18T 0642282 4927281)

            Looking west down North Street from North Winooski Avenue the Flynn welcome sign invites North Street shoppers and inhabitants to the grand opening of the Flynn Theatre, which in 2005 celebrated its 75th anniversary, dating this photograph to 1930.  The large building on the south side of North Street is 143-147 North Winooski Avenue.  The bottom floor of the large clapboard building has a storefront style window.  Historically the building always had a commercial use and often housed a variety of shops and services for the North Street community, as supported by the conversing two men at the corner of the building 2.

The building at 249 North Street is a front gabled two story building with a second story balconied porch.  During 1930 the building served as a commercial and residential building.  The bottom of the building was the Wright Bookshop 2. 

Across the street are addresses 252-258 and 248.  Each of these addresses was used for commercial and residential space.  The large building housing addresses 252-258 is of the Queen Anne style circa 1898 1.  Its most prominent feature being the corner oriel hanging over the front entrance, perhaps to encourage shoppers to come into a more alluring and inviting shop than that across the street.  The shops housed in the lower section of the building are Kirby’s Radio Repair Shop and a café.  Kirby’s Radio Repair Shop remains at 250 North Street into the 1940’s 2.

Lucy Pittman October 18th, 2005

The current state of the intersection is more residential than it was during the 1930's. Due to the economic decline of the area the empty shop spaces were converted into apartment dwellings.

Today 147 North Winooski Avenue is inhabited by Monaco’s Pizza restaurant.  The building retains the same footprint of the original building 3.  The exterior is comprised of vinyl siding, stucco, and wood paneling.  The bottom story window has changed to a much smaller size.  Unfortunately, the building caught fire in the 1990’s.  Due to alterations as a result of the fire, the building is non-contributing to the Historic District of North Street 1. Apartments exist on the top floor of the building.

249 North Street no longer has an overhanging balcony and instead has a front door overhang. The building is no longer commercial and serves as a mulitple family dwelling.

The addresses of 252-258 North Street have all been converted into apartments. No privately owned businesses inhabit the once commercial block building. Similar to 244 North Street, this building has an irregular wing on the northeast corner, due to the angled turn of North Winooski Avenue after crossing over North Street.