This southwesterly view down North Winooski Avenue in the fall of 1931 clearly illustrates the need for the road resurfacing projects underway at that time. It’s been two years since the streetcars pulled out of the old trolley barn just visible on the left edge of the frame, and in the meantime, asphalt was simply applied over the top of the old tracks. The patchy and crumbly composition of this macadam bandaid is clearly visible running down the middle of the street, and potholes have begun to spread like a cancer throughout it.

Parked in front of the old trolley barn, which Burlington Rapid Transit and Vermont Transit Co. converted into a bus barn, is one of the VT Co. buses bearing the words “Montreal . Burlington . Boston” along its roof. In 1929, BRT Co. deployed its fleet of buses for intra-urban service in Burlington, Winooski and Essex Junction.[1] But that same year, BRT Co. bought Yellow Bus Line, which at the time was a successful long-distance carrier based in Barre, Vt., and relocated it to their North Winooski Avenue bus facility, renaming it Vermont Transit Co.[2] The advertisements on the particular bus in view for travel to far away cities such as Boston, clearly indicate that this particular bus was operated by VT Co., and not BRT Co.

Number 329 rises up behind the VT Co. bus. In 1931, Mrs. Emma Mason and John Casper were listed as residing there.[3]

Across the street, stands a two-story building with a shop front in the ground floor. An large advertisement for Beech-Nut Chewing Tobacco on the side of Abraham’s Bargain Store at #324[4] tells passerby that its “Good Leaf Only” tobacco. Above the store lived Morris Harris.

One door up at #328 lived Hyman Abrams, and a local Rabbi, Sammuel Saltsburg, who presided over the H. Adam Synagogue on Hyde Street.[5] The house, as well as its neighbor #336, are good examples of the type of simple Queen Anne style Victorian homes being built in this neighborhood in the late 1800s. Notice the patterns in the slate roof and the contrasting painted shingles and decorative truss in the gable end.

Projecting into the right edge of the frame is #336, the single-family home of Isaac Perelman and the location of his real estate business.[6]