Burlington, Vermont
Early 20th-century Postcard Views

HP 206 Researching Historic Structures & Sites • 2012
Historic Preservation ProgramUniversity of Vermont

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The postcard above was printed in the United States and postmarked September 5th, 1911. The photograph above was taken from a simliar angle, near the southwest corner of Battery Park, on October 25th, 2012.
The postcard above was printed in Germany and postmarked March 19th, 1906. The photograph above was taken from a similar angle just outside the stone-wall in the park on October 25th, 2012.

BATTERY PARK

Battery Park, which according to the Burlington Department of Parks and Recreation website was deeded to the city of Burlington in 1870, is at the northwest part of the city and is bound by what is now Pearl Street to the south, Battery Street to the east, Sherman Street to the north, and the Lake Champlain waterfront to the west. Battery Park is named for its connection to a small battle that occurred with the British during the War of 1812. The park had a history as a military camp during the war, and American gunners and ships anchored in the Burlington Bay defended Battery Park against an attack by the British on August 3, 1813.[1]

Clear references to Battery Park as a recreation space in Burlington however, appear in the Rutland Daily Globe as far back as 1873.[2] As a part of its early history, in 1876, Burlington's public exercises commemorating America's centennial anniversary were held in the park, which was decorated with flags and banners and filled with the most important Burlingtonians of the day, including the present and former mayors, clergy men, and university personnel.[3] The cannon visible in both the postcard and the recent photo were sent by the secretary of the Navy to Burlington in 1895 in commemoration of Battery Park's military history.[4]

This photo postcard, which was printed around the turn of the century, and is likely a view of the park within a just a few years of the creation of the public parks commission in Burlington.[5] The first president of the Parks Commission was W.J. Van Patten, and during his administration, which lasted until 1918,[6] there were slow but steady improvements to Battery Park each year. These include a flagpole in 1904, grading of the land from 1905 to 1907, tree planting and the installation of electric lighting in 1908, fountains in 1909, drinking bubblers and reseeding of grass in 1911, a new sidewalk in 1912, steel benches in 1913, and a playground apparatus installed in 1914.[7] None of these improvements save land grading are apparent in this postcard.

The buildings visible in the background of the cannon and street-view postcard are all residential dwellings in the typical urban tenement fashion of the period, and the most visible of which are those at the address at 7 North Avenue, 22-28 Battery Place, and 30-32 Battery Place.[8] This can be inferred because most tenants seem to have been of a temporary or semi-permanent nature, and most had occupations listed in the city directories such as carpenter, laborer, and barber.[9] One notable resident of 7 North Avenue at this time was Joseph I. Fugere, a carpenter.[10] Fugere later went on to become a leader of the consolidated labor union and a Democratic political personality in Burlington.[11]

Van Patten's term as the city parks commission president had been extended a number of times, however it was due to expire in 1918, and in that year the position was passed to D.C. Hawley a longtime fellow commissioner.[12] Due to the purchase and development of the park at North Beach, work at the Battery Park remained at maintenance level throughout the 1920s.

The first development to Battery Park's landscape in many years came in the fall of 1928 when the commission, under direction of Chairman Thomas F. Conlon and superintendent George P. Burns erected a new bandstand dedicated to longtime local bandleader George Sherman.[13] The city also renamed Battery Place (the northern most boundary street of Battery Park) to Sherman Street after Sherman around this time.[14] Also in 1928, the commission began developing safety measures for children using playgrounds at Battery Park with growing concerns of the danger of auto traffic.[15] In 1929, the commission eloquently referred to Battery Park as "the front yard of our park system",[16] and it was clear by the time the Great Depression hit that the front yard needed some serious yard work. Little did they know then, but the timing almost couldn't have been better.

A major change to this landscape occurred again in 1929 when Brewer Brothers autos first appeared as the occupant of 1-9 North Avenue.[18] This large brick garage took up the entire corner lot west of North Avenue, and replaced the tenement apartments at 7 and 9 North Avenue.[19] Luckily Gilbert and Edward Brewer's business did survive the Depression years and the Brewer Bros. ran their business for nearly forty years at 1 North Ave. The Brewer Garage, which was an automotive retailer and repairing garage primarily servicing Plymouth cars and eventually Mack Trucks, worked from this site until closing in 1970.[20]

In 1930 the parks commission provided funds for the widening of the roadway at Battery Park in order to provide more parking.[21] However, as the early years of the Depression dragged on, and revenue was low, most labor in the department was focused on removing dead trees.[22] Then in 1936, bolstered by the Federal government's Works Progress Administration program, the landscape at Battery Park was rapidly developed. In 1936 alone, a new roadway with curbs and gutters, a retaining wall around the sidewalk, and all new interior sidewalks were all built in the park.[23] The W.P.A. program continued for two more years and in that time a stone-wall was built extending north from the stonewall seen in the 1911 postcard and around the outside embankment facing Lake Champlain. Also in that year new lights and poles we're added.[24]

1942 was an important year for the parks commission in the city of Burlington as it marked the beginning of Superintendent William L. Hammond's long administration. That year also more somberly marks the first mention by the commission of the dreaded Dutch elm disease, which had been spread by the invasive elm leaf beetle for sometime.[25] Many of the trees visible in the early photo-postcards of Burlington are of the elm variety. A thirty plus year struggle to save the trees in Burlington, largely spearheaded by the parks department, and was ultimately futile. None of the trees in the 2012 photograph are American elms; many of the trees in Burlington today are maples that were replanted from a replacement tree farm in Essex Junction in the 1970s.[26]


1942, a landmark year in American history, marks the first full year of American involvement in the Second World War. That year, three of the original four cannons in the park were hauled off to a scrap drive on November 18th due to of a desperate wartime need for scrap metal.[27] The cannon visible in both our postcard and the modern photo of Battery Park is the only one that still remains today. In 1944, as war in Europe and the Pacific was drawing to a close, Battery Park became one site in a citywide program of supervised recreation at playgrounds in parks across Burlington. This supervised recreation program seems to have been popular and lasted in one form or another for many years.[28]

As the World War II finally ended and the troops returned home, development at Battery Park seems to have faded from the memory of the parks commissioners. This is perhaps due to the fact that, as America's war abroad was winding down, the parks commission's war with Dutch elm disease was just beginning to heat up. In 1947 the commission removed thirty trees city wide,[29] and by 1949 elms suffered more than any time since the onset of the disease in 1942.[30] By 1950 the parks commission had a new weapon on its hands, DDT, and the now controversial pesticide was sprayed consistently across the city for the next 15 years.[31]

Most of the money the parks commission spent in regards to Battery Park in the decade following the war was doubtlessly in the spraying, removal, and replacement of trees, as well as the supervised recreation programs, which were ongoing. Through the 1950s, Hammond spent much of his time requesting the city for project funding, including three years of requests for a replacement of the north wall at Battery Park in 1954, 1955, and 1956.[32] At some point between 1942 and 1960 another major change occurred when the dwelling on the lot at 22-28 Sherman Street was demolished and paved over as a parking lot.[33]


In 1961, both Hammond and Bernard J. Leddy retired marking the end of their twenty and fourteen respective years in the service of Burlington's parks. By this time the cost of tree maintenance had nearly doubled from $7,754 to $14,098 over just a two-year period.[34] In 1962 hit with budget cuts and the ballooning costs of tree maintenance, the parks commission ended supervised recreation in parks around the city.[35] In 1965, the commission addressed the "dormant phase" Burlington parks had been in for many years,[36] but the focus remained on North Beach Park and Ethan Allen Park. It was not until 1969 that Battery Park saw new development in the form of new playground equipment.[37]


During the 1960s and 1970s various employees at UVM, including Vera Foss a longtime secretary in the agriculture department, were the primary occupants of 30-32 Sherman Street.[38] In 1971, the Acme Paint and Glass company moved into the now vacant Brewer Garage at 1 North Ave.[39]

In 1979, Battery Park saw a violent summer as youth and adults clashed during some "Saturday night riots" in Battery Park, and there were various arrests and injuries on both sides.[40] After came an effort to ban open containers of alcohol in the park and contain the "criminal element" through law enforcement. Still, by 1981 locals were continuing complaints about the sale of illegal drugs in the park. In an attempt to control "inappropriate public behavior" the commission closed the park to traffic, which, according to the city reports, did have some success.[41] In 1984, development at Battery Park resumed once again as the playground apparatus was updated, and a totem pole statue was erected in the northeast corner of the park commemorating Vermont's Native American heritage.[42]

Throughout the 1990s the department of parks and recreation, as it is now called, had fairly limited resources for development and most money spent was just on routine maintenance and upkeep in Battery Park.[43] In October 1995 the Burlington Police Department moved to their current home at the former Brewer Bros. garage facility at 1 North Avenue.[44]

Notes:

1. "Parks and Bikepath", http://www.enjoyburlington.com/Parks/BatteryPark.cfm


2. "Burlington", Rutland Daily Globe, May 22nd 1873. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84022473/1873-05-22/ed-1/seq-3/


3. "The Public Exercises", Burlington Weekly Free Press, July 7th 1876. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86072143/1876-07-07/ed-1/seq-2/


4. Vermont Phoenix, March 1st 1895. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn98060050/1895-03-01/ed-1/seq-1/


5. Thirty-Eighth Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont (Burlington: Burlington Free Press Association, 1902), 203.


6. The Fifty Fourth Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont (Burlington: Burlington Free Press Printing co., 1918), 58.


7. The Fortieth Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont (Burlington: Burlington Free Press Association, 1904), 36-7;The Forty-First Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont (Burlington: Burlington Free Press Association, 1905), 2; The Forty-Second Annual Report of the City of Burlington Vermont (Burlington: Burlington Free Press Association, 1906), 134-5; The Forty-Third Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont (Burlington: Burlington Free Press Association, 1907), 127; The Forty-Fourth Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont (Burlington: Burlington Free Press Printing Company, 1908), 113; The Forty-Seventh Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont (Burlington: Burlington Free Press Printing Company, 1911), 53; The Forty-Eighth Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont (Burlington: Burlington Free Press Printing Company, 1912), 73; The Forty-Ninth Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont (Burlington: Burlington Free Press Printing Company, 1913), 53; The Fiftieth Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont (Burlington: Burlington Free Press Printing Company, 1914), 28.


8. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Burlington, Vermont, Sanborn Co., 1900.


9. Burlington City Directory including Winooski for 1901 (L.P. Waite & Co.,1901), 121, 153, 269, 270; Burlington City Directory including Winooski for 1906 (L.P. Waite & Co., 1906), 110, 130,143, 220.


10. Burlington City Directory including Winooski for 1906, 130.


11."City News", Burlington Weekly Free Press, June 6th 1912. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86072143/1912-06-06/ed-1/seq-5/; "Fourth Ward Democrats", Burlington Weekly Free Press, February 24th, 1916, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86072143/1916-02-24/ed-1/seq-16/


12. 1918 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Burlington Free Press Printing co, 1913), 8; 1907 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington VT, Burlington Free Press Printing co, 1907), 7; 1918 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co, 1918), 58.


13. 1928 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington VT: Free Press Printing Co, 1928), 58.


14. Manning's Burlington Winooski and Essex Junction (Vermont) Directory for 1930, (Springfield Mass, H.A. Manning Co., 1930), 385.


15. 1928 Burlington City Annual Report, 65-8.


16. 1929 Burlington City Annual Report (Free Press Printing Co, 1929), 153.


17. Manning's Burlington Winooski and Essex Junction (Vermont) Directory For Year Beginning August 1929 (Springfield, Mass.: H.A. Manning Co., 1929), 58.


18. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Burlington, Sanborn Co., 1935.


19. Manning's Burlington Winooski and Essex Junction (Vermont) Directory for 1930 (Springfield, Mass.: H.A. Manning Co., 1930), 495; Manning's Burlington City Directory for 1961 (Greenfield, Mass.: H.A. Manning Co, 1961), 55, 258; Manning's Burlington City Directory for 1969, (Greenfield, Mass.: H.A. Manning Co, 1969), 33, 293, 639.


20. Manning's Burlington City Directory for 1971-72 (Greenfield, Mass.: H.A. Manning Co 1971), 662.


21. 1930 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co, 1930), 155.


22. 1932 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co, 1932), 154-5.


23. 1936 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co, 1936), 216-7.


24. 1938 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co, 1938), 145.


25. 1942 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co.,1942, 129-36.


26. 1973 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co. 1973), 44


27. 1943 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1943), 132; David E. Robinson and Mary Ann DiSpirito, Burlington Images of America (Charlston, SC: Arcadia Publishing,1997).


28. 1944 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1944), 125-9.


29. 1947 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1947), 138.


30. 1949 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1949), 121.


31. 1950 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co, 1950), 118.


32. 1956 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT; Free Press Printing Co, 1956), 121.


33. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Burlington, Sanborn Co., 1960.


34. 1961 Burlington City Annual Reports (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1961), 121.


35. 1949 Burlington City Annual Reports (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1949), 123.


36. 1965 Burlington City Annual Reports (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1965), 125.


37. 1969 Burlington City Annual Reports (Free Press Printing Co., 1969), 128.


38. Manning's Burlington City Directory (Greenfield, MA: H.A. Manning Co., 1961) 550, 227,317; Manning's Burlington City Directory (Greenfield, MA: H.A. Manning Co., 1969), 664, 635; Manning's Burlington City Directory (Greenfield, MA: H.A. Manning Co.) 1974, 430, 260.


39. Manning's Burlington City Directory (Greenfield, MA: H.A. Manning Co., 1971), 662.


40. 1979 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1979), 43.


41. 1981 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1981), 55.


42. 1984 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1984), 57.


43. 1992 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1992), 78; Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1996), 48.


44. 1996 Burlington City Annual Report (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1996), 54.

By Daniel Leckie