Fig. 10. Mead Manufacturing Company Advertisement. From the Burlington City Directory of 1906 (Burlington, VT: L.P. Waite and CO., 1906).
The company changed ownership at least one time. In the Burlington city directory of 1929, the company is described as Mead Mfg Co. (Inc), workingman's garments, with Charles L. Woodbury as president, treasurer and manager of the company. At the beginning of the 30's it changed the focus towards manufacturing of hunting and sporting clothing.32 The office was located in the Hotel Vermont. By the end of World War II the company eventually closed its doors with more than forty years of manufacturing history behind it. The description of the building is already included in the Crystal Confectionary section.
Notes (Mead Manufacturing Company)
31. Burlington Weekly Free Press, February 20, 1902, 8.
32. Manning's Burlington Winooski and Essex Junction Directory of 1933 (Springfield, MA: H.A. Manning Co., 1933), 128.
After a couple of years of vacancy the space, which used to house the Crystal Confectionary Company, was taken by a new company in 1936. The Green Mountain Distillery Company (Inc.) was run by president Frank H. Mahoney, former vice-president and general-manager of New England Distiller Inc. Director William Knox, the inventor of Green Mountain Liquor, Vice President Joseph F. Dufresner, Treasurer Ralph G. Brown and Secretary Raymond A. Contois also took part in this new enterprise.33
The idea behind the company was to start a new distillery company in Burlington. Although Burlington had different distilleries during the early years, all of them disappeared over the years when Prohibition took effect from 1920 until 1933. When the Green Mountain Distillery started it was the only distillery in Burlington. The five-story building was reconstructed to install a modern distilling plant as can be seen in the pictures below.
All these products were to be made from maple sugar. The idea of creating an alcoholic beverage from maple sap was not entirely new, but the Green Mountain Distillery managed to distill the Maple syrup to create liquor, which was a unique process.34 It was a daring concept to produce a global product from specific local resources and it was praised in different news articles outside the state.35
To facilitate the distillery process of rum and gin a 30 by 50 feet brick plant was to be constructed in the rear area of the warehouse in 1938. The rear plant is not visible anymore because it had to make way for a parking lot. This plant was erected to produce rum and gin in addition to the maple liquor and liqueur already produced in the main factory building.36 Six large fermenting tanks had a combined capacity of 24.000 gallons. 3500 barrels of maple liquor could be stored in the factory, to let the maple liquor age for at least six months. The same process is used for making rum.
As business gradually improved for the distillery, the Second World War had a severe detrimental effect on this small enterprise. Shortages of labor, lack of transportation and raw materials, and wartime rationing caused the closure of a lot of distilleries in America.37 Green Mountain Distillery was one of them. In early 1942 another group of investors, consisting Lawrence F. O'Toole, and Harry, Lawrence and Samuel Singal (three brothers) bought the company and created the Lawrence Distilling Company. They managed to get a lucrative contract to produce alcohol for the government, which enabled them to create a profitable business.38
Notes (Green Mountain Distillery)
33. Manning's Burlington, Winooski, and Essex Junction Directoryof 1938 (Springfield, MA: H.A. Manning Co., 1938), 88.
34. Mida's Criterion, November 1936, 59.
35. The Saturday Evening Post, September 16, 1938. (Indianapolis, Indiana: Curtis Publishing Company).
36. The Burlington Free Press, February 2 1938 (Burlington, VT).
37. Lilian Baker Carlisle,"Green Mountain Distillery: The Saga of a Vermont Industry that almost made it", Chittenden County Historical Society Bulletin (Burlington, VT: Summer 2003), 6.
38. Carlisle, "Green Mountain Distillery."
The carriage factory of Smith William & Co., manufacturers and dealers in light carriages and sleighs, started their business on 153 St. Paul Street, with their factory and office in the block northwest on the corner of St. Paul and King Street around 1886.39 The venture was a combined effort of William Smith, Alex Deyette, and John H. Tuttle. Tuttle stepped out of the business pretty quickly to start his own business in carriage manufacturing and blacksmithing on 172 St. Paul Street from 1895 onwards.40 The original factory is not visible anymore, because of demolition and construction at the site throughout the years.
The manufacturing areas were modest in size, mostly built of wood frame construction. At the turn of the century the company moved its business into a newly constructed building across the street on 164-168 St. Paul Street.41 The building is still standing and is a three-story square red-brick building on the corner of St. Paul and King Street. William Smith carried on the business himself throughout the new century but passed away in the 1910's and was followed up by his son-in-law, George E. Ferrin.42
Eventually the company stopped its business in 1918. The invention of automobiles and their affordability over time made the carriage more obsolete.
The building was then used shortly as a toy factory under the name W.C. Hoag & Company.43 The Hoag Company was first based on 220 Church Street. A skating rink fire in the same block also destroyed the factory. William C. Hoag, the owner of the company, immediately purchased in 1917 the building from George E. Ferrin, the administrator of the Smith estate.44 The company consisted of William C. and Ashley E. Hoag and W.E. Buxton, manufacturer of toys and novelties.45
In May 1920, part of the factory wall collapsed, which tragically killed a man and a child. Because of this accident, stricter regulations were adopted by the city afterwards regarding the amount of weight put on floors and materials used in construction.46 This suggests that too much heavy weight was put on a deficient structure. The city officials mentioned pier buckling.47 One of the brick piers settled into the soil, which increased the weight on the other piers.48 Damage on the property was immense and the garage next to the building was entirely destroyed.49 Part of the walls kept standing and were incorporated into the rebuilt structure, built in the same year. Steel columns with concrete foundations had to provide better structural support. Frank L. Austin was the architect for the new building, which was made with help of the Burlington-based Spear Brothers Company. With the new building, the internal garage was removed to create one open space.
By 1923 the toy factory closed and was turned into a wholesale store for Hagar Hardware & Paint Co. (Inc.), which sold hardware, paints, roofing, and auto supplies. Their retail store was on 98 Church Street.
What is left though is a very well preserved historic building, which represents housing for smaller manufacturing companies to the turn of the 20th century. The building is a fine example of an early 20th century manufacturing building. Most parts of the walls originate from 1900, but because of the accident in the early 1900's the internal structuring and the northern part of the wall is probably from 1920. The removal of the garage to place windows is part of the explanation. The three-story red sand-struck brick building stands prominently on the northeast corner of St. Paul and King Streets. The building is similar in size, materials and architectural features of adjacent buildings in the neighborhood.50
Notes (Smith Carriage Factory/ W.C. Hoag Toy Company)
39. Burlington City Directory, 1886-7, 203.
40. Ibid., 1895, 256.
41. Ibid., 1900, 235.
42. Burlington Weekly Free Press, October 18, 1917, 11.
43. Burlington City Directory, 1918, 417.
44. Burlington Weekly Free Press, October 18, 1917, 11.
45. Burlington City Directory, 1922, 198.
46. Burlington Weekly Free Press, September 9, 1920, 8.
47. Ibid., May 27, 1920, 9.
48. Ibid., May 27, 1920, 5.
49. Ibid., May 6, 1920, 7.
50. Inventory National Register of Historic Places Survey (Burlington, VT), 1987.
The firm of O.L. Hinds Company started out in 1895 with a factory in Richford, Vermont that was built in 1901 with their business offices in St. Albans, Vermont.51 The head of the company was O.L. Hinds. In 1902 the company was persuaded to move part of the company to the city by exempting it from taxes for the duration of ten years. It was the same tactic that had been used to attract the Mead Company. The company was planning to start a factory with about fifty machines and was capable of attracting around sixty workers.52 The biggest problem with the other factory was that it could not attract enough workers to expand the company. The company also consolidated with the Burlington Shirt Company, which was located on the corner of St. Paul and College Streets, east of the Wells & Richardson offices, and the company was made into a stock concern.53 The location of the O.L. Hinds factory in Burlington was to be on the northwest corner of King and St. Paul Streets, and construction was started at the end of the summer of 1902. The house that was located on the land purchased was moved to a vacant lot behind the armory in the same block.54 The company existed for more than forty years, when eventually before the breakout of World War II the company closed down.
The building is now being used as apartments and has been modified, but the exterior has been well preserved. The old factory as it stands now is a three-story red brick building with a basement that is exposed on the southern part of the building due to the slope of the sidewalk. The east front façade is 12 bays wide in which the segmented-arched windows are paired up in groups of three, each placed in a slight recessed arch that reaches from the first to the third floor. On the first floor three large segmental arched windows are placed on the left of the entrance, which is placed on the right side of the façade. The brick wall has a red coarse stone foundation with smaller windows to bring light into the basement. The building has been preserved well, with only a large modification placed on the former roof of the building to accomodate housing.
Notes (O.L. Hinds Overall Company)
51. Burlington Weekly Free Press, May 15, 1902, 8.
52. Ibid., May 15, 1902, 8.
53. Ibid., May 15, 1902, 5.
54. Ibid., September 4, 1902, 5.