St. Johnsbury Historic District

Historic district in Vermont, United States

United States historic place

St. Johnsbury Historic District

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

U.S. Historic district

Civil War Memorial

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Location| U.S. 5 and U.S. 2, St. Johnsbury, Vermont
Coordinates| 44°25′6″N 72°1′2″W﻿ / ﻿44.41833°N 72.01722°W﻿ / 44.41833; -72.01722
Area| 3 acres (1.2 ha)
Architectural style| Mid 19th Century Revival, Late Victorian
NRHP reference No.| 80000424[1]
Added to NRHP| April 17, 1980

The St. Johnsbury Historic District encompasses much of the historic civic and commercial center of St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Representing a significant expansion of the Railroad Street Historic District and the St. Johnsbury Main Street Historic District, it captures the historical tension and competition between Main Street and Railroad Street for primacy as the town's most important civic and commercial areas. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.[1]

## Description and history

[edit]

The town of St. Johnsbury was settled in the late 18th century, and was at first organized primarily on a high terrace above the Passumpsic River, where its Main Street is now located. This area developed as a residential and civic hub, with some commercial development, in the first half of the 19th century. The arrival of railroad lines in the 19th century prompted major development in the "lower district", now Railroad Street, as a commercial center organized around the railroads. During the second half of the 19th century this development competed with Main Street for economic primacy, and elements of a commercial corridor began to take grow on Eastern Avenue, the main through road between Main and Railroad Streets. Railroad Street benefited from the ongoing railroad activity, while Main Street benefited in no small measure from the activities of the Fairbanks family, whose Fairbanks Scale Works, located northwest of Main Street on the banks of the Sleepers River, was the town's largest employer.[2]

The historic district is geographically roughly an H shape, reflecting its historical development. The eastern leg is Railroad Street, running north-south from Portland Street to Depot Square. This area includes the Railroad Street Historic District, centered on the junction of Railroad and Eastern, but is primarily extended to the north. The western leg is on Main Street, extending from Mt. Pleasant Street in the north to Vine Street in the south. These are joined by the main east-west through corridor, which includes Eastern Avenue between Main and Railroad, and extends west of Main on Western Avenue to Barker Street. The Railroad Street area has a fine collection of late 19th and early 20th-century commercial architecture, while the Main Street area is more diverse, with a large measure of housing and civic buildings. Fully one quarter of the buildings on Main Street were designed by a single architect, Lambert Packard, who also designed some of the buildings on Railroad Street and Eastern Avenue. The Main Street area is also home to two of St. Johnsbury's best-known institutions, the St. Johnsbury Atheneum, a National Historic Landmark, and the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium; both of these were created through the philanthropy of the Fairbanks family.[2]

Selected buildings in the district:

* Landry Block (1879), 103-107 Railroad Street, Italianate;[2]
* Odd Fellows Block (1874), 109 Railroad St., Second Empire in style, designed by Lambert Packard;[2]
* Masonic Temple (1912), Eastern Avenue, Neo-Classic-Revival in style, designed by F.A. Walker. Has two monumental Tuscan Doric pilasters supporting a full Doric entablature with dentils and modillions; has a pedimented portico.[2]

## See also

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* National Register of Historic Places listings in Caledonia County, Vermont

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. ^ a b c d e Courtney Fisher (May 6, 1979). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: St. Johnsbury Historic District". National Park Service. Retrieved January 11, 2017. with photos from 1980

## External links

[edit]

Media related to St. Johnsbury Historic District at Wikimedia Commons

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National Register of Historic Places in Caledonia County, Vermont

National
Historic
Landmark|

* St. Johnsbury Athenaeum

Districts|

* Barnet Center Historic District
* Darling Estate Historic District
* Downtown Hardwick Village Historic District
* William and Agnes Gilkerson Farm
* Hardwick Street Historic District
* Maple Street–Clarks Avenue Historic District
* New Discovery State Park
* Peacham Corner Historic District
* Railroad Street Historic District
* Ricker Pond State Park
* St. Johnsbury Federal Fish Culture Station
* St. Johnsbury Historic District
* St. Johnsbury Main Street Historic District
* Stillwater State Park
* Thresher Mill
* West View Farm
* Wheelock Common Historic District

Buildings|

* Benoit Apartments
* Building at 143 Highland Avenue
* Burklyn Hall
* Caledonia No. 9 Grange Hall
* Christian Union Society Meetinghouse
* Cobb School
* Cote Apartment House
* Darling Inn
* J. R. Darling Store
* District 6 School House
* Elkins Tavern
* Fairbanks Museum
* Franklin Fairbanks House
* Alice Lord Goodine House
* Grouselands
* Lee Farm
* Lind Houses
* Lower Waterford Congregational Church
* Caleb H. Marshall House
* Mathewson Block
* McIndoes Academy
* Methodist Episcopal Church
* Morency Paint Shop and Apartment Building
* Riverside
* Shearer and Corser Double House
* Josiah and Lydia Shedd Farmstead
* Stannard Schoolhouse
* Phineas Thurston House
* Toll House
* Union Meeting House
* Whitehill House
* Whittier House

Structures|

* Bradley Covered Bridge
* Burrington Covered Bridge
* Centre Covered Bridge
* Chamberlin Mill Covered Bridge
* Greenbanks Hollow Covered Bridge
* Old Schoolhouse Bridge

See also: National Register of Historic Places listings in Caledonia County, Vermont and List of National Historic Landmarks in Vermont
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