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32
Monroe Street
c. 1840
By Eliot H.
Lothrop
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32 Monroe Street was listed on the Historic Sites and
Structures Survey (HSSS) in 1978. This T shaped house, modified
around the turn of the century with Queen Anne details, was probably
built before 1840. In 1841 John Johnson did a survey of the recently
created "Munroe Street" in which he included the home
of Anson George Bostwick, at this location. At that time the house
was one and a half stories with a kitchen coming off the side
in an L form. The house was subsequently added on to in the back
to form a T, the southern and eastern sections being original.
Johnson wrote about the property:
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In the kitchen is a chimney with an oven
and kettle in an arch and a cooking stove, the pipe of which
enters the chimney in the same room. In the house is one stove
the pipe of which extends through the floor, then through a partition,
and then into a chimney. In another room is a stove, the pipe
of which extends through a partition and then enters the last
mentioned pipe.1 |
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On the corner of Champlain and Monroe Street Johnson shows
a blacksmith shop which probably belonged to Bostwick, a blacksmith
and carriage-maker. One of the oldest houses on Monroe Street,
it was later the residence of the widow, Serepta Bostwick from1869
to 1900. Serepta was either sister-in-law or daughter-in-law of
George Bostwick.2
Inside, the house still has hand hewn floor joists which are only
hewn on one side as well as floorboards cut with a reciprocating
saw.3 The house also has an outbuilding behind it
that appears on the 1853 Presdee & Edwards map and is still
present.4 On that map two identical shapes are shown
end to end behind the house and this appears to be one of them.
On the 1889 Sanborn map, only one of these buildings appears but
with two smaller sheds on either end. The buildings are labeled
as wagon and blacksmith shops.5
The old blacksmith shop.
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1 "Anson George Bostwick"
June 24, 1841. John Johnson papers. Bailey-Howe Library Special
Collections, UVM.
2 Historic Sites & Structures Survey, 1978. #78-A-164. 32
Monroe St. Burlington, VT. Bailey-Howe Library Special Collections,
UVM.
3 Historic Sites & Structures Survey, 1978. #78-A-164. 32
Monroe St. Burlington, VT. Bailey-Howe Library Special Collections,
UVM.
4 1853 Presdee & Edwards map. Burlington, VT. Bailey-Howe
Library Special Collections, UVM.
5 1889 Sanborn Insurance map. Burlington, VT. Bailey-Howe Library
Special Collections, UVM.
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