United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service
National Register of Historic Places
Continuation Sheet
Section number 7
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Sigma Phi House, College Street, c1900.
Sigma Phi House is a two story, circa-1900 Colonial Revival building in a Georgian plan, constructed of red brick in a Flemish bond and ornamented by marble quoins. The building, located on the corner of College and South Williams Streets, sits on a foundation of marble blocks which enclose a full basement. A high knee wall separates the second floor windows from a narrow cornice decorated with brackets and dentils. The building is topped with a metal-covered, gambrel roof, from which projects a large central portico, two small dormers on the front and two dormers enclosing doors on the rear. Two large chimneys are on the center roof ridge, one at each end of the building, and a smaller, square, ridge chimney sits to the left of the right dormer. Finally, marble quoins are present at the corners on all four facades.
All windows are 6/1 and evenly spaced unless otherwise noted, and sit on marble sills. There is one window with three horizontal panes, covered by steel bars, in the foundation on each side of the main entrance. Bays one and five on the first floor consist of tall, double leaf windows with four panes in each leaf and topped by a three-paned transom and opening onto a small cast iron balcony. These windows, as well as those in bays one and five on the second story, are each capped with a marble, crenelated molding. Within the portico are two windows and a centered door on the first floor and three windows on the second floor. These windows are capped by flat, splayed lintels with keystones. The entrance rests atop a wide marble porch and consists of a single wooden door, flanked by a 3/4 sidelight on each side. In addition, each sidelight is flanked by two narrow pilasters. A thin cornice appears immediately above the door and supports a fanlight. The portico, supported by four monumental, fluted, wooden Corinthian columns on marble bases, has a large triangular pediment decorated with brackets, dentils and a large, centered lunette.
The east and west sides of the house basically are identical with the exception that a large iron fire escape and a one-room brick addition dominate the east façade, and a portion of the rear porch is visible from the west side. Also, the east façade differs slightly in that an additional window is present in the first floor addition. The foundation windows appear as above. The first and second floor windows are all topped with crenelated moldings. The third floor windows have a bull's eye oculus in each bay. Immediately above these windows is a cornice as described above.
A gambrel roof that intersects with the main roof is present on the rear of the building. This façade has two windows in the foundation, as above. A marble beltcourse runs between the foundation and the first floor. Bay five on the first floor is a double leaf window, as on the front of the building. This window opens onto a one story wooden porch with a railing and four posts supporting the porch roof. The third floor of the building is dominated by a large, centered, bull's eye oculus. To each side of the main block appears a dormer which encloses a full size door, each with a single pane of glass, and each topped by a 3/3 transom. The iron fire escape winds around from the east façade and stretches across the third floor to each of these doors.
Based on information collected from
the Burlington City Directory, G.F. North, a state manager for the Aetna
Life Insurance Company, owned the building from 1900 to 1930. Due to a
lack of information, neither previous owners nor a fixed date of construction
could be ascertained. Since 1930 Sigma Phi, a national fraternity at the
University of Vermont, has occupied the building.