What still stands from between 1869 and 1877 in Burlington, Vermont?

14 Decatur Street

This two-story clapboard house, sitting on the north side of Decatur Street, hints at a Queen Anne Style, with the tower, the porch with turned posts and decorative moldings.  turned posts on the porch and decorative moldings.  The house features one-over-one, double hung sash windows, clapboard siding, stone foundation, slate roof, and a small central chimney.  The entrance is on the right side of the front facade, accessible via the front porch and next to a large bay window.  The roof on the front, protruding gable has raking eaves, while the roof of the large block is hipped.  Two additions protrude from the rear, the first being a two-story, pent roof block spanning the width of the house, and the second a smaller, one-story block extending from the west corner. 

The Queen Anne style did not gain popularity until the 1880s and 1890s, however, comparing the footprints reveals the tower, the most telling Queen Anne feature, was a later addition and first appears on the 1894 Sanborn map.  The house appears to be original, though, as the footprint on the 1885 Sanborn map matches the 1894 footprint, except without the tower, and the 1877 Birds-Eye map shows a gable front block, with another block on the easterly facade and a rear addition.  The front porch also appears for the first time on the 1894 map, except only at the entrance.  It is shown extended across the facade on the 1900 map.  The addition of the porch also adds to the Queen Anne appearance.  The addition extending off the back western corner first appears on the 1877 map, and the larger, pent roof addition appears on the 1894 map, widening part of the first addition and extending the length of the house.  Even without the tower, the house is very different in size and massing than many others in the Old North End, particularly on Decatur Street.  

Peter Vincent, a Canadian immigrant, and his wife Josephine, were most likely the first inhabitants, in 1871.¹  Peter worked as a saddler and then a painter and remained until 1876.²  Damase Limoge, with the Porter Manufacturing Company, appears in 1888, and originally lived on Bright Street, and most likely updated the building to the Queen Anne style.³  It is unknown who inhabited the building in the interim.  The Limoge family occupied this property until roughly 1954.⁴

See house on 1877 Birds-Eye Map