205-207 N. Winooski Avenue

This two-story, gable front house sits midway along the west side of North Winooski Avenue, between Crombie and Decatur Streets.  This house has undergone significant changes and is currently a conglomeration of many different types of additions.  The house features one-over-one, double hung sash windows, aluminum siding with stone covering the lower front facade, stone foundation, slate roof with raking eaves, and two chimneys, one central and the other on the back gable end.  The main entrance is found in the center bay of the front facade.  The original main block was a plain, rectangular, gable front structure.  A two story addition covers the front of the house, the bottom story is stone with, originally, two large plate glass windows flanking the door, and the second story has a band of windows across.  A single-story addition protrudes from the southerly side, near the front, and a two story pent roof addition, extends of the southwest corner;  both the additions have entrances and bands of windows. 

Behind the multiple additions, the simple main, gable front block is characteristic of the 1870s, with a slate roof, raking eaves, and stone foundation.  

The 1978 Sanborn map reveals the front addition, but the latter two additions do not yet appear.  There was, on the 1978 Sanborn map, a porch extending along the southerly facade instead.  The 1877 Birds-Eye map also shows the porch extending along the southerly facade. 

The first known occupant is John Spence, a painter, 1877.¹  Also occupying the house were Elvena Spence, also a painter, and William Spence, working for Elvena.²  The Spence family remained at this address until around 1899.³  O. Walston is listed on the 1890 Hopkins map as owning the property in 1890, most likely purchasing it after the Spence’s left.  In 1890, John Lavelle, a deputy sheriff, and his family moved in and remained until around 1924.⁴  The front addition seems to reveal a one-time commercial use, but the boarded up windows allude to its current residential use, which is for multiple families.

Show house on 1877 Birds-Eye Map