By Doug Royalty
The Old North End has long been the working-class heart of Burlington. By 1877, the blocks to the north and east of Battery Park were already thickly settled, and the area was filled with those working in the city’s booming lumber industry along Lake Champlain’s waterfront. The trend continued through the 1880s, as employees of well-known companies such as W&D.G. Crane Lumber Co. and Shepard & Morse Lumber Co.—as well as many Central Vermont Railroad workers—occupied small vernacular houses along North Avenue, North Battery Street (now Park Street), North Champlain Street, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, corner groceries were springing up to serve the growing population, many of them Irish immigrants, and North Street was just beginning to take shape as a commercial alternative to downtown.
The lumber mills are gone, and there are few if any Irish immigrants in the neighborhood. But the area remains decidedly working-class, and immigrants—from Vietnam, Africa, and elsewhere—continue to be drawn to it. Fortunately, many of the 19th century buildings remain to remind Burlington not just of its manufacturing past but of the people who toiled in the city’s industries.
Click here for more information on surviving buildings for 1877 to 1890 in this area.
