This photograph was taken August 18^th 1930 by Louis McAllister on North Street where LaFoutain Street intersects on the right side of the frame.  It shows a great deal of construction activity but also provides closer views of some buildings already mentioned, as well as views of buildings not yet revealed.  Starting at the left side of the frame we see first 169 North Street, a two-story commercial style building running two bays deep along the North Street façade.  Below the fenestration on the second story hangs a sign, which reads “A. Boucher – Funeral Director”.  Below this a recessed entrance on the right side of the building is balanced on the left by a large window.  As early as 1902 the city directories list Arsene Boucher as occupying this building and running a barber shop there.  It appears that Mr. Boucher moved into the undertaking business in 1903 when the city directory carries an advertisement of the undertaking operation at 169 North Street.  He is also listed as a barber at 193 North Street where a barbershop did indeed exist. [1]   Perhaps he moved his hair cutting to the 193 and converted 169 to the tasks of preparing the dead for burial.  A Sanborn map indicates that an undertaker occupied the building, with the structure behind the main building used to store caskets. [2]   The addition of asbestos cladding is indicated on the 1942 Sanborn Map. [3]   The building has undergone some changes since the 1930’s as can be seen in the current image made in October 2005.  The windows have all been replaced and the large window on the first floor has been converted from a commercial style window to a raised position when the building was converted to residential use.  From the appearance of the building’s massing in the current image, it would seem that the building has received an addition to the right (west) side resulting in a central entrance as opposed to the right side entrance the building has in the 1930’s image.

            The next building visible in the McAllister image is that of 163 North Street.  This two-story wood framed house presents its two-bay, gable-front entrance to North Street. Notable in the image is the ornate entry hood that survives to this day and is visible in the current image.  Based on the entry hood and other details the date of construction is presumably in the later part of the 19^th century or early 20^th century.

            Again we see more of the now demolished Lawrence Barnes School looming in the distance.  Here the conical roof capping the tower and a large stone buttress at the towers base are more clearly distinguished.

            Another building that we have glimpsed in previous photographs and now get a better view of on the right side of the frame is the three story brick building at 166 North Street.  Here we see the large shop windows on the first floor over which brackets support a small projecting lip.  We can also see that the structure extended at least four bays down LaFountain Street and what appears to be a loading door is also present on the first floor of that side. 

Just beyond this building is another, much smaller brick structure at 158 North Street.  This two-story, gable-front brick house extends two bays deep with a front entrance on the left side and a semi-circular fanlight in the gable peak.  Perhaps one of the oldest structures on North Street, the building is drawn on the 1889 Sanborn Insurance Map as a dwelling and was probably built in the early part of the 19^th century. [4] Again, sadly this structure was lost in the rash of fires in 1972.  On April 10 of that year the Burlington Free Press reported, “flames were sweeping the second story of an unoccupied old brick structure owned by Joseph Bartlett.”  They go on to report that on March 27 fire broke out on the building’s first floor.  At the time the building was undergoing renovations.  The fire was said to be of “suspicious origin.” [5]

In the place of this structure was built a two-story modern building with a first floor of brick and novelty siding on the second story.  The first floor currently houses the Gaslight Laundromat.

The next building visible in the McAllister image is a one-and-one-half-story structure at 152 North Street.  A deep porch rises from the street to shelter the buildings entrance and according to Sanborn Insurance map from 1939 continues around the west side of the house. [6]   From the current photograph we can clearly see that the structure no longer stands, replaced by a structure similar to that which took the place of the burned brick structure at 158 North Street.

Finally we see the east side of the building at the corner of North Street where Rose Street enters.  This building is shown very clearly in the next set of images.

This image provides good documentation of the nature of the street work being done at the time.  In the foreground new pavement has been laid by the machine that continues to pour the surfacing material further down North Street.  Also visible in this image in the left side near the Lawrence Barnes School is one of the few elm trees to grace North Street at the time of the roadwork. Conversely in the current image in nearly the same spot we find that trees planted near Lawrence Barnes crowd the view down the street.