To the right of this contemporary view looking southwest down North Winooski Avenue still stands the old Burlington Rapid Transit Co. bus barn, although no buses park here anymore. In July of 2000, Vermont Transit Co. consolidated its repair facilities in White River Junction, Vt. and vacated the barn that had housed bus fleets since they hit the Burlington streets in 1929.[1] Soon thereafter, the Burlington Community Land Trust and Housing Vermont, both local non-profit housing organizations, teamed up with the federal Housing and Urban Development agency to transform the former bus facility into commercial space and mixed housing.[2] The site was cleaned up and refurbished, the old garage doors replaced with large, fixed windows, and now the barn seen in this photograph contains a cafe, dry cleaners and the Good News Garage, a non-profit auto shop.

Between 1965 and 1966, two buildings directly down street from the bus barn were torn down.[3] Number 329, a residential home, and #327, which had housed Glasston’s furniture store for at least 40 years, were turned into an expanded parking lot for the Vermont Transit facility.[4]

Across the street where Abraham’s Bargain store operated in 1931, still remains much as it was, although its storefront now sits empty. #324 housed the CB Radio Patrol clubhouse in 1966, and later was home to D&N Exclusives.[5] Its last tenant was a bicycle shop, which recently moved several doors down the street.

Number 328 has remained a residential home very much unchanged since 1931, other than the replacement of the original two-over-two sash with one-over-one vinyl.

Although it now contains a Salvation Army clothing store, most long-time Burlington residents, especially those who were raised here, will recall #338 as Cassler’s Toy Store. Founded several years after World War II, Cassler’s toys sold smiles to generations of Burlington children, finally closing shop in 1992.[6] Over the years Mark and Bruce Cassler made several expansions to the building including the projected store front seen today, and also removed all of the building’s original Victorian detailing and second-story windows. In January of 1993, the Salvation Army signed a 20-year lease with the Cessler brothers and moved into 336 North Winooski Avenue.[7]