329-340 Manhattan Drive, Photo by Louis McAllister in 1945

Coordinates: 18T 0642018 UTM 4927871

This photo and streetscape was captured sometime in 1944, during the wartime shortages. At that time the road maintenance crew was trying to save money. The city of Burlington decided to try what’s called Dust Laying. The process was outlined in the 1945 Annual Report:

“All our dirt, gravel and cinder streets have been surfaced treated with a dust layering application of salvaged crankcase oil. Some of these streets where traffic conditions arrant are treated two or three times during the season. This process as I have stated in previous reports saves us several hundred dollars each year over the cost when treated with calcium chloride as in earlier years.”[1]

In the background the H.O. Wheeler Elementary School can be seen on the left, blocked slightly from view by 329 and 345 North Bend. 340 North Bend is in view on the opposite side of the street.

            329 North Bend has had its address changed twice before. In 1900 it was 317, and was owned by Peter Granger, a laborer.[2] By 1925, it was changed to 327 North Bend.[3] The 1942 Sanborn lists the final change to its current 329.[4]  When this house was captured in McAlister’s photo, it was a long and narrow two story front gabled house with enclosed front porch it also had a lean-to addition off the back, along with a garage.

            345 North Bend is a one and a half story bungalow, and was built in the late 1920’s.[5] The roof of this side gable structure flares out slightly in front to give a taller height to the deep porch that extends the entire length of the building. Incised wooden columns support the roof, and are connected with shallow arches. A single dormer window sits above, centered on the roofline. When the McAllister photo was taken the house was owned by Henry T. Beauvaise. Beauvaise was the original owner; he was a carpenter, and supplemented his income by housing boarders.[6]

1. Eightieth Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont (Burlington: Free Press Printing, 1945), 171.

2. Burlington City Directory Including Winooski & South Burlington (Burlington: L.P. Waite & Co., 1900).

3. Burlington and Winooski, Vermont Directory (Springfield, Mass: H.A. Manning Co., 1925).

4. Sanborn Map, 1942. Special Collections, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont.

5. Sanborn Map, 1926. Special Collections, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont.

6. Burlington and Winooski, Vermont Directory (Springfield, Mass: H.A. Manning Co., 1944).

7. Burlington City Directory Including Winooski & South Burlington (Burlington: L.P. Waite & Co., 1900).

8. Burlington City Directory Including Winooski & South Burlington (Burlington: L.P. Waite & Co., 1902).

329-340 Manhattan Drive, Photo by Julie Weisgerber in 2005

Today, the most noticeable change is the addition of large trees. The houses themselves have been through some revisions. Today, a larger, and longer house, split into apartments, has enveloped 329 Manhattan Drive. The front door is still in the same spot, but the roof has been widened, the porch has been opened and is now supported with Tuscan columns, and now the second floor overhangs the first floor. The window pattern has also been modified with apartment-like regularity. 345 Manhattan Drive still looks very much the same. The only change has been the addition of windows around the porch to enclose it. 340 Manhattan Drive has been altered further. The front door has moved from its off-center, first floor gable front position, to the front of the porch that has been enclosed. The pitch of the second floor addition roofline has been increased as well. The entire house is now covered in siding.