Mansfield House

25 Colchester Avenue

Photo Credit: Katie Briscoe

Located near the northeast corner of the University Green, behind the Campus Center Theatre and Ira Allen Chapel, is the Mansfield House. The two-and-a-half story structure was constructed of rough stone on the first and second stories, and of half-timbered wood above. The land on which Mansfield House was built was purchased by the University of Vermont in 1890 with funds donated by Mr. John Heman Converse and Dr. E.H. Williams (see Figure 1). [i] Both alumni of UVM, Converse and Williams wanted the University to construct three buildings to be used as housing for UVM professors. At the cost of about $12,000 each, the houses were designed and built by the Wilson Brothers architectural firm in 1891 in the popular Queen Anne Style. [ii]

 

Originally known as “Williams Cottage” after its benefactor, Mansfield House was first occupied in 1891 by Professor Edward Robinson and his family. A professor of Mechanical Engineering at UVM, Robinson lived at Mansfield House until 1925. [iii] From 1930 until 1945 the house was occupied by another UVM professor, Arthur D. Butterfield and his wife and family. [iv] Butterfield, a “Professor of Mathematics and Geodesy” at UVM from 1893 to 1908 [v] , was married to Fannie Louise Day and had three children: Louise, Dexter, and George. [vi] Fannie died on March 1, 1915 of pneumonia which came along ten days after she had been a hostess at a UVM student gathering on the Hill. A painter, Fannie had several pieces on display at a summer exhibition at the Art Museum. [vii] Butterfield married a long-time friend, Orpha Lee Howe, a trained nurse for the army, in 1920 and their family lived together in Mansfield House. [viii] Butterfield’s older son Dexter attended UVM and was elected class president in his freshman year. [ix]

 

When Professor Butterfield and his family moved to 479 Main Street in 1946, the Mansfield House was used as the UVM president’s house. John S. Millis and his wife Katherine lived there until 1948. [x] Millis was a professor of Physics and served UVM as president during the war-time years.  The 1947 edition of the Ariel, UVM’s yearbook, is dedicated to Millis for his leadership during those trying times. [xi]

 

Millis’ successor William S. Carlson, lived in the house for a short time while he was president of UVM from 1950 to 1952. An accomplished polar explorer and scientist, Carlson lived at Mansfield House with his wife Mary Jane and their children. [xii]

 

The last UVM Professor to live at Mansfield House was Carl Borgmann, UVM president from 1952 to 1958. [xiii] Borgmann was well known at UVM because he “campaigned vigorously for a state law giving a tuition break to Vermont students that would be supported by an annual state appropriation.” [xiv] The law, which passed in 1955, lowered tuition rates for in-state students and labeled UVM as an “instrumentality of the state.” [xv] After leaving UVM in 1958, Borgmann was appointed program director of science and engineering for the Ford Foundation, a position he held for over ten years. [xvi]

 

In 1952, in addition to being the president’s house, Mansfield House was also used as the rear art building for UVM. It was used for this purpose through the 1970s. [xvii] In 1958, the building was renovated to be used as a dormitory and was renamed “Mansfield House.” [xviii] From 1960 to 1961 it was used as a woman’s dormitory with Carrie Power and Dorothea Patton as Head Residents during those years. [xix] In 1962 Mansfield House became a branch of the Medical College which was located across Colchester Avenue. It housed the UVM Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine and Family Care Unit until 1973. [xx] Mansfield House has since been used as an annex of the UVM Mathematics and Statistics Department.

 

Renovations and Architectural Changes

 

In her 1984 article in the UVM Record, Lindsay Butler wrote that “various internal modifications were made with the induction of each new department, using partition and semi-permanent additions which cut the building’s space into small cubbyholes.” [xxi] Renovations undertaken in 1984 attempted to allow more open space in the interior as well as upgrading from oil to natural gas heating and adding new plumbing and updated electrical wiring. [xxii]

 

Mansfield House appears on the Sanborn fire insurance maps in the years 1900, 1906, 1912, 1919, 1926, 1942, and 1942-50. The building retains its original architectural exterior until 1942 when a rear porch was added, its width covering half of the southern elevation. The exterior of Mansfield House appears much as it did at its original construction in 1891.

		Figure 1 : Mansfield House, 475 Main St., 481 Main St. (Ariel 1892, Vol.5, p.27)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Text by Katie Briscoe, 2011