University Green Area Heritage Study

Historic Burlington Research Project - HP 206

Historic Preservation Program - University of Vermont

12 Colchester Avenue

12 Colchester Avenue, previously known as 2 Colchester Avenue before it was changed in 1999 due to 911 address guidelines. It has been known as the Pearl House. [i]   According to some sources this building, erected in 1798, is purported to be the oldest frame house in Burlington, speculated to have been built by Frederick Saxton in 1789. [ii]   In 1794, the house and 50 acres were sold to Colonel Stephen Pearl, a former Merchant of Pawlet, Vermont, who in 1794, moved to Burlington from Grand Isle. [iii] When Pearl passed away in 1816, the house passed through several unknown hands until when in 1856 it was bought by a prominent lawyer, Alvan Foote, who owned the house for the next half century. At some time between 1856 and 1869, the house passed into the hands of Charles Foote, a descendent of Alvan Foote. In 1869, Charles Foote sold the house to O. S. Woods, who sold the house and three acres to John H. French, Secretary of the State Board of Education, for $5,000. In 1881, the land, now one and five eighths acres, was bought by A.W. Allen. [iv]

G. M. Peterson, a florist, occupied the house from 1884 to 1890. [v]   In 1894, the house belonged to another florist, Wells A. Lee. [vi]   From 1890 to 1894, it is unclear who possessed the house. Yet, in 1895, it was back in the hands of Wells A. Lee, now a famer, as well as W .A. Lee, possibly his son, who was a florist. [vii] In 1896, a Mrs. F.L. Lee lived in the house with the two W .A. Lees’. Additionally, the house was listed as a boarding house, which housed not only students of the University of Vermont but also their professors. [viii] In 1900, W.A. Lee, the son, moved to Leominster, Massachusetts. [ix] By 1903, only Mrs. F .L. Lee was living in the boarding house. [x]  

In 1904, Mrs. Minnie E. Cross lived in the house. Mrs. F. L. Lee removed from the city in 1905, leaving an Alice J. Fisk running the boarding house with Minnie Cross as a boarder. [xi] The next year, 1906, only Ms. Fisk was living in the boarding house. However, in 1907, Fisk moved to a boarding house at 115 Cherry Street, and the Whalley family, Mrs R.G., Richard G., a gardener, and Miss Gertrude Whalley took her place. [xii] The Whalley’s lived in the house until 1909, when they move to Shelburne near Park Avenue, and Miss Elizabeth L. Duke moved in. [xiii] Mrs. Hattie M. Dingman acquired the house, in 1910, which she used as a sanitarium for until 1911 when it returned to its former use as a boarding house; Mrs. Hattie M. Dingman ran the boarding house until 1914. [xiv] Though Dingman no longer ran the boarding house, Mrs. E.W. Roberts (Electa M. Mrs.) was now in charge; she continued to live there until 1915. [xv] Mrs. Electa M. Roberts remained until 1916 when she moved to a boarding house at 68 College. [xvi] Thus, in 1916, the house belonged to painter Hearme L. Barron and in 1917 to Mrs. J. E. Goodrich. [xvii]

For the next two years, 1918 and 1919, the house sat vacant until it was acquired by the Vermont State Board of Health, the Vermont Anti-Tuberculosis Association, and the Vermont State Lab of Hygiene in 1920. [xviii] In 1921, the Vermont Tuberculosis Association moved to 233 Pearl St, while the other two remained until 1924. [xix] In 1925, the Vermont Department of Public Health moved in and was joined in 1932 by the Vermont State Laboratory of Hygiene. [xx] In 1936, The State Board of Health moved back and joined the Vermont Department of Public Health and the Vermont State Lab of Hygiene. [xxi]  

In 1949, the building became the State Health Building. The first floor contained the Vermont State Board of Health, Sanitary Engineer, Crippled Children Division, Secretary’s office, and Tourist House License office. On the second floor were the Laboratories, Directors Office, General Lab office, and Sanitary of Hygiene. The third floor contained the Venereal Disease Division. [xxii] In 1951 and 1952, the State Health Building, still at 2 Colchester Avenue, contained on the first floor the Hospital Service Division Vermont State Department of Health, the Vermont State Department Sanitary Engineer, Commissioner Vermont State Department Office, and the Crippled Children’s Division.  The second floor contained the director’s office, the Vermont State Department of Health, the General Lab office, the Vermont State Department of Health, and the Vermont State Department of Health’s director’s office. The third floor contained the Department of Health and the Communicable Disease Division. [xxiii]  

By 1956, the building had become the University of Vermont Medical Building Annex, and stayed as such until 1970 when it became the College of Education Special Education area Consulting Teacher Program from 1971 to 1976. [xxiv] The UVM General Psychology Testing Center, Dana Medical Library UVM Medical and Health Care Information Center, and Medical Center Hospital Mary Fletcher Unit occupied the building in 1977, but by 1978, the Dana Medical Library had moved to the East Campus, and 12 Colchester Avenue was left vacant until 1988, when the University leased the building to the Synon Group, a Vermont partnership. [xxv] The Medical Center Hospital of Vermont, a tenant of Synon Group, renovated the building in 1989 in order to create offices and a daycare center for their employees. [xxvi] The Medical Center leased the building from the Synon Group in 1994, thus it is probable that they also leased the building in 1989. [xxvii] It is unclear when the daycare center, as well as the Synon Group, left 2 Colchester Avenue, yet in 2006, the Office of Student and Community Relations moved into the building and still occupy it at this time. [xxviii]

Photo and text by Robyn Sedgwick, 2011