Chapter 5
#2: John Roberts, Burlington Builder
Background for the Educator: Roberts built over fifty small cottages throughout Burlington (a lot of them in the North End) in the late 19th century.
The houses are usually gable-front, 1 ½ stories, with a small first story porch and perhaps a bay window. What really defines these buildings, though, is the decorative wood shingles and woodwork and varying paint colors in the front gable and sometime on the side of the building. Usually the patterns are in the form of criss-crossed diamonds. This is a great activity for getting students to look at buildings, which are mostly the same in structure, but different in decoration.