158 North Willard Street
158 North Willard Street is a good example of the solid middle-class housing which grew up in the north end of the city during the last quarter of the 19th century and the first part of the 20th. It was built in the early 1920s as the home of the Lisman family, remaining so for over 50 years. Next, it became a rental property, housing first a rabbi’s family, then UVM students.
In the 1990s, for a period, it was known as Oxford House. a home for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. Now it is again a family home.
Samuel Lisman, the first owner, was a prominent member of the Jewish community featured in the Burlington-based documentary “Little Jerusalem”. The early members of the community settled in the neighborhood of their synagogue, then at the corner of Archibald and Hyde Streets, a short distance from the Lisman house.
Samuel was born in Russia about 1889, a period of persecution and emigration for Jews. At some point he arrived in England. In the 1904 Ellis Island records he is listed as a resident of Liverpool, age 15, headed for Philadelphia. He married Sarah Cohen about five years later, according to a news item in the Burlington Free Press for December 27, 1924 noting a surprise 15th anniversary party given by their friends. The young Lismans are first listed in the 1921 Burlington city directory, living at 36 Henry Street. Samuel was a partner with Barnett Glass at the Vermont Clothing House.(54 ½ Church Street, 1 flight up). Barnett had been working with Max Glass at the Union Clothing Company, 52 Church Street. Max later opened The Fashion Shop.
In 1922 Samuel and Sarah bought a lot for a new home on North Willard Street. As their deed stated, the land had originally been part of the property of the house next door, #156. The house was likely built in 1923, as it first appeared in the 1924 city directory.
The Vermont Clothing House must have been doing well. Barnett was working at branch stores in Barre and St. Albans; by 1929 the Burlington store had moved to 193 College Street.
Samuel and Sarah worked together in the store, which grew more branches in Vermont and upstate New York. They raised three sons; Louis and Bernard became lawyers; son Irving taught at South Burlington High School. They attended Ohavi Zedek synagogue at the corner of Archibald and Hyde Streets. Eventually, Louis and Irving started their own homes, while Bernard remained at North Willard Street. In 1952, when the new Ohavi Zedek synagogue was built on North Prospect Street, part of the congregation who were Orthodox Jews chose to separate and organize an Orthodox congregation in the old synagogue, now called Ahavath Gerim. Samuel and Sarah were part of this congregation, Samuel eventually became president of the congregation.
In 1946, Bernard bought the house, continuing to live there with his parents. At the end of May 1972, Samuel died. Bernard and Sarah continued to live there, Sarah still listed until the late 1970’s.
At the end of 1976, Gregory W. and Jo Guma bought the house, but their residence was in Hinesburg. In June 1978 Hector Leclair, a building contractor, bought the place. He lived at 164 North Willard Street. There is no report on #158 for this year; in 1979, Carleen Cook, a UVM student, was listed as a renter. In 1980 the house is listed as “empty”. From 1981 through 1986 Mark Binkhorst, another UVM student, was joined in 1983 by Craig Cahill, also a student renter. The house had changed hands in 1983. Lillian Norfleet, a summer resident, was the new owner until July of 1985 when Rabbi Yitzshok Raskin and his wife Devorah took over the place.
Eric Millham and Karen Johnson bought from the Raskins in November of 1989. In February of 1990, their ownership was transferred to the DEK Partnership; the 1990 city directory lists #158 as “ Oxford House, for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts”. Two years later Karen and Eric Millham of Hinesburg are the listed owners.
There were three more owners between 2000 and the latest residents, Joseph and Teresa Cleary:
Neil and Pamela Brown, 2000
Terrence Mahoney, 2003
Sevin Otgunc, 2005
This early 20th-century house is a worthy example of the many and varied homes that make Burlington’s neighborhoods.