27 Spring Street
Spring Street, in Burlington’s Old North End, was laid out in 1830. By the time Israel Marquette, a French Canadian immigrant, came to Burlington in the late 1860s, the neighborhood was known as French Village. Zeb Mitchell, Sr. owned a lot with a dwelling facing Locust Street (now Elmwood Avenue); the Beers 1869 map of Burlington shows this lot with the initials Z. M. The lot reaches through to Spring Street. It was for the portion that faced Spring Street that Israel signed a mortgage with his mark, giving him until July 1, 1873 to pay the $224 (with interest) for the land. The mortgage is dated November 11, 1868. A note says the mortgage was discharged on March 23, 1876.
Apparently, there was a problem with this mortgage deed; there is another document which says there was another mortgage due on the property on November 11, 1868, which needed to be paid ($91.13); the price for the land is now $400. The lot is described in detail; the deed is signed by the marks of Zeb and his wife Clarissa. The date is March 23, 1869. This lot and the dwellings on it were sold as one parcel for most of its history.
The next city map that actually shows this area is the Sanborn fire insurance map of 1889. This map shows two dwellings on the lot: #29, on the right front of the lot, and an unnumbered, smaller dwelling, behind it on the left. The 1894 fire insurance map shows no change; the 1900 map shows #27 and #29 in their present orientation. Both #27 and #29 are gabled front, one-and-a-half story, vernacular homes, typical of many of the 19th-century worker’s houses built in Burlington. As so often happens with houses of this period, dating is inexact.
The early Burlington city directories are somewhat vague as to the locations of houses, and few houses were numbered. The 1871-1872 directory is the first to show a Marquette on Spring Street: “Marquett, J.J., Mason, h Spring St near Interval Ave”. This is the last time J.J. appears, so we will probably never know just who he was, besides likely being a family member (unless the J’s were mistakenly written in place of the letter I). Circa 1870 or 1871 would be a probable date for #29.
Marquette was listed as a laborer living at 6 Spring Street in the 1873-1874 directory. His wife, Esther Frechette, was there too, though not mentioned. Israel farmed for a few years at this time, possibly as a hired hand at one of the Intervale farms. His son, Israel Jr., a blacksmith, lived with his parents briefly in the early 1880’s. The house is listed without a permanent number until the 1884-1885 directory when it is first called #29. Also residing there is Mary Lebeau. Mary is Mary Exilda Lebeau, Israel and Esther’s widowed daughter. She is possibly the same Mary Labeau (sic) who was previously living as a servant to John Dewey’s parents at 178 South Prospect Street.
In August of 1884, Marquette signed a mortgage deed to another widowed daughter, Melvina Coriveau, for $200. The mortgage was paid off in early 1897. Did this make it possible for him to build the small dwelling at the rear of his property, shown in the 1889 and 1894 Sanborn maps? We have no way of knowing. We do know that the first appearance of #27 Spring was in the next directory, 1886-1887, as the home of Mrs. Mary Lebeau. According to the Sanborn map, that would have been the little house out back, though the map never gives this house a number.
At about this time, Melvina Coriveau married a widowed distant cousin, Benoit Marquette. They were married at St. Joseph’s Church in Burlington, but then seem to have moved to Canada.
The 1890 and 1891 city directories show that Israel is not in Burlington. In 1890, Exilda Labeau(sic), widow, and Miss Mary E. Labeau, bookbinder, are at “h r 27 Spring”. Does this mean “house rear 27 Spring”? The Hopkins 1890 map shows the Marquette house, #29, on its lot with the small building in the back. The house next to it is labelled Lebeau, but this house, #19 at the time, did not belong to Marquette. So here’s another puzzle. A mistake in the map?
In mid-November of 1890 Israel Marquette of St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, in Holyoke, MA, signed a mortgage for $600. to Leopold Frechette, also of St. Hyacinthe, for all his Burlington property. This mortgage was discharged on Jan. 30, 1897. Could it have been used to build the present #27?
The following year, 1891, #27 listed: Daniel Labeau, employee on the steamer Chateaugay, Joseph Labeau, also with the Chateaugay, as well as Exilda and Mary E. In 1892, Israel has returned to #29, and Exilda, Daniel, and Joseph are at #27. The next year # 27 is not in the city directory. Then, from 1894 through 1896, Exilda is living with her parents at #29. Could this be the period when the present #27 was being constructed? We can’t be sure.
On record is a bill of sale dated November 13, 1896, in which Mary (Exilda) LeBeau sells to Israel Marquette “a small dwelling house numbered 29, located on his property, for $200. One of the witnesses was Monsignor Jerome Cloarec, their parish priest. No record of a previous sale was found.
On February 8th, 1897, Israel and Esther Marquette deeded their entire property to their daughter Melvina, then living in St. Michel, Bellechasse County, PQ, with the stipulation that they should be able to live in their home, free of charge, until one of them died. They continued to live in #29. Exilda moved away. If anyone was living at #27, we don’t know who that would have been.
It isn’t until the 1899 directory that we find Benoit and Melvina Marquette and Melvina’s son from her first marriage, Alexander Coriveau/Marquette, living at #27 Spring Street. Alexander would have been 17 at this time. The family could have arrived as early as July of 1898. Benoit was listed as a government pensioner. His death certificate says he was a translator.
Alexander eventually got a job at Horatio Hickok’s packing box factory at the foot of Howard Street. He moved to Buffalo and returned to marry Albertine Lavoie when she was 18 and he was 20, in July of 1902. His grandfather Israel died the next year, May 23, 1903. He was 81.
His widow, Esther, continued to live at # 29 until she died. Daughter Melvina lived at #27. Her husband, Benoit, died in 1905. Esther died in 1914. On August 22, 1917 Melvina sold the property, with both houses, to Leon and Mary Louise Mero. She moved to Connecticut.
Leon was an employee of E.B. and A.C. Whiting, bristle and brush makers on Pine Street where Dealer.com is now located. He rented #27 to Ernest Hausman, a fellow employee. The 1920 city directory has the Meros living in #27 themselves, renting #29 to William Matton, a mill hand. In 1921, Leon went to work for the American Woolen Company in Winooski. In July of that year, he sold the property to Lewis and Adelle Fitzsimonds, who rented out the houses. Mr Fitzsimonds was the live-in caretaker of Horace Brooks’ summer home on South Prospect Street, now known as Ruggles House. In November of 1923 the Fitzsimonds sold to Alexander and Anna Goyette/Guyette.
Alexander worked for Brodie and Niles, an automobile dealer at 123 St. Paul Street. The Guyettes moved into #27, renting #29. In 1934, Anna Guyette was a widow, sharing her home with Alexander V. Guyette, a mill worker. In 1943 she moved to # 29. In March of 1944 she sold her property to Joseph E. and Gladys W. Murphy.
Joseph worked for the city water department. He and his wife moved into #29, renting #27 to Onan Delong, an American Woolen Company worker. From 1948 on, the Murphys lived at #27, Gladys remaining after Joseph’s death. In 1965 and 1966, Gladys lived at#27, and Michael Murphy, with the Vermont Air National Guard, was at #29.
Homer S. and Margaret T. Fairbanks became the owners in June of 1967. They lived at 80 Porter Place; Horace’s business, H.S. Fairbanks, was at 65 Intervale Avenue. Henry Rockwell and Angeline Terry were the tenants on Spring Street. Most tenants’ length of stay was fairly short. The name of Mr. Fairbanks’ business changed to Things Unlimited; in October of 1975, he sold the Spring Street property to an employee, Francis A. Jacques, and his wife Martha. Included in the $41,000 deal were #37 Lafountain Street and #317 North Winooski Avenue. The Jacques seem not to have been Burlington residents.
The city directory lists #27 and #29 as vacant in 1974, 1975, and 1976. In 1977, Joseph, Dorothy, and Mary Metevier were the tenants in # 27. They remained as tenants into 1986, when Anthony and Melissa Lafayette bought the house in June, selling it in December to Richard C. Blum. During the later time of his ownership, the city noted that the building was in a very poor condition.
Information about residents is sparse at this point. On the 11th of January 1999, Deborah J. Dudek-Sparer became the owner. By the end of the year the house was on the city’s vacant building list. At some point there must have been restoration; in March of 2004, Marvin P. Fishman and Doreen Kraft were the buyers. On October 15th of that year, they obtained a declaration of condominium; 27-29 Spring Street Condominiums. On February 10 2007, Doreen Kraft gave power of attorney to Marvin Fishman. (A recent phone book shows them living at the same address in Charlotte.)
Lyndsay Klepper was the next owner of the 27 Spring Street condominium, from October 18, 2004. She sold the house to its present owner, Jill Krowinski.
The Spring Street area epitomizes the positive changes coming to many parts of the Old North End, as new and older owners transform their neighborhoods.
REFERENCES
Burlington Land Records
Burlington City Directories, 1868-1986
Burlington City Maps: Beers map 1869, Hopkins map 1890, Sanborn fire insurance maps 1889,1894,1900
Vermont Historic Sites and Structures Survey
Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods, Vols. I, II, III: Chittenden County Historical Society
Vermont Vital Records
United States, New England Naturalization Index, 1791-1906
Canada census 1891
Burlington Free Press, Obituaries, May 25, 1903