38 Bayview Street
The statement of significance for Bayview Street from Vermont’s Historic Sites and Structures Survey of 1977 tells the story of how the street was developed by Hamilton Peck, a successful lawyer, and Joel Gates, a banker and industrialist who built the Kilburn and Gates factory which still stands at St. Paul and Kilburn Streets. Their street plan was registered with the city in 1887. Peck built houses at the lower end of the street. The men also sold lots to others, who built for themselves or developed the properties to sell.
One of these developers was Eugene Chausse, an enterprising resident of the Old North End. He was the developer of Kingsland Terrace and other areas in the Hill section of Burlington. His wife Gertrude’s name was usually included on his deeds. On September 1st of 1915 the Chausses bought a lot of land on Bayview Street from George E. Story; on the 15th they bought a lot east of it from W.O. Shattuck. On the 20th of December they sold #38 Bayview Street, a house and lot. The lot included parts of both the previous purchases, the greater part being from Story’s. The house, like others on the street, is in the Colonia Revival style, with clapboard and shingle siding, a slate roof, and a spacious front porch.
The new owner was Walter G Holtham. He was a clerk at the Hotel Vermont, then located in the building still standing at the southeast corner of Main and St. Paul Streets. A native of Canada, he had been living at the hotel, and he was listed there in the 1916 city directory; #38’s first mention is in that directory, and it is listed as “empty”. This would reflect the first part of 1916. On May 19th, 1916, Walter Holtham, age 38, was married to Nellie Agnes Hickey, age 30, the daughter of Irish immigrants, and a telephone operator at the hotel. Nellie’s baptismal name was Helen, but for most of her life she used Nellie as her given name. Walter and Nellie settled into their new home. In 1923, Nellie became a co-owner of the house.
In the 1927 city directory, Helen A. Holtham had a beauty shop at 82 South Winooski Avenue. In November 1929 Walter traveled to Montreal, checking in at the Windsor Hotel. We don’t know if Nellie was with him. He became ill with pneumonia and died on November 16, 1928. His body was sent home to Burlington for burial.
Helen continued living on Bayview Street and managing her beauty shop until she remarried on July 26, 1932. The groom was Graham Wilson, a Selma, Alabama native who had been managing The Wilson, a rooming house that still stands at 189 Church Street. He had come to Burlington after his honorable discharge as a cavalry sergeant at Fort Ethan Allen in 1900. Helen/Nellie moved to the Wilson with her new husband, renting out her house on Bayview to Mrs. Lulu A. Bartlett, a widow.
1933 and 1934 city directories list the house as vacant. The family of Frederick W. Thayer, a clerk at the Burlington Savings Bank and a treasurer/trustee of the Episcopal Diocese, were the next renters, They were at #38 until the early 1940s, when they moved to Overlake Park. Nellie Wilson returned to the house with Graham briefly. He died after a long illness in December of 1945. Nellie rented to the family of Albert S. Coffin, Superintendent of the Employers’ Liability Corp. in 1943-1944.
She continued to manage the Wilson until 1951 with her third husband, J. T. Rourke. She had sold the house in December of 1946 to Bial Boynton, who owned Boynton’s Shoes on Church Street. In 1949 Caroline H. and Henry T. Rondeau were living in the house. They soon sold it to Robert L. and Martha M. Wilbur. Robert was plant accountant for GE, and the treasurer of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce. The Wilburs moved on in 1952.
The new owners were Margaret F. and Thomas H. Candon, Jr. Thomas was an employee of the Veterans’ Administration, specializing in mortgage loans. In November of 1958, they were planning to leave Burlington, so they sold to Marjorie and Cedric A. Lavalla. Cedric worked for New England Telephone and Telegraph. In September of 1962 Ruth and William C. Mitchell took over #38; he worked for the Lane Press as a customer service representative. In about a year the Mitchells sold the house to Francis T. and Sylvia M. Sheridan. Francis was a trust officer with Chittenden Trust. The Sheridans remained for almost thirteen years.
Then in June of 1976 Thomas J. and Johannah Leddy Donovan settled in to raise their family. So they did; Thomas was a lawyer, and Johannah’s family was well known in Vermont political circles. Their son, T.J. Donovan, is Vermont’s present attorney general. They were the family at #38 Bayview for nearly forty years. Johannah Leddy, now widowed, sold the house to its present owners in January of 2016.
Image credit: Redfin
REFERENCES
Burlington Land Records
Burlington City Directories, 1914-1990
State of Vermont: Historic Sites and Structures Survey, 1977
Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods, Vol.III, David J. Blow; Chittenden County Historical Society. pp. 128-132.
Hopkins Map of Burlington VT, 1890, detail