390 South Winooski Avenue
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Burlington was a thriving city, looking to grow, and so needing more housing space. Originally, Winooski Avenue ended at Main Street, with a section between Maple and Spruce Streets then known as Elm Street. In 1907, Elm Street was extended to St. Paul Street. In 1908 the whole street south of Pearl became South Winooski Avenue. In 1912 the southernmost section of the street was acquired and divided into building lots by its owners, Doctors Patrick McSweeney and Benjamin Adams, and a real estate developer, John O’Neill. #390 was built on lot #6 of this development. (See map)
On 13 September 1923, Adam and Helena Fuller sold the lot to Edwin H. Elliott. Adam was a chef at the New Sherwood Hotel, which used to stand on the northwest corner of Church and Cherry Streets. We can’t know if Adam and his wife had planned originally to build on the lot themselves, Elliott does not appear in the city directories, but he seems to be the one responsible for the building of the house, as he sold the house and lot on 24 November, 1924, to Hugh and Mary Bixby, a young couple from Essex, Vermont. Hugh worked as a clerk for Vermont Hardware on Flynn Avenue. The house is a hipped-roof Colonial Revival style, with a full-length front porch, a style of enduring popularity.
Sadly, records show that the Bixbys had one son, Hawley Leonard, born and died in 1928.
By 1940, Hugh was a foreman at Vermont Hardware. He eventually left the company to become owner of his own grocery, Bixby’s Grocery Store, at 457 St. Paul. The store later became Longe’s Grocery, and is now Shy Guy Gelato.
The Bixbys retired and moved to Florida. Hugh died at age 65, in May of 1963, in Sarasota, FL; Mary, his wife, sold the house the following month and returned to Florida. She died there in 1978. Hugh and Mary are buried in the Mountain View Cemetery in Essex Center, Vermont.
The new owners were Keith and Sherrie Gay Minor. He was an electronics technician, later listed in the city directory as an employee of Wright and Morrissey Inc. In 1965, they sold to Charles D. and Dorothy E. McDonough. Charles worked for IBM.
In 1971 The McDonoughs deeded the house to Robert A. and Patricia M. Halverson. Robert was a chemist at the State Health Department and a research assistant in Medicine at UVM; Patricia was a bookkeeper at Associates in Psychiatry. The Halversons were the owners until 1991, when they sold to Ross B. and Flora D. Thomson, a couple from Brooklyn, NY. In November of 2015, ownership passed to Oliver D. Curran.
This attractive house is an excellent example of the neighborhood housing built for Burlington families in the first half of the 20th century.
Image credit: Google Streetview
REFERENCES
Burlington Land Records, City Hall
Burlington City Directories, 1923-1990
Historic Sites and Structures Survey; State of Vermont Division of Historic Preservation, Montpelier, VT 05602
Findagrave.com/ Hugh Henry Bixby/Mary Castle Metcalf Bixby