439 South Willard Street
#439 (originally #433) South Willard Street is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of Burlington’s South Willard Street Historic District. It was built in 1888 for Loren B. Lord, a pharmacist and pharmaceutical manufacturer who was born in Waterbury, VT in 1841. As a young man, he moved to Burlington with his wife Sarah. With H.D. Jones, he started the apothecary business of Lord & Jones, located on the corner of Church and Bank Streets. Two years later he started a business manufacturing patent medicines. This became the firm of Henry, Johnson, and Lord, located on College Street, and a successful business for many years. As the business wound down in later years, he moved the manufacturing site, now 202 Howard Street, to his homestead lot.
In October of 1885, Loren Lord bought this lot on the west side of South Willard Street from Amos C. Spear for $2500. Amos Spear was also a pharmacist. The land had come to him from his brother-in-law, John Purple Howard, a notable philanthropist. There were few houses on the southern end of the street then. At the time, Lord was living on North Winooski Avenue near North Street.
The State Historic Sites and Structures Survey (1977) says the architect for Lord’s new home was Elmore Johnson; Watson & Johnson were the builders. The 2 ½ story house is Queen Anne Stick Style with a redstone foundation, clapboard siding, and decorative shingle work in the gables. The central section of the house is hip-roofed with two gable-roofed wings. The Sites and Structures Survey notes beautiful interior woodwork and hardware. By 1888, the Lord family was settled in their home.
In 1915 Loren Lord died of pernicious anemia, a condition easily treatable today. His wife survived him. In 1917, the family sold the home to Harry S. and Sue Howard. Harry sold real estate and insurance; his wife, a physician, was the medical inspector of schools. In 1920 the Howards sold to Charles F. and Beatrice Dalton. He was a physician, and Secretary of the State Board of Health. The couple lived at #439 until the mid -1940’s
By 1948, E. Austin Beihl, an architect with Freeman, French, and Freeman, and his wife Helen were the owners. Then, in 1951, George V. Kidder, UVM professor and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and his wife Betsy, became the new owners.
For 1968 and 1969 the city directory has no report on #439. Then Donald A. and Nancy K. Massey (he worked at General Electric)moved in, followed by Dr. Peter D. and Deborah B. Galbraith in 1970. Hugo John, director of the School of Natural Resources at UVM, and wife Prudence John were owners into the 1980’s.
Richard and Susan Leff bought the house in the mid-1980s. Susan sold it to the present owners, the Dooman family, who are now doing restoration work on this very interesting home, bringing it closer to its original owners’ concept.
Image credit: Redfin
REFERENCES
Burlington Land records
Burlington City Directories
State of Vermont Historic Sites and Structures Survey 1977
United States Department of the Interior, National Register of Historic Places; South Willard Street Historic District
The Burlington Free Press (Burlington, Vermont); 04 May 1915, Tue. Page 8: Obituary, Loren B. Lord
Burlington, VT As a Manufacturing, Business, and Commercial Center; 2nd Edition, 1890: page 23 and page 62
Map of the City of Burlington, Vermont; Hopkins 1890, details