Windsor Village Historic District

DESCRIPTION:

The Windsor Village Historic District includes contiguous residential and commercial sections along Main Street, Depot Avenue, and State Street through and including Court Square. Within the district there are approximately 45 either architecturally or historically significant buildings which reflect, primarily, the commercial and industrial prosperity of the village from the 1780s through the 1930s and which represent, architecturally, a significant spectrum of domestic, religious, commercial, and quasi-public building types and commonly associated architectural styles. Stylistically, the buildings are predominantly Federal for the domestic and Italianate revival for the commercial with at least one significant example of Georgian, Classical, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Romanesque, High Victorian Gothic, and Georgian Revival.

While Main Street functions as the major north-south axis of the district with Depot Avenue and State Street through and including Court Square tangent at its midsection, the street's slightly winding course prevents a continuous visual cohesiveness. Cohesiveness throughout the district is achieved by strategically positioned architectural landmarks which act both as either axial pivots or terminal focal points connecting visually cohesive sections of the district with each other and as transition points from one section of the village streetscape to the next.

Proceeding south from the Old Constitution House (78) along Main Street, the northern end of Main Street between the Old Constitution House and the Baptist Church (71) is thickly tree lined and strictly residential in character,the houses generally well spaced from each other and uniformly set back from the street. Approaching the Baptist Church, the street rises gradually and bends slightly to the south, southwest, the Unitarian Church (14) and a small supermarket north of the Windsor House (69) on the opposite side of the street. A new pseudo-Federal style bank building is presently (1975) being erected on a section of the supermarket parking lot, which will partially restore the visual continuity of the streetscape along this section of Main Street.

The streetscape visually narrows in front of the Windsor House and the United States Post Office (15) directly across the street marking the beginning of the villages commercial section. Building density in this section is high with the buildings forming a uniform facade line and fronting directly on the street. From this point looking down the street Old South Congregational Church (38) dominates the streetscape approximately one-quarter of a mile to the south at the high point of another gradual rise and a slight bend back to the south of the southern end of Main Street.

On the east, several buildings past the post office, Main Street is intersected by Depot Avenue, which descends down to the Windsor Railroad Station (20). A small open park, the original location of the Old Constitution House, occupies the southeast corner of the intersection. On the west side just beyond Depot Avenue, Main Street is intersected by State Street, which descends from the south side of Court Square. At the head of State Street opposite the southeast corner of the square, the streetscape is dominated by St. Paul's Episcopal Church (48), which projects slightly into the street forcing it to narrow somewhat as it ascends to the square. Court Square, the historic center of the village, is a large tree-bordered open park surrounded by residences, the Windsor Public Library (51) on the south, and the Windsor Town Hall (60) on the east.

Proceeding south along Main Street from State Street, the street's commercial character begins to peter out beyond River Street and become more residential as the streetscape opens up in front of the Masonic Hall (41) and the Knights of Columbus House (40) perched high above the street to the west on a steep tree-covered embankment. Beyond Old south Congregational Church, which is partially isolated from the other buildings on the west side of the street by extensive tree-covered cemeteries on the north and south, the predominantly residential character of the street continues to the end of the district marked by the Rachel Harlow Methodist Church on the northwest corner of Main and Durkee Streets. The visual integrity of the district falls off immediately to the north and the south with the encroachment of strip developments and drive-in roadside architecture.

The architecturally significant buildings within the district are:

3. Jesse Lull House. Federal style, 1806.
4. Carlos Coolidge House. Federal style, 1806.
These two houses are identical 2-story, brick structures three bays across their front and five bays across their side elevations with symmetrically paired interior chimney stacks on their side (north and south) elevations. The only difference between the two houses is their roof styles. Erected by Jesse Lull, the Jesse Lull House has a shallow hip roof with a rear gable hidden behind a paneled and balustrades balustrade. The Carlos Coolidge House, erected by Luther Mills and later owned by Carlos Coolidge, Governor of Vermont from 1848 to 1849, and Albert Tuxbury, builder of the Tuxbury Block, has a shallow gable roof with a pedimented front gable. Both houses have undergone minor "Victorianizations."

15. United States Post Office. Italianate Revival style, 1852.
Designed by Ammi B. Young of Boston, the Post Office is an overscaled and rigidly symmetrical 2-1/2 story, rectangular block of brick, load bearing construction set on a rubblestone foundations with bevel edged, cut granite blocks above grade. Five bays across the front and three bays across the side elevations, the three center bays of the front elevation are close set and form a slightly projecting pavilion. The building is divided visually by a projecting entablature-like belt course into an elevated ground story with round-arched fenestration and a monumentally scaled second story Piano Nobile. Three elongated rectangular windows with pedimented hoods supported by consoles differentiate the center pavilion's second story from the other second story bays with their smaller scale rectangular windows and separate transom-like windows directly above. The building's shallow hip roof is supported at the eaves by a stamped tin modillion cornice and is crowned by a square cupola with octagonal dome and gold-leafed, spread winged American eagle. Two chimney stacks with modillion cornices are centered on each side elevation and on the projecting center pavilion. The quoins, window architraves, pedimented window hoods, and exaggerated voussoirs which continue down the sides around the round-arched fenestration were executed in cast iron to imitate cut stone and are the building's most distinguishing architectural features.

16. Tuxbury Block. High Victorian Italianate style, 1898.
Erected by Albert Tuxbury, the building is a rigidly symmetrical, flat-roofed, 2-story, rectangular block of brick, load bearing construction with a recessed, center entrance cast iron storefront. The building's 2 stories are heightened across the front (west) and north side elevations by a high parapet punctuated with blind narrow slots. The parapet is enclosed at the corners by square battlements and is interrupted on the north side elevation by two equally spaced chimney stacks which corbel out from the wall just below. On the front elevation two similar stacks with narrow round-headed slots define the three center bays of the elevation and frame a plain, frieze-like section of parapet below a raided section corbeled and slotted cornice. A terra cotta plaque bearing "Tuxbury Block" is set into the frieze. The three center bays of the elevation are punctuated by three windows with contiguous round-arched hoods framing decorative terra cotta lunettes and are flanked by paired, flat-arched windows recessed in square panels with modillion cornices. The individual impost blocks of the arches are repeated in the flanking bays. The building survives in a virtually original state of preservation.

20. Central Vermont Railway Station, Windsor. Vernacular Romanesque style, circa 1905.
A 1-1/2 story building of brick construction, the station's long, rectangular form is dominated by an expansive hip roof which overhangs the walls 6-1/2 feet and is supported by bracketed, wood outriggers. The west (front) and east (trackside) elevations are punctuated by round-arched fenestration, three doors with flanking windows on the east and alternating doors and windows on the west. Near the south end of the west facade, the eaves line of the hip roof is broken by a projecting gable with decorative infill in the peak which covers a projecting pavilion with a paid of round-arched windows. On the east elevation in a corresponding position a station agent's office projects in a similar fashion but also projects through the hip roof, without breaking t he line of the eaves, and terminates in the form of a gable-roofed dormer. The building's round-arched fenestration is visually tied together by belt course slightly below impost level.

35. Rachel Harlow Methodist Church. High Victorian Gothic style, 1895.
Erected in memory of Rachel Harlow as the result of a bequest in her will, the church is a large rectangular structure of brick, load bearing construction dominated by an expansive gable roof with a corbelled cornice. The front gable elevation is punctuated by a large, round-arched, stained glass window containing a "rose window" tracery and is flanked on the south by a bell tower with a steep, slate-covered pyramid roof and an open bell chamber of round arches and on the north by a similar tower of smaller scale. A gable-roofed porch with ornamental trusses and a round, gable arch supported by groups of three slender columns frames the entrance on the south bell tower. A similar porch of smaller scale frames the entrance on the smaller north tower. The wall surfaces of the church and the towers are articulated by recessed rectangular panels framing gothic-arched stained glass windows; and the roofs of the porches and the towers are decoratively banded by colored, imbricated slates.

38. Old South Congregational Church. Federal style, 1798, 1844, 1879 and 1922.
Designed by Asher Benjamin in 1798, the portico was added to the church in 1879, and the interior, which had been remodelled in 1844 and again in 1879, was restored in 1922 to its supposed 1798 condition. A large, clapboarded, 2-1/2 story, gable-roofed, rectangular structure of post and beam construction set on a rubblestone foundation, the church's front gable elevation is broken b y a projecting entrance pavilion with a monumentally scaled, pedimented entrance portico supported by four fluted Ionic Columns. The portico's modillion entablature returns to fluted Ionic pilasters on the pavilion and continues around the perimeter of the church supported at the corners by staggered quoins. The front elevation is crowned by a tiered bell tower which steps over the front gable to sit partially on the gable roof of the pavilion. The interior of the church is illuminated on the first story by 20/20 windows and on the second story by elongated 25/25 windows with individual entablatures. Besides the monumental entrance portico, the bell tower is the church's most distinguishing feature. The tower is divided into four distinct sections: (1) a square, clapboarded, bottom tier with a modillion cornice; (2) a square,arcaded, second tier with Doric pilasters between the arches supporting an entablature and finialed balustrade, and with garland-draped urns in the blind corner arches; (3) an octagonal, open bell chamber of octagonal columns supporting a Doric entablature and a paneled balustrade; and (4) a shiplapped, octagonal cupola with Ionic pilasters supporting a modillion entablature capped with an inflected octagonal dome and weather vane.

48. St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Classical style, 1822.
Designed by Alexander Parris of Boston, St. Paul's is a monumentally scaled, gable-roofed, rectangular-shaped structure of brick, load bearing construction set on a rubblestone foundations. Measuring three bays across the front and five bays across the side elevations, a one-bay entrance portico with two stuccoed Ionic columns in antis is recessed into the pedimented front gable elevation. A brick entablature with wood cornice returns around the perimeter of the church and is supported at the corners, including the corners of the recessed portico, by brick pilasters. The front elevation is crowned by a dome-capped, tiered bell tower with a shiplapped, bottom tier and a louvered, octagonal bell chamber. Monumentally scaled, round-arched windows with mullioned sash on the exterior and stained glass sash on the interior conceal the church's actual two story, interior height. Secondary entrances with recessed, round stuccoed panels above are located in the end bays of the side elevations.

56. McIndoe House. Gothic Revival style, 1840.
Possibly erected by Isaac Townsend, the McIndoe House is one of the outstanding examples of Gothic Revival Cottage architecture in Vermont. Basically, a 1-1/2 story, gable-roofed cottage with an intersecting gable on the front (south) elevation, the house is unusual, architecturally, for the highly decorative quality of the exterior wall surface and the generous overabundance of Gothic Revival style details. The wall surface is articulated by narrow clapboards on the first story and by alternating bands of imbircated and butt staggered wood shingles above a slight flare between the first and second stories. Shed-roofed entrance porches with second story balconies and trefoil design railings frame the entrances on the front (south) and east gable end elevations. The front entrance porch is flanked on either side and across the front by a trefoil railed open deck. While narrow double-hung or casement windows with diamond paning is centered in the gable above each balconyıs entrance porch. A small trefoil window is also located in the gable peak on the front elevation above the second story window. The perimeter of the gable roof and intersecting gable is encircled by scroll sawn, pendent drop verge and eaves boards with pendents and finials in the gable peaks. The ridge of the roof is crowned symmetrically by a paid of paired, diagonally set chimney stacks. The unique architectural quality of the house suggests that the design of the house was either the work of an architect or the work of a highly skilled master carpenter who derived the design from the published house pattern books of the first half of the nineteenth century and possibly from those published by Andrew Jackson Downing: Cottage Residences (1842) and The Architecture of Country Houses (1849).

60. Windsor Town Hall (American Legion Hall). Romanesque style, 1888.
Designed by the Boston architectural firm of Appleton and Stephenson, the building's massive, block-like form, its brick walls pierced by narrow pairs of round-arched windows along the side (north and south)elevations, is dominated by an expansive, slate-covered hip roof supported by a corbelled cornice eleven brick courses high. The eaves line of the hip roof is broken on the front (west) elevation by a projecting, pedimented gable above a symmetrical grouping of three, round-arched windows on the second story and a round-arched entrance portal on the first. The narrow, round-arched windows of the side elevations are repeated on either side in the form of recessed panels framing a window, decorative, terra cotta tile and bull's eye window. A round terra cotta tile bearing a shield and the date 1888, is located in the pediment. A long rectangular terra cotta plaque bearing "Town Hall" is located above the entrance panel.

67. Pettes-Journal Block (Vermont National Bank). Federal style, 1824.
Erected by Frederick Pettes, this narrow, gable-roofed, 3-1/2 story, brick structure with a front gable elevation is dominated on the front and rear elevations by raking parapets symmetrically crowned on the ridge by a pair of interior chimney stacks. On the front (east) and north side elevations, three and seven bays across, respectively, the second and third story windows are set into recessed, rectangular wall panels one bay wide and two stories high. The first story windows on the north side elevation are recessed within elliptically-arched wall panels as is the window on the front gable flanked on either side by quarter-round panels. The Colonial Revival style storefront was added in 1913. In 1829 Simeon Ide, editor of the Vermont Journal, moved the newspaper from the Old Constitution House (78) to the building.

69. Windsor House. Greek Revival style, 1836.
The Windsor House was entered on the National Register of Historic Places on December 29, 1971.

72. Abner Forbes House. Federal style, 1796.
Erected by Abner Forbes, the house was also owned by William Maxwell Evarts and was one of the three houses, the others being the Zebina Curtis House and the John Skinner House, with Evart's residential compound. A clapboarded, 2-1/2 story, frame T-house with an extensive hip and one interior chimney on each end elevation, the house is elaborately detailed with a roof entablature in the Greek Doric Order, garland-draped entablature supported by paneled pilasters framing a transom light and entrance. The ell of the house is of brick, load bearing construction.

73. Zebina Curtis-William Maxwell Evarts House. Georgian style, 1796.
Started by Nathan Coolidge and completed by Zebina Curtis, the house was purchased in 1851 by William Maxwell Evarts for a summer residence. The house is a square, clapboarded, 2-1/2 story, frame structure with a truncated hip roof, symmetrically paired interior chimney stacks, and a "Georgian" floor plan. A dentilated modillion cornice supports the overhanging eaves of the roof. While the "Georgian" plan of the house is essentially unaltered, the interior has been remodelled several times in a variety of "Victorian" styles, and the taut planes of the exterior wall surface has been interrupted on the first floor by the addition of octagonal bay windows on the north, east, and south elevations.

74. John Skinner House. Federal style, circa 1820.
Erected by John Skinner, the house was one of the three owned by William Maxwell Evarts and located within Evarts' residential compound. The house is a gable-roofed, 2-1/2 story, brick structure with symmetrically paired, interior chimney stacks and raking parapets on the gable end (north and south) elevations, and a gable-roofed, 2-1/2 story, brick ell.

76. Simeon Ide House. Federal style, circa 1825.
Erected by Simeon Ide, the editor of the Vermont Journal, the house is a 2-1/2 story, brick structure with an expansive, gable roof and a front gable elevations, five bays across. A monumentally scaled, pedimented 2-story, temple portico supported by four unequally spaced Doric columns with a balustraded porch recessed into the pediment covered the facade.

7. Samuel Patrick, Jr. House. Federal style, circa 1825.

36. Clement Pettes House. Federal style, circa 1825.

37. Shubael Wardner House.Federal style, circa 1825.

52. Rufus Emerson-Gilbert Davis House. Federal style, 1831.

54. Johonnot House. Federal style, circa 1830.

70. Thomas Emerson-Edwin Stoughton House (Old Windsor Hospital). Federal style, 1836, and
75. Joseph Hatch (Edminster) House.Federal style, circa 1825.
These houses are architecturally similar, gable-roofed, 2-1/2 story, brick structures, three bays across their pedimented front gable elevations with symmetrically paired, interior chimney stacks on their side elevations. Erected in the early Greek Revival period, the houses are Federal in style with Greek Revival overtones. T he Shubael Wardner House with its front elevation divided into recessed panels by four Doric pilasters is the most Greek Revival in character.

The historically significant buildings in this district are:

33. Reuben Dean House, circa 1770 and 1899.
Originally 1-1/2 stories high with a center chimney stack, the house was partially destroyed by fire in 1879 and in 1899 was rebuilt as 2-1/2 stories. Reuben Dean, a silversmith and goldsmith,who in 1778 executed Ira Allen's design for the first Great Seal of the Republic of Vermont, occupied the house in the 1770s and 1780s.

61. Old Windsor County Courthouse (Carleton Hall), 1784.
Erected for use as the Windsor County Courthouse, this clapboarded, 2-1/2 story, gable-roofed, frame building was originally located on the Court Square Common. The building was moved to its present location on State Street in 1888 when the Windsor Town Hall (American Legion Hall) was built. The General Assembly of the State of Vermont met in the building in 1791, 1793, 1795, 1797 and 1804.

78. Old Constitution House, circa 1776.
The Old Constitution House was entered in the National Register of Historic Places on March 11, 1971.

Inventory of Structures Located Within the Windsor Village Historic District, Windsor, Vermont.

1. House, 9 Main Street: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, hiproofed, circa 1900, vernacular Queen Anne.

2. House, 15 Main Street: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, hiproofed, circa 1900, vernacular Queen Anne.

3. Jesse Lull House, 17 Main Street: see Description.

4. Carlos Coolidge House, 21 Main Street: see Description.

5. Naham Trask; House 25 Main Street: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed, Federal style I-House with symmetrically paired, interior chimney stacks on rear elevation; entablatures above first-story windows; pediment supported by pilasters framing entrance and fanlight. The house was erected by Naham Trask in 1796 and is similar, architecturally, to the Abner Forbes House (72).

6. House, 29 Main Street: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed, circa 1890, vernacular Queen Anne.

7. Samuel Patrick, Jr. House, 33 Main Street. see Description.

8. Luther Mills House, 35 Main Street: 1-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed, Gothic Revival style cottage with scroll sawn, trefoil patterned vergeboards. The house was erected by Luther Mills in circa 1840 and is a simplified version of the McIndoe House (46).

9. House, 37 Main Street: 1-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

10. House, 39 Main Street: 1-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

11. Congregational Parsonage, 41 Main Street: 1-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

12. House, 43 Main Street: 1-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

13. House, 49 Main Street: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, hip-roofed.

14. Unitarian Church, Main Street: 1-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed, Gothic Revival style church with front gable elevation; gothic-arched fenestration; steeplyspired, tiered octagonal bell tower. Erected in 1846.

15. United States Post Office, Main Street: see Description.

16. Tuxbury Block, 61 Main Street; see Description.

17. Stone Tracy Block 65 Main Street: 3-story, brick, flat-roofed, Italianate Revival style commercial building with early twentieth century storefront beneath entablature; segmentalarched, hooded windows; stamped tin, bracketed, modillion cornice; wall surfaces divided into recessed panels which rise height of building. The block was erected in 1888 and is similar, architecturally to the Amsdell Block (18) and the commercial blocks located at 15 State Street (51 and 52).

18. Amsden Block, 23 Depot Avenue 2story brick, flat-roofed, Italianate Revival style commercial building with cast iron columns across first story of front elevation which were integral parts of original cast iron storefront; segmental-arched, hooded windows; decorative arched, corbelled and banded cornice; wall surfaces divided into recessed panels. Erected in circa 1890, the block is similar, architecturally, to the Stone-Tracy Block (17) and the commercial blocks located at 15 State Street (51 and 52).

19. Central Vermont Railway Freight Station, Windsor; 1-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed building. Erected in circa 1850, the freight station is the first generation Vermont Central Railroad architecture.

20. Central Vermont Railway Station, Windsor, Depot Avenue: see Description.

21. Putnam Block, 8589 Main Street: 2-1/2 story, brick, flat-roofed commercial building with original 1914 storefronts; bracketed cornice.

22. Colby Block (Aubuchon Hardware), 105 Main Street 2-1/2 story, brick, gable-roofed, Federal style House with symmetrically paired, interior chimney stacks and raking parapets on gable end (north and south) elevations. Erected in 1831, before the addition of the extended storefront, the house was identical, architecturally, to the John Skinner House (74).

23. Sherman Block. 107-113 Main Street: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

24. House, 133 Main Street: 1-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed, Greek Revival.

25. Windsor Diner, 135 Main Street: stainless steel, patented roadside diner of the type commonly erected in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, Manufactured in 1955 by the Worcester Diner Company, of Worcester, Massachusetts, the diner (No. 835) was the last manufactured by this company and was moved to Windsor in 1958.

26. House, 137 Main Street; 1-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

27. House, 139 Main Street: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

28, House, 145 Main .Street 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed, vernacular Queen Anne.

29. Municipal Building (Windsor Fire Station), 147 Main Street: 2-story, brick, flat-roofed, Georgian Revival style firehouse with five elliptically-arched garage bays across front elevation; stepped parapet; exaggerated cut granite impost blocks, keystones, window lintels, and quoins. Erected in 1929.

30. House, 149 Main Street: 1-1/2story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

31. House, 151 Main Street: 2-1/2story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

32. House, 153 Main Street: 2-1/2story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed

33. Reuben Dean House, 161 Main Street: see Description,

34. Methodist Parsonage, 165 Main Street: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

35. Rachel Harlow Methodist Church, Main Street. see Description.

36. Clement Pettes House (B.P.O.E.), 156 Main Street: see Description.

37. Shubael Wardner House, 150 Main Street: see Description.

38. Old South Congregational Church, Main Street; see Description,

39. Old Apothecary Shop (Old Bank Building), 108 Main Street: 2-1/2 story, brick, gable-roofed building with front gable elevation; clapboarded, frame gables. Erected in 1804 by Isaac Green, a physician who settled in Windsor in 1788, for use as an apothecary shop, the building was used as a banking office from 1848 to 1881 by the Ascutney-Windsor Bank.

40. Isaac Green House (Knights of Columbus), 106 Main Street: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed, Federal style house with center chimney stack; parapeted north gable end elevation, The house was erected in 1792 by Isaac Green,

41. Nathaniel Leonard House (Masonic Lodge), 104 Main Street; 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gableroofed, Georgian style house with pediment supported by pilasters framing entrance and fanlight; palladian window; symmetrically paired interior chimney stacks; "Georgian" floor plan. The house was erected in circa 1785 by Nathaniel Leonard, was partially destroyed by fire in 1881 and rebuilt, and was restored in 1919 by George Gridley.

42. Bianchi Block, 8894 Main Street 2-story, brick, flat-roofed, commercial building with original 1915 storefronts; piers and slotted, corbelled cornice supporting parapet.

43. Merrifield Block, 82-86 Main Street: 2-1/2 story, brick, gable-roofed commercial building with stepped parapet on front elevation. Erected in 1849.

44. Stiles-Billings Block (Rexall Drugs), 80 Main Street: 3-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, hip-roofed commercial building, with bracketed entablature supported by corner pilasters. Erected in circa 1870.

45. MillerStuart Block, 9 State Street: 3 story, brick, flat-roofed. Erected in circa 1830.

46 & 47. Old Windsor Savings Bank Block (47) and Annex (46), 15 State Street: 2 story, brick, flat-roofed. Italianate Revival style commercial building, with segmental-arched, hooded fenestration, decorative, paneled, dentilated and banded cornice; wall surfaces divided into recessed panels. Erected in circa 1820; in circa 1870 when the annex was erected, the front building, originally only one story high, was remodelled.

48. St. Paul's Episcopal Church, State Street: see Description.

49. Episcopal Parsonage, 37 State Street: 2-1/2 story clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

50. House, 39 State Street: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

51. Windsor Library, 43 State Street. 1-1/2 story, brick, gable-roofed, Georgian Revival style library with entablatured and pedimented granite entrance portico supported by Doric columns; exaggerated cut granite silled and linteled windows, quoins dentilated cornice, and raking, corniced parapets with one interior chimney stack centered on ridge on gable end (east and west) elevations. Erected in circa 1905.

52. Rufus Emerson-Gilbert Davis House (Davis Home), 45 State Street: see Description.

53. House, 46 Court Square: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed, circa 1800, Federal.

54. Johonnot House, 44 Court Square: see Description.

55. House, 40 Court Square: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, hip-roofed.

56. McIndoe House, 5 Court Street: see Description.

57. House, 10 Court Street: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, hip-roofed, circa 1890, vernacular. Queen Anne.

58. House, 8 Court Street: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed, circa 1860, Gothic Revival.

59. House, 6 Court Street: 1-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed, circa 1840, Greek Revival.

60. Windsor Town Hall (American Legion Hall, Court Street: see Description.

61. Old Windsor County Courthouse, 24 State Street: see Description.

62. Commercial Block, 16 State Street: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

63. Commercial Block, 12 State Street: 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

64. Commercial Block 10 State Street 2-1/2 story, clapboarded, frame, gable-roofed.

65.Tontine Block (Windsor News Co.), 70 Main Street: 2-1/2 story, brick, gable-roofed, commercial building with raking parapet on gable end (north and south) elevations. Erected in circa 1825, this building was the end section of a tontine commercial block which ran north and abutted the Pettes-Journal Block (67).

66. J. J. Newberry Co., 64-68 Main Street: 1 story, brick, flat-roofed store with original 1929 storefront.

67. Pettes-Journal Block (Vermont National Bank), 60 Main Street: see Description.

68. Old Namco (National Acme Machine Company) Armory: 1-1/2 story, brick, gable-roofed, circa 1910.

69. Windsor House, 54 Main Street: see Description.

70. Thomas Emerson-Edwin Stoughton House (Old Windsor Hospital), 48 Main Street: see Description.

71. Baptist Church, Main Street: 1-1/2 story, brick, gable-roofed, pseudo Gothic Revival style church with gothic-arched fenestration; projecting, castellated bell tower on front gable elevation. Erected in 1943.

72. Abner Forbes House, 38 Main Street: see Description.

73. Zebina Curtis-William Maxwell Evarts House, 34 Main Street: see Description.

74. John Skinner House, 26 Main Street see Description.

75. Joseph Hatch (Edminster) House, 24 Main Street: see Description.

76. Simeon Ide House, 20 Main Street: see Description.

77. Susan Bishop House, 18 Main Street: 1-1/2 story, brick, gable-roofed, gothicized Greek Revival.

78. Old Constitution House, Main Street: see Description.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The Windsor Village Historic District represents a significant concentration of architectural styles dating from the 1790s through the early twentieth century. Reflecting the nineteenth century commercial and manufacturing prosperity of the village, the building form architecturally cohesive residential and commercial streetscapes which illustrate the village's predominantly nineteenth century development. Besides including a unique concentration of Federal style houses along Main Street--the Federal style Vermont National Bank, the Greek Revival style Windsor House, the Gothic Revival style McIndoe House, the Romanesque style Windsor Town Hall and Windsor Railroad Station, the High Victorian Italianate Tuxbury Block and the High Victorian Gothic Rachel Harlow Methodist Church, St. Paul's Episcopal Church and the United State Post Office, each designed by a nationally prominent nineteenth century "architect." While Alexander Parris and Ammi B. Young were practicing out of Boston at the time of their commissions for St. Paul's Episcopal Church and the United States Post Office, respectively, Asher Benjamin was residing in Windsor at the time he designed Old South Congregational Church in 1798 and was responsible for the designs of three demolished houses, the Fullerton House (1800), the Lane House (1802) and the Hubbard House (1803).

Equally significant, Windsor Village, under the impetus and the expertise of Historic Windsor, Inc., is actively playing a leading role in the field of historic preservation in the State of Vermont and, specifically, in the preservation of Windsor's historic villagescape. The village owes its late eighteenth century development and nineteenth century growth and prosperity to a number of important determining stimuli.

(1) In 1777, representatives of the New Hampshire and New York Grants, meeting in the Old Constitution House, adopted the first constitution of the "free and independent" Republic of Vermont. From 1777 to 1808 the village was the part-time capital of the new Republic, seat of Windsor County. The result was an early influx of professional people; i.e., lawyers, physicians, merchants, businessmen and entrepreneurs into the village who recognized the political and economic necessity and opportunities of being directly associated with the new republic's and then stateıs seat of government and, to a lesser extent, with the county seat. By 1783 there was enough political stability and commercial prosperity in the village to support the publication of a local newspaper, the politically important Vermont Journal. Some of the prominent individuals associated with the village were: (a) Reuben Dean, a silversmith and goldsmith, who in 1778 executed Ira Allen's design for the first Great Seal of the Republic of Vermont; (b) Horace Everett (1779-1851), one of Vermont's prominent early nineteenth century jurists and legislators in whose office William Maxwell Evarts studied law following his graduation from Yale College in 1837; (c) William Maxwell Evarts (1818-1901), a prominent jurist and statesman who served as President Andrew Johnson's Attorney General, as the Chief Counsel for the Defense in Johnson's 1868 impeachment trial, and as President Rutherford B. Hayes' Secretary of State; (d) Nicanor Kendell, Richard Lawrence and Samuel Robbins, inventors and entrepreneurs and the founders of the Robbins and Lawrence Company, the first manufactory in the United States to mass produce rifles with interchangeable parts.

(2) Authorized by an act of the State Legislature in 1807, in 1809 the first Vermont State Prison was erected in the village on State Street. While probably considered a social disgrace by the village community, the prison supported numerous local commercial services and provided a local labor force for some of the village's manufacturing concerns.

(3) The village's location on the Connecticut River, immediately to the north of Mill Brook, provided convenient access to a number of transportation routes which were essential to the village's nineteenth century commercial growth and prosperity and which stimulated the village's development as a commercial center for surrounding towns. In 1796 the first toll bridge across the Connecticut River was erected on the location of the present (1975) Windsor-Cornish Bridge; and in 1800 a charter was granted by the State Legislature to the Connecticut River Turnpike Company to build a toll road between Bellows Falls and Thetford. Besides providing river transportation, the Connecticut River Valley was also the proposed and eventually chosen route of the Vermont Central Railroad (Central Vermont Railway). Started in 1847, the railroad enhanced the village's commercial and manufacturing prosperity by providing direct rail transportation with the rest of New England and the eastern United States.

The village's dependence on transportation for its commercial and manufacturing prosperity also resulted in its development along Main Street, the village's principal arterial corridor, away from its traditional development around Court Square, the village's original center common. When the railroad went through in 1847, Depot Avenue was opened down to the tracks from Main Street to the new passenger and freight depots; and the village adjusted its growth to include this new transportation ingredient.

(4) Mill Brook, located immediately south of the village, was an important factor in determining the village's location and was the principal waterpower source for the village's nineteenth century industries. The earliest dams across the book were erected as early as 1769 when the first sawmill and grist mill were erected. The brook's importance as a waterpower source was underscored in 1834 when the Ascutney Mill Dam Company erected a masonry, gravity-arch dam across the brook to increase the utility and potential of the brook's waterpower to industries located along it by providing a storage reservoir to regulate the flow of water in the brook and thereby eliminate seasonal irregularities. The company's principal interest was to accelerate the village's industrial growth by guaranteeing continuous waterpower. By the end of the Civil War the village was one of the leading manufacturing centers in New England.

Some of the important nineteenth century manufactories which were responsible for the village's growth were: (a) American Hydraulic Company (1829), manufacturers of the "Revolving Hydraulic Engine" (water pump) invented and patented by Asahel Hubbard in 1828. The pumps were manufactured by prisoners working in a machine shop in the Vermont State Prison. (b) Robbins and Lawrence Company (1846-1855), manufacturers of rifles with interchangeable parts. The Winchester Repeating Arms Company of New Haven, Connecticut, and the Smith and Wesson Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, were the direct outgrowths of the Robbins and Lawrence Company following its bankruptcy in 1855. (c) Windsor Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing Company (1828). (d) Windsor Manufacturing Company (1865), manufacturers of machine tools, repeating and single shot rifles, sewing machines and Lane's Patented Circular Sawmills. The Windsor Manufacturing Company was the successor to the Robbins and Lawrence Company, the predecessor to the Jones and Lamson Machine Company, and by 1869 the largest manufactory in the village. The Jones and Lamson Machine Company, manufacturers of machine tools, moved to Springfield, Vermont, in 1879. (e) Windsor Machine Company (1888), manufacturers of machine tools. Organized when the Jones and Lamson Machine Company moved to Springfield, Vermont, in 1879, in 1910 the Windsor Machine Company was incorporated nationally as the National Acme Machine Company.

MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

Beers, F. W. Atlas of Windsor County, Vermont. F. W. Beers, A. D. Ellis and C. G. Soule, Publishers; New York: 1869.

Child, Hamilton. Gazetteer and Business Directory of Windsor County, Vermont, for 1883-84. Syracuse, New York: 1884.

Roe, Joseph W. English and American Tool Builders. The Yale Press; New Haven, Connecticut: 1916.

Archival and historic research material in the possession of Catherine Conlin, Windsor, Vermont, and of Historic Windsor Inc., Windsor, Vermont.

FORM PREPARED BY: Courtney Fisher, Historic Preservation Specialist, Vermont Division of Historic Sites, Pavilion Building, Montpelier VT. Tel: 802-828-3226. Date: March 31, 1975.

DATE ENTERED: April 23, 1975.
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