Vermont - St. Johnsbury - Main St.

Main Street (Alternate US Route 5), St. Johnsbury



Photos start where Main Street first makes it up the hill at Fairbanks Drive. The columnar building is Fuller Hall, part of St. Johnsbury Academy, and has the distinction of being #1000 Main.


Note this building well. It's the South Congregational Church, built in 1861 when the 2nd Congregational Church got too big for its britches.


Caledonia County Courthouse. Counties don't really matter in New England, but county courthouses are cool.


The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum is notable for being both a library and art gallery, all owned by the town. Located at the west end of Eastern Avenue, it was built in 1871 and furnished by famous librarian William Frederick Poole (books) and businessman Horace Fairbanks (artwork). Fairbanks invented the platform scale and is part of a wealthy family heritage in St. Johnsbury. The library has dozens of paintings from the quintessentially American Hudson River School.


This 1870 commercial building is across from the Athenaeum.


This is not the last you'll see of the Fairbanks name.


St. Johnsbury House is on the corner of Central Street.


Continuing north through "uptown" (with "downtown" being down the hill along Railroad Street).


The north side of St. Johnsbury is clearly God's country. These are just two of many churches, St. Andrew's Episcopal and the Caledonia Christian School.


Look east past the Caledonia School and you'll see this ornate building at the end of Prospect Street.


Told you there would be more Fairbanks. This is the 1889 Fairbanks Museum, started by Franklin, who was Horace's son and also got into the platform scale business. (Yes, they did more than scales.)


Hey, remember I told you to note a building? Got distracted by all those other buildings? This is the North Congregational Church, which was actually the original Congregational Church. They kept constructing and repurposing buildings, so this one was built in 1878 after the 2nd Congregational Church building was moved off site and decommissioned as the "Music Hall." To prove this is the older congregation, it's located at Church Street.


#1330 Main Street faces the North Congregational Church.


Not only was I not done with churches, but I haven't even photographed all of them in this modest town of 7,600. The last one I got to was St. John the Evangelist, not the town's namesake but conceivably could claim such. (The town was named for Jean de Crèvecœur, friend of Ethan Allen and other patriots.)


On the east and west sides of Main Street, respectively.


The 1888 Charles H. Stevens House is on the west side of Main Street across from "Idlewood" (#1496 Main), whose provenance I have been unable to glean.


The most historic house of the bunch is the 1820 Ephraim Paddock House, #1520 Main.

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