The Railroad Street Historic District encompasses a cluster of commercial and railroad-related buildings at the traditional late 19th-century heart of St. Johnsbury, Vermont. It includes five commercial buildings and the town's 1883 union depot, and is reflective of the town's importance as a major railroad junction in northern New England. The district was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1974. It was subsumed by the larger St. Johnsbury Historic District in 1980. with

Description and history

The town of St. Johnsbury was transformed in the mid-19th century into a bustling railroad service center by the arrival of both north-south and east-west railroad lines. The town's Union Station, a substantial brick French Chateau-style building, was built to accommodate the traffic of both the

Connecticut and Passumpsic Railroad Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

(which carried main-line passenger traffic between

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

) and the St. Johnsbury and Lake Champlain Railroad, which served north Vermont to the west. Fires in 1892 and 1896 cleared commercial buildings northwest of the depot, at what is now the corner of Railroad Street and Eastern Avenue. New brick commercial buildings were built to replace those lost in the fires. with The historic district includes, in addition to the 1883 depot, four buildings on the east side of Railroad Street, and one on the west side, all extending north from the junction with Eastern Avenue. It also includes Depot Square, a small grassy area between the depot and Railroad Street. The most architecturally prominent of the commercial buildings are the Citizens and Merchants Bank Blocks, a pair of similarly-styled Romanesque four-story blocks at the southern end of the row, which share an elaborate cornice and rows of arched windows. Both were designed by Lambert Packard, a prominent local architect who borrowed extensively from the

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

in the design of these buildings. On the west side of Railroad Street is the former New Avenue Hotel, also four stories in height, with a large round entry section at the corner of Railroad and Eastern.

References

{{NRHP in Caledonia County, Vermont Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont National Register of Historic Places in Caledonia County, Vermont St. Johnsbury, Vermont Historic districts in Caledonia County, Vermont

Description and history

See also

References