White River Junction
“It’s what I call ‘Little Italy,’ ” architectural historian Brian Knight said, referring to a stretch of South Main Street that extends from the Freight House down to an old cemetery.
“All of these houses but one can be traced back to turn-of-the-century immigrant families from Italy,” he said.
The Selectboard voted unanimously last week to ex pand the downtown’s White River Junction Historic District so that it will include 19 new buildings on South Main Street and three new buildings on Maple Street.
The Polka Dot building at 7 North Main St., which has always been located in the historic district, is now more than 50 years old and can be recognized as a contributing structure.
The vote caps more than a year of planning that included mailings to affected property owners and two community meetings.
Once the expansion is made official on the National Register of Historic Places, building owners will be eligible to apply for federal tax credits for development projects that maintain the historic character of their structures.
Access to that funding can make the difference for a project’s prospects, enabling potential harmony between economic development and historic preservation goals, Jonathan Schechtman, chairman of the Historic Preservation Commission, told the Selectboard, according to CATV video of the meeting.
“A decade or so ago, … I was asked about the negative aspects of historic preservation by one of the selectmen, who was sure that saving old buildings was going to just give White River a nosedive,” Schechtman said. “One can now see that it’s the opposite. This is a destination place. People have more pride in the town and the hamlets.”
When it was created in 1980, White River Junction became Hartford’s first historic district. Since then, eight more districts have been created in Hartford, including the Advent Camp Meeting Grounds in 2017. As one of only 14 certified local governments in the state, Hartford has leveraged those districts for $165,000 in funding from grants designed to protect historic community resources.
Since being founded, the White River Junction Historic District has grown from 29 buildings to 71 in 2002, the last time it was expanded.
Now, the district will include 98 buildings on not only North and South Main streets, but also on Currier, Gates, Bridge and Maple streets.
While the federal incentives can help a property owner decide to preserve a building, being listed on the National Register doesn’t offer any legal protections for those structures.
Members of the Historic Preservation Commission have for years talked about the possibility of drafting a local ordinance that would inhibit the demolition of historic buildings, but nothing formal has been proposed.
Since 2002, three contributing buildings in the district have been demolished, while three other buildings now have reached the age of 50, making them eligible to be listed as contributing resources. Besides the Polka Dot, other buildings now eligible include the small brick veneer Guarino Office Building at 80 North Main St. and the Coolidge Apartments, which features an eight-bay-wide barn-like rear section at 151 Gates St.
A fourth building, the two-story brick St. Anthony’s Rectory at 41 Church St., was constructed in 1968 and could be included, according to Knight.
Many of the South Main Street buildings were built for a late-1800s and early-1900s wave of Italian immigrants who came to White River Junction to work in the railyard and retail industries.
For example, 304 South Main St. is an unassuming multi-unit apartment building with a wooden frame cloaked in gray vinyl siding. According to the proposed listing, the building’s first known occupants were the Regione family — Carlo Regione, who emigrated from Italy in 1893 and Michael Regione, who emigrated from Abilene, Italy in 1902. Both worked for the railroad, and each was raising a family in half of the home.
The Regiones rented the building from Alfred Guarino, a judge of the Hartford Municipal Court, who bought and sold several properties in the downtown area. By 1930, Michael and Louisa Regione were raising seven children in the house; the kids held the jobs of seamstress and laborer with Twin State Fruit Co. and the Civilian Conservation Corps.
The Regione and Guarino families were part of a vibrant community that made its mark on the town’s infrastructure and culture with an Italian-language newspaper, churches, groceries and residences.
Some of the buildings that are being added to the historic district once held markets — Charles Carlo opened the Carlo Fruit Store at 89 South Main St. (1910s to 1969) at the site of what is currently a barbershop. Sabino Romano offered “fruit, candy, vegetables, cigars and ice cream,” from his 112 South Main St. market, and Giachino Romano opened the Progressive Market at 173 South Main St. in 1922, a community flagship that continued as “Falzarano’s Progressive Market, Italian Deli and Specialties” until about 2001.
Some of the historic commercial and industrial buildings on the street include the Planned Parenthood building at 79 South Main, the warehouse at 87 South Main, Colodny’s Surprise Department Store at 92 South Main, the Falzarano Commercial Block, at 93 South Main, White River Savings Bank/Edson Grocery at 104 South Main, the Parker Commercial Block at 112 South Main, Number Four Building at 129 South Main, Talbert Bakery/Fong’s Chinese Laundry at 153 South Main, Swift & Company at 158 South Main, an automobile garage at 163 South Main, Windsor County Farmers’ Exchange at 186 South Main, the Freight House at 188 South Main, and the Twin State Electrical Building at 241 South Main, Texaco Lot at 264 South Main.
Historic South Main Street residences that will be included in the district are: Pratt House at 167 South Main, Butman House at 183 South Main, the Gallo House at 191 South Main, Fucci Home at 253 South Main, Lang House at 261 South Main, Izzo House at 273 South Main, Esposito House at 279 South Main, Falzarano Tenement and House at 320 South Main, Schettino House at 332 South Main, Tisi House at 360 South Main, and houses at 145, 230 and 240 South Main.
A house of worship includes Old St. Anthony’s Parish at 407 South Main.
Now, that it has received the Selectboard’s approval, the proposed historic district expansion will be considered by the Vermont Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in July and then sent to the National Park Service to be finalized.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.
Correction
A barbershop is in 89 South Main St. in White River Junction. An earlier version of this story inaccurately described the business.