Built 1885-1886 Area 2,910 m² Added to NRHP 17 May 1982 | NRHP Reference # 82001701 Architecture firm Peabody and Stearns | |
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Location 384 and 388 Main Street, Burlington, Vermont Architectural style Shingle Style, transitional, including elements of Georgian, Queen Anne and Colonial styles | ||
The Daniel Webster Robinson House is an historic house at 384-388 Main Street in Burlington, Vermont. It was designed by the Boston firm of Peabody and Stearns and built in 1885-1886 for prepared lumber magnate Daniel Webster Robinson. Since 1931 it has housed the Alpha Iota Chapter of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority affiliated with the University of Vermont (UVM). It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Description and history
The Daniel Webster Robinson House stands on the north side of Main Street, just west of the main UVM campus, between South William and South Willard Streets. It is a three-story wood-frame structure, basically rectangular, with its massing obscured by a wealth of asymmetrical architecture typical of the Queen Anne period. The front facade features a low projecting turret on the second level at the right corner, with a wraparound porch that is open across most of the front, with an roofed corner pavilion at the left, and a covered porch on the right side that continues to a shingled porte-cochere with rounded opening. The front-facing cross gable of the main roof has a window set in it, below which is a corbel-like bulge. The interior of the building retains a significant amount of original woodwork and other decorative elements, despite its extended use as a sorority house. The period carriage house, which is also finely crafted, stands behind the main house, and has been converted to residential use.
The house was built in 1885-85 for Daniel Webster Robinson, then a leading force in one of Burlington's largest lumber companies. Robinson in 1897 bought out the remaining interests in the Barnes Company which he had been part-owner of since 1873. The house was designed by Peabody and Stearns of Boston, a major architectural firm of the period; it is one of the firm's significant works in Vermont.