When the state of Vermont needed to build more office space in the late 1930s, it looked no further than across the street from the Statehouse. That stretch of street was occupied by four residential buildings that would have to be removed to make room for the large Art Deco/Modernist-style building designed by Burlington architect William Freeman. Three of the structures were demolished, but one, the impressive brick Queen-Anne-style house designed by Montpelier architect and mayor George Guernsey for Edward Dewey, was moved down the street to 128 State Street in 1948 (see “Then & Now,” The Bridge, August 3, 2022). Dewey, the son of National Life founder Julius Dewey, had built his new home on the site of his family’s home in 1889 and moved the old house to 144 State Street, where it stood until it was demolished in 1969. The office building is decorated with the names of Vermont’s counties inscribed on the frieze between the fourth and fifth floors and with a bias relief of Ceres on the front doors, looking across the street at the statue of Ceres on top of the Statehouse.
