This story by Matt Hongoltz-Hetling originally appeared in the Valley News on May 30, 2018.
[W]HITE RIVER JUNCTION — In a move made in part to honor this river town’s Italian-American past, the town Selectboard last week voted to expand the downtown historic district to include a residential portion of South Main Street.
“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 to an old cemetery. “All of these houses but one can be traced back to turn-of-the-century immigrant families from Italy.”
The Selectboard vote was unanimously in favor of expanding the existing 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., already 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 new buildings are formally added to the National Register of Historic Places, owners will be eligible to apply for federal tax credits for development projects that maintain the historic character of their structures.
Access to funding will help achieve harmony between economic development and historic preservation goals, Jonathan Schechtman, chair 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.”
White River Junction’s historic district, created in 1980, was Hartford’s first historic district. Since then, eight more districts have been created, including the Advent Camp Meeting Grounds designated 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 its designation, the White River Junction Historic District has grown from the original 29 buildings to 71 in 2002, the last time it was expanded.
Now, the district will encompass 98 buildings, on North and South Main streets, as well as on Currier, Gates, Bridge and Maple streets.
While the federal incentives are available for encouraging property owners to preserve a building, listing on the National Register offers no legal protections for the structures.
Members of the Historic Preservation Commission have for years talked about drafting a local ordinance inhibiting the demolition of historic buildings, but nothing formal has been proposed.
Since 2002, three buildings in the district have been demolished. 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 lived with his 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 rearing seven children in the house. The children were employed as 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 added to the historic district once held markets — Charles Carlo opened the Carlo Fruit Store at 89 South Main St. (1910 to 1969) at the site of what is currently a beauty salon. 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.
Now that it has received Selectboard approval, the proposed expansion will be considered by the Vermont Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in July. Once approved, the proposal will be forwarded to the National Park Service.
