Location: 705 Province St, Richford, VT 05476
The Vermont border station located at Richford is one of twelve surviving complexes erected between 1931 and 1937 along the Vermont-Quebec border. This handsome Colonial Revival building, designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury and constructed in 1934, shares common technical, stylistic and programmatic features with other stations constructed at that time.
As a group, the border stations are closely associated with three major themes in twentieth century American history: Prohibition (1919-1933), the popularization of the automobile, and the Depression of the 1930s. The stations are also associated with a massive public building program that nearly doubled the number of Federal buildings, coupled with the extensive rebuilding of Vermont’s road system following the Great Flood of November 3, 1927.
Today the large concentration of contemporary architecturally-related border stations surviving in Vermont is exceptional within the context of the United States. Of this group, the Richford station is nearly identical in design to those at West Berkshire and North Troy, but the least well preserved. The border station is one of two masonry public buildings located in the town of Richford. It retains many of its original character-defining features, notably morphology, masonry detailing and and most fenestration, and projects an iconographic image of American architecture at the international border.
Facts
- Architects: Simon, Louis A.
- Construction Dates: 1932-1934
- GSA Building Number: VT0014ZZ
- Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places
U.S. General Services Administration
