NEW HAMPSHIRE HISTORIC PROPERTY DOCUMENTATION 124 GREEN STREET (SHED/GARAGE)

NH STATE NO. 678 Location: 124 Green Street, Berlin, Coos County, New Hampshire USGS Berlin Quadrangle UTM Coordinates: Z19 4926195N 326135E Present Owner: State of New Hampshire Present Occupant: Vacant Present Use: Vacant Construction/ Renovation Date: c.1900 with garage addition about 1915 Significance: This small shed/garage contributes to the Berlin Heights Addition

Historic District under Criterion A. It retains integrity and contributes to the district, because garages and other accessory buildings are important components in the neighborhood. In this case, the small structure supported and provided storage for a small neighborhood grocery store that operated on the first floor of the building to the front, into the 1960s.

Project Info.: Project personnel included Lisa Mausolf, Historian, and Charley

Freiberg, Photographer. Existing Conditions Surveys, Inc. prepared the plans. This documentation is mitigation for the relocation of NH Route 110 through the Berlin Heights Neighborhood Addition Historic District. This document draws extensively from earlier documentation prepared by Preservation Company including The Avenues/Berlin Heights Addition Historic District Area Form 2004 and the 2008 addendum. The large format photographs were taken in November 2010 and July 2011 and the report was finalized in August 2015. The building was demolished in Winter 2011/Spring 2012.

Shed/Garage 124 Green Street NH State No. 678 (Page 2) Description: The main building at 124 Green Street is a 2 ½-story, gable-front structure that historically contained a grocery store downstairs and an apartment upstairs. The building has been extensively altered in recent years. In particular, the enclosure and expansion of the front exterior porches has dramatically changed the appearance of the building. Less important alterations include the changes in siding and windows. Its original usage is no longer readable. The residence is considered non-contributing to the Berlin Heights Addition Historic District. This documentation focuses on the shed behind the dwelling. Just behind the main house is a detached, side-gabled, storage shed consisting of three distinct sections. The building rests on rough stones and is now sheathed in vinyl siding. The gable roof is covered with asphalt shingles. The west wall has an asymmetrical gable profile. The western portion of the structure consists of two offset, squarish storage rooms, each measuring approximately ten feet square. The front wall of the west room projects slightly. These two rooms are not interconnected and each has a beadboard wooden door on its front, constructed of vertical bead boards. There are no window openings in either room. The interior of the shed is not finished and is appropriate for use as cold storage only. The center room has shelves along the north and east walls and a workbench on the south wall. There is horizontal board sheathing between the two rooms. The west room has seen the addition of some modern insulation boards between the studs. Attached to the east end is a 19’ x 10’gablefront garage that was added later. It has a poured concrete floor and foundation and there are double doors constructed of vertical doors on the south side. There is a small single pane window opening toward the rear of the east elevation and a door cut into the west wall, leading into the adjacent shed. History: The main building at 124 Green Street was constructed between 1909 and 1914 (Sanborn maps). There does not appear to be a listing for the address in the 1910 Census. In 1914 Ferdinand (Frank) Bisson was granted a building permit to construct a two-story building on Green Street that was likely this building (1914 Annual Report). His wife, Celena Lemere Bisson, had acquired this property and 114 Green Street in 1913 after the death of her first husband, Augustus Lemere (Coos County Registry of Deeds Book 120, Page 347). The Lemeres lived at 114 Green Street in the late 19th century (Hurd Atlas 1892).

Shed/Garage 124 Green Street NH State No. 678 (Page 3) Historically the main building at 124 Green Street contained a grocery store downstairs and an apartment upstairs. This shed appears to be the building depicted along the street line to the southwest of 114 Green Street on the 1901-1909 Sanborn maps. When 124 Green Street was constructed, the shed was apparently located to the northwest of 114 Green Street. Between 1914 and 1920 the outbuilding achieved its present appearance with the addition of the single car garage to the east (Sanborn map). The shed probably served as storage for the grocery store which operated here into the 1960s. Around 1920 the grocery store was operated by Russian born, Diana Isaacson, wife of Israel. By 1924 Frank Bisson was running the grocery. Joseph and Rose Vaillancourt purchased the property in October 1929 from Ferdinand (Frank) Bisson (Book 254, Page 223). In the 1930s Joseph Vaillancourt was the owner and proprietor of the grocery store. His son Harry and wife Ella kept the grocery store in the 1950s. The store closed after he died in the 1960s and the ground floor was converted to residential use. The property was sold by Leo Vaillancourt in 1974 to Oreste and Antonietta Mosca (Book 569, Page 501). Later owners included David and Sophie Dumais who purchased the property in 1978 (Book 610, Page 370). This property and 114 Green Street next door were both acquired by Marcel Arseneau in 1985. The property was sold by members of the Arseneau family to the State of New Hampshire in December 2010 (Book 1317, Page 190).

Shed/Garage 124 Green Street

NH State No. 678 (Page 4) Bibliography Berlin Directories, various dates. City of Berlin, Annual Report, 1914. Coos County Registry of Deeds, Lancaster, NH. Preservation Company. Area Form for the Avenues/Berlin Heights Addition Historic District, 2008 Addendum. [On file at the NH Division of Historical Resources, Concord]. Sanborn Insurance Maps, Berlin, 1901, 1905, 1909, 1914, 1928, 1950. Town and City Atlas of New Hampshire. Boston: D.H. Hurd & Co., 1892. U.S. Census, 1900-1930.

Shed/Garage 124 Green Street

NH State No. 678 (Page 5)

1909 Sanborn Map

Note that there is no house on site of 124 Green Street. The one-story shed along the street (circled, in front of 114 Green Street) appears to have been later moved to back of 124 Green. See next (1920) map.

Shed/Garage 124 Green Street

NH State No. 678 (Page 6)

1914 Sanborn Map

Note shed (circled) has been moved to rear of 124 Green Street.

Shed/Garage 124 Green Street

NH State No. 678 (Page 7)

1920 Sanborn Map (same in 1928 & 1950)

Note that right half of shed (circled) has been expanded by a front addition.

Shed/Garage 124 Green Street

NH State No. 678 (Page 8)

Existing Site Map

Shed/Garage 124 Green Street NH State No. 678 (Page 9)

NEW HAMPSHIRE HISTORIC PROPERTY DOCUMENTATION

INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS

NH State No. 678 Shed/Garage 124 Green Street Berlin, Coos County New Hampshire Photographer: Charley Freiberg NH State No. 678-1 View looking north looking at south (façade) elevation of

124 Green Street (gable-front building at left). [November 2010]

NH State No. 678-2 View looking west showing south (façade) elevation of

original portion of shed. [November 2010] NH State No. 678-3 View looking east showing west and south (façade)

elevations. [November 2010] NH State No. 678-4 View looking east showing west and north (rear) elevations

of original portion of shed. [November 2010] NH State No. 678-5 View looking northwest showing south (façade) and east

elevations of gablefront garage added to east end of shed. [November 2010]

NH State No. 678-6 View looking west at east elevation of garage. [November

2010] NH State No. 678-7 Interior, center room in shed, looking north toward back

wall. [July 2011] NH State No. 678-8 Interior, westernmost room in shed, looking north toward

back wall. [July 2011] NH State No. 678-9 Interior, garage at east end of building, looking north

toward rear wall. [July 2011]

Shed/Garage 124 Green Street

NH State No. 678 Key to Photographs (Page 2)

Photo Key

Shed/Garage 124 Green Street

NH State No. 678 Key to Photographs (Page 3)

Photo Key

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