John B. Robarge Duplex

The John B. Robarge Duplex stands on the east side of North Champlain Street in Burlington's Old North End neighborhood, a short way south of its junction with North Street. It is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. Its front is symmetrical, with two window bays on each story, and a round-arch window set in the gable. Most windows are rectangular sash, topped by a low-pitch gabled lintel. A cross-gable section projects symmetrical to each side in the rear half of the building, with nearly identical porches set in the front corners. The porches have hip roofs, with supporting posts topped by brackets at the eaves.^[2]

The duplex was built c. 1878–1879, and is a particularly refined yet vernacular expression of the Italianate for what is essentially a working-class house. It is one of the city's few known examples of an Italianate style duplex. It was built by John Robarge, a blacksmith who built several properties on North Champlain and nearby streets in an area that had formerly been a private estate. Robarge and later his remarried widow used the house as rental property.^[2]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Chittenden County, Vermont