Nichols House (East Barre, Vermont)

The Nichols House stands in a rural area of eastern Barre, on the northern corner of the four-way junction of Little John, Waterman, Donahue, and Lowery Roads. The house is oriented facing southwest toward Little John Road. It is a 1+1⁄2-story wood-frame Cape-style house with a gabled roof, central chimney, and clapboarded exterior. Its main facade has three bays with a central entrance flanked by sash windows. The molding surrounding the doors and windows is simple, and the only significant architectural note is the four-light transom window above the entrance. A modern ell, also 1+1⁄2 stories, extends to the right, stepped back from the main block.^[2]

Thomas Nichols moved with his family to the Barre area in 1799 from Worcester, Massachusetts, and built this house. He died the following year, leaving his seventeen-year-old son as head of the household. The house remained in the family until at least the late 19th century. It is an extremely rare example of a vernacular pre-Greek Revival house in the Barre-Montpelier area.^[2]

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