Bill Truex Remembers the Development of Church Street

Perhaps the first seed was sown for the development of the Church Street Marketplace when my wife and I made a return visit to Copenhagen. We first visited the city while on a leave of absence from Harvard. Not far from the well-known “little mermaid on the rock” was a very congested shopping area, simply a traffic-snarled nightmare. As we were returning home four months later, we stopped in Copenhagen again and found something quite special … the cars had been removed; people were now able to access the street without the hassle of traffic. The change was dramatic! The wonderful image of the joyful crowds made a strong impression.

In 1966, I joined Linde Hubbard, an architectural firm participating on a development team for Burlington’s urban renewal project. At that time, I became active in the Vermont chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) where I formed an urban design committee and received permission to design a connector between the urban renewal project and Church Street. In December of 1968, I started a practice with Gene Alexander and applied for membership to the planning commission, whose responsibilities included planning projects and creating zoning ordinances, and urban renewal. In 1970, I was fortunate to become chairman of the Planning Commission and the Urban Renewal Agency.

At this time, I approached Pat Robins, who was heading up the Street Commission, and requested permission to close Church Street to traffic on the day of the Merchants Bureau’s annual sidewalk sale. I saw this as an opportunity to really demonstrate the idea of a pedestrian area. Four generous area nurseries agreed to landscape the four blocks, benches were brought in, Pat Robins and I brought sculptures from Middlebury, and culverts were placed for children to climb in. It was an enormous success, but more importantly, the idea of a pedestrian mall had a prototype.

The following year D’Ann Fago, responsible for Vermont Arts and Crafts, approached me about holding a crafts festival, perhaps in Battery Park. Once again, we saw Church Street as the perfect setting for the festival, and Pat and I convinced the merchants to close it up for a week. Sansea Sparling, our Church Street festival administrator, was hired to run the event. Money was raised to set up canopies for the craftspeople, and for craft demonstrations by several artisans, including a glass blower, a metal worker and several potters. “Two Guys” restaurant and bar owner, Dick Allegrezza, convinced the health department to let them serve food outside, with an area roped off by hay bales. Again, people loved it!

The lower level of the Burlington Mall was being built at this time (the second level would follow in the mid to late 70s) and I was among those working on a design for a pedestrian mall. They raised money to travel to various cities … Ottawa, Fresno, Rhode Island, Quincy Market … to study other such projects, but the real awakening came to them in Disneyland in Anaheim, California. It was the management of the mall that was so appealing. The key: someone who was responsible for the care of feeding of the place. At that time Burlington had a commission form of government, so it was natural to create one for the marketplace. The city would handle the operations of the street, the cleaning, landscaping, and the programming of special events. All involved knew that the success of the project required more than just taking cars off a street. There needed to be responsibility.

Parking was the next piece of the puzzle, as the merchants were naturally reluctant to give up the parking spaces in front of their stores. The idea of a nearby parking garage appealed to them, but it had to be connected to Church Street. Things fell into place as federal grant money became available and Centers Furniture Store went out of business. As the architect for the garage, my challenge was the design configuration for this odd space and a variety of seemingly impossible deadlines and difficulties with the builder.

The Church Street Marketplace, with two blocks of pedestrian walkway, and four blocks of design and landscaping, opened on September 15, 1981. In 1989, the mall was expanded to four blocks, the design was freshened up and a fountain was added. It had been nearly 20 years since that stroll in Copenhagen, yet a dream was realized and the marketplace now serves as a model for other cities. Thriving, unique, beautiful and fun, Burlington has a downtown that works. I’m just one of many who look back with great pride!
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