Church Street Marketplace (Burlington, Vermont)
Coordinates: 44°28′42″N 73°12′46″W / 44.4782°N 73.2127°W
The Church Street Marketplace is an uncovered outdoor pedestrian shopping and dining mall in Burlington, Vermont, consisting of the four blocks of Church Street between Main and Pearl Streets. The mall was initially conceived in 1958 and was built in 1980-81 to a design by Carr, Lynch Associates of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It encompasses about 86 storefronts and is managed by the Church Street Marketplace Commission.
Major retailers include five national chain stores as well as local retailers of clothing, home-wares, books, and other goods. It is the site of festivals throughout the year. Events such as the South End Art Hop and public galleries such as The Firehouse Gallery and Pine Street Art Works provide a forum for the visual arts. The American Planning Association named the Church Street Marketplace one of America's "Great Public Spaces" for 2008. The marketplace is also home to dozens of restaurants, bars, and coffee shops.
The concept of the Church Street Marketplace originated as early as 1958 as part of a series of urban renewal discussions. During the summer of 1971, a one-day, experimental street fair was held on four blocks of Church Street, and approximately 15,000 persons attended. The success of the street fair was taken as a demonstration of the feasibility of a mall.
By late 1971, Patrick Robins, president of the Downtown Burlington Development Association and local architect Bill Truex (then chairman of the City's Planning Commission) recognized the potential of the mall. With their guidance, a second, week-long street fair was held along Church Street in the summer of 1972. Traffic was rerouted from four blocks of Church Street to the parallel streets, extra transit was added for the week and short-term physical modifications (such as adding trees, benches, and booths) were made on the street. Merchants were allowed full use of the area for display of retail goods and special events were planned. It was estimated that 50,000 persons attended during the week.
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