Tontine/Canal Street Affordable Housing

Location: Brattleboro & Guilford, Vermont
Architect: N-B-F Architects, Rutland, VT
Contract Amount: $1,540,339

The restoration of the historic Tontine Building in the Algiers Village section of Guilford, VT presented numerous challenges—not the least of which was raising the entire building 3 feet into the air so that a new highly energy efficient foundation could be installed. A high percentage of the existing building’s material was removed and resold by a local salvage company, greatly reducing the volume of material entering the solid waste stream. Extensive structural work and envelope improvements help insure that this affordable housing project will stand on its busy corner for another century.

2009 Preservation Award Winner 

Windham Housing Trust and the Friends of Algiers for the Tontine Building Rehabilitation Project

The Tontine Building in Algiers Village is a 19th century Federal-style building with a “hardworking past and a fresh new beginning”. The first significant addition to affordable housing in the town of Guilford, the historic building now offers seven fully renovated apartments in the village center for area residents. Located on the corner of Route 5 and the Guilford Center Road, the 1819 Tontine Building is an important historic anchor in Guilford’s Algiers Village. The building is one of several surviving structures built by an early group of entrepreneurs who utilized available water power from the nearby Broad Brook.

The building, with 25 owners in 150 years, has been through many transformations and housed a mix of commercial and single and multi-family uses. Completed last fall, the extensive rehabilitation of this historic landmark is a symbol of a highly successful partnership between a regional non-profit affordable housing organization, the Windham Housing Trust and a local community group, the Friends of Algiers Village, and a renewed sense of identity in the community and vision for the future.