U.S. Border Station, Beebe Plain, VT

Location: 3136 Beebe Rd, Newport, VT 05855

The Vermont border station located at Beebe Plain is one of twelve surviving complexes erected between 1931 and 1937 along the Vermont-Quebec border. This Georgian Revival building was designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury and constructed in 1937.

As a group, the border stations are closely associated with three major themes in twentieth century American history: Prohibition (1919-1933), the popularization of the automobile, and the Depression of the 1930’s. The stations are also associated with a massive public building program that nearly doubled the number of Federal buildings, coupled with the extensive rebuilding of Vermont’s road system following the Great Flood of November 3, 1927. The station at Beebe Plain, among the last to be constructed, exemplifies the simplification of design and economy of material brought about by the Depression while continuing many of the programmatic elements of the earlier stations. The station is one of a few located in an urban cluster, and the only station from this period located on the east side of the highway.

Today, the large concentration of contemporary, architecturally-related border stations surviving in Vermont is exceptional within the context of the United States. Beyond projecting an iconographic image of American architecture at the international border, the border station is a major masonry public building located in the town of Beebe Plain. It retains much of its original character-defining features, notably morphology, plan, masonry detailing and much fenestration.

Building Facts

• Architects: Simon, Louis A.
• Construction Date: 1937 
• GSA Building Number: VT0601BP
• Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places