Double Trouble

Two blazes, six decades apart, helped shape the center of Westport into what we see today.

Many of the town’s oldest buildings were built during the early 19th century on a bluff that rose sharply from Lake Champlain and then leveled off, allowing for neat rows of structures along what became Main Street. One of the first was a house for John Halstead at the southeast corner of Main and Washington, on the site of today’s Ballard Park. Another was a store erected by Charles Hatch across Washington from the Halstead home.

Over the next few decades, several shops were built on the east side of Main, north of Hatch’s store. More went up