village center mixed-use
+
22 apartments
5,350 sf retail
472 US 5 N
FAIRLEE, VT
A Lost Landmark
The Colby Block was built in 1910 as a two-story commercial building with storefronts below and apartments above. For decades it anchored Fairlee’s Main Street, serving as home to general stores, small businesses, and local services that shaped daily life in town.
The Colby Block in its earliest days
The Block thriving in the early 1990s
Owned for much of its history by the Colby family, the block became a familiar landmark and gathering place, representing the commercial heart of the village. Generations of Fairlee residents passed through its shops and lived in its upper floors.
That history came to a sudden end in May 2007, when it fell victim to a fire. The loss closed businesses, displaced tenants, and erased nearly a century of Main Street continuity, leaving behind a vacant lot where Fairlee’s commercial cornerstone once stood.
2007
Pile of rubble left from the 2007 fire
