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(Photograph by Curtis B. Johnson, C. B. Johnson Photography)
In continuous use as a store since its construction by mill owner Edward M. Welling, Powers Market is Vermont's most literal surviving example of the Greek temple motif applied to a retail structure. It takes the form of a two-story portico of four Doric, molded and stuccoed brick columns that support a pedimented gable outlined by deep reveals. Although an extension of the second floor was built under the portico in the 1920s, the original composition is still legible. The market also retains its historic two-over-two-bay display windows, forerunners of the large plate-glass shop windows that appeared later in the century. Its doorway, with sidelights and rectangular transom, is similar to those found on Greek Revival residences of the period. The store is representative of nineteenth-century American commercial buildings, as they adopted a public, rather than residential, character.