HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
+ 1 further entry on record
1974-2002 Burlington Restaurant on St. Paul Street
115 St. Paul Street, Burlington, VT 05401
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Dining at the current tenant (American Flatbread / Burlington Hearth) is at standard restaurant prices.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Downtown Burlington restaurant
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1900 · Downtown Burlington Restaurant History · Late 20th Century Vermont Casual Dining
Carbur's was the brainchild of brothers Carl and Burr Vail and opened in Burlington, Vermont in 1974 at 115 St. Paul Street. The Burlington location was one of several across the region, with sister locations in Portland, Maine (123 Middle Street), Hadley, Massachusetts, and Plattsburgh, New York. The restaurant was known for its extensive sandwich menu featuring dozens of named sandwiches.
The Burlington Carbur's closed in October 2002, ending a 28-year run. The St. Paul Street building has since housed American Flatbread's Burlington Hearth, a continuation of the address's use as a downtown restaurant. The building's basement, which housed Carbur's kitchen and tapped kegs beneath the bar, is part of a network of 19th-century downtown Burlington basements that local writers have associated with the prohibition era.
Sources
During the 1974 to 2002 Carbur's years, the building accumulated a reputation among Burlington restaurant industry workers. Staff reports collected by Seven Days Vermont and folk-history writers described the building's basement as the focal point. The basement housed the kitchen and the keg taps that fed the upstairs bar, and waitresses occasionally reported skirts moving in unexplained cold drafts, doors slamming and trapping staff in the walk-in cooler, and a strong impression that the presence preferred to interact with women rather than men.
The most-cited back-story is that a man who once worked at the building died by suicide in the basement decades ago. Local writing treats this as longstanding folklore rather than a documented event. Carbur's bartenders reported pyramids of water glasses appearing on the bar after being put away, and breaking glasses and sudden oven-temperature increases.
Vermont folklore writing also notes that the basement is connected through tunnel infrastructure to other downtown Burlington buildings, a network often associated with the prohibition era. The current American Flatbread tenancy has continued to draw occasional reports from staff and patrons.
Dine in the building that housed Carbur's Restaurant from 1974 to 2002, now home to the American Flatbread / Burlington Hearth restaurant. The downtown Burlington block also includes other historic prohibition-era buildings.
Some links on this page may earn HauntBound a small commission when you book, at no extra cost to you. Our editorial picks are independent. Full disclosure
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Free Guide
9 verified stops, rated for families, mapped in order. Free.
One email to confirm, then the guide link. Unsubscribe anytime.
Burlington, VT
The Shanty on the Shore occupies an 1833 wood-frame building on the Burlington waterfront, originally Isaac Nye's general store on Nye's Wharf. Nye (1796–1871), a Burlington merchant, abruptly closed the store in 1840 and lived as a recluse in a back room until his death. The building later became a seafood restaurant and remains a fixture of Burlington's lakefront dining scene.
Anchorage, AK
Snow City Cafe has occupied the historic building at 1034 West 4th Avenue, on the corner of 4th and L Street, since 1998. The same building previously housed the travel agency run by Muriel Pfeil. On September 30, 1976, Pfeil was killed by a car bomb planted in her Volvo, parked in the lot directly across L Street from this building. It remains the only car bombing in Alaska's history and has never been solved.
Auburn, AL
The depot site in downtown Auburn has been used since 1847, when the first train station was built to serve the Montgomery & West Point Railroad. The original depot was destroyed by Union cavalry under General Rousseau in 1864; a second depot burned after a lightning strike. The current building, erected in 1904, sold its last train ticket in 1970 and sat largely vacant until a thorough restoration transformed it into a fine-dining restaurant that opened in 2015.