Just into Shaftsbury, but very much a part of North Bennington's economic and visual landscape, is an ensemble known as brick row or brick town. These buildings are sometimes referred to as Shoe Lane, since they were built as housing for workers in the North Bennington Boot and Shoe Company, one of the largest industrial enterprises in the village until its destruction by fire in 1884. The five (of an original seven) brick duplex workers' houses that line both sides of the street have slate jerkinhead roofs with bracketed cornices, central peaked dormers, segmental-arched windows, and wooden porches with lattice valances and bracketed columns. With their detailing and prominent location on the main road north, these descendants of the simple mill housing on Sage Street in North Bennington (c. 1811, the state's oldest complex) are among the most elaborate and most highly visible workers' houses in Vermont.