Aldrich Street 26.pdf
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. FORM B − BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Photograph Topographic or Assessor's Map Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons Organization: PVPC Date (month /year): March, 2010 Assessor’s Number
USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 24D-180 Easthampton NTH.335 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 26 Aldrich Street Historic Name: James Powers House Uses: Present:
two-family house Original: single-family house Date of Construction: 1895-1900 Source: Atlas of 1895, Directory Style/Form: Queen Anne Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation:
brick Wall/Trim: brick Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: garage Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.1 acres
Setting: This is an east-facing house on a short street that is relatively narrow and deeply shaded by mature trees.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [26 ALDRICH STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.335 _x__ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. Use as much
space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate
the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. This two-and-a-half story house resembles its neighbor at 22 Aldrich Street closely even though
this is brick and 22 is a frame house. Both houses have pyramidal hipped roofs from which two transverse gable bays project to add complexity to the plan and elevation. In this house
the east transverse gable bay is on the south end of the façade and at 22 it is on the north end. There There is a two-and-a-half story ell on the rear with a one-story, shed roof side
porch. The roof makes eaves returns and on the bay the returns are full to create a pediment. Lintels and sills in the house are grey-painted stone and window sash is replacement 1/1.
There is a stringcourse of wood molding beneath the cornice level of the house and scalloped shingles in the gable fields. There is a garage on the west side of the house. HISTORICAL
NARRATIVE Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within
the community. According to the Form B of 1980, …” in 1892 Avon C. Matthews a prominent Northampton building contractor, filed a subdivision plan for Aldrich Street. Two years later
he sold lot number four to Jeffery Powers, a mason. Due to the brick construction of the house its likely Powers built the home himself. Powers lived in this house in 1900 according
to the local directory.” BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston,1884. Miller, D. L. Atlas of the City of Northampton
and Town of Easthampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, 1895. Registry of Deeds, Book 465, Page 144; Book 453, Page 49. Northampton Directory, 1895-1896.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [26 ALDRICH STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.335 National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form Check all that apply: Individually eligible Eligible only in an historic district Contributing to a potential
historic district Potential historic district Criteria: A B C D Criteria Considerations: A B C D E F G Statement of Significance by _____Bonnie Parsons___________________ The criteria
that are checked in the above sections must be justified here. The Powers House contributes to a potential historic district on Aldrich and Myrtle Streets, an area that was laid out
for residential development between 1870 and 1900 when Northampton’s population was expanding to fill the growing manufacturing, commercial, and institutional enterprises that drew people
to the city during those decades. It is significant to Northampton as it incorporates the work of speculative Northampton builders such as Avon Matthews and James Powers whose well-constructed
houses are representative of the high level of construction that took place in Northampton to serve the developing middle class. The potential historic district is significant architecturally
for the mix of late Gothic Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne style houses that were set in alignment on the newly laid out urban streets. They are significant for the manner in which
they were builder-designed in patterns similar in plan and elevation but differentiated in materials and architectural details to create neighborhoods that are picturesque in the fashion
prescribed by the architectural trends of the fourth quarter of the 19th century.