Beacon Street 42.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 Please see attached Continuation Sheet Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons Organization: PVPC Date
(month /year): 10/2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 23A-214 Easthampton NTH.223 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 42 Beacon Street
Historic Name: William and Lola Cordes House Uses: Present: Single-family house Original: Single-family house Date of Construction: 1907-1908 Source: Registry of Deeds and Directory
Style/Form: Tudor Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: fieldstone Wall/Trim: stucco and shingles Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations
(with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 1.71 Acres Setting: House faces north on on a quiet residential street.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [32 Beacon Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.223 _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 house is the single example of the Tudor Revival style on Beacon Street, and is a rather rare
example in all of Florence. It is a two-and-a-half story house under a side-gable roof with a transverse gable bay on its north façade for a T-shaped plan. A polygonal bay window on
the west side of the transverse gable adds complexity to the plan. On the east side of the transverse gable is a front-gabled porch whose deep porch rests on massive fieldstone piers.
The house is stucco–covered on the upper stories with Tudor Revival style half-timbering in the gable ends, and has shingles at the first floor level. It rests on fieldstone foundations.
The porch has exposed rafter ends and a shaped tie beam below half-timbering. On the east elevation is a shed roof porch on Doric columns. An eyebrow dormer on the main roof is a Shingle
Style feature. 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. From the Form B of 1980, “This large turn-of-the-century residence was built for William and Lola Cordes. Cordes was a prominent local businessman at this
time working for the Florence Manufacturing Company. He worked his way up from sales manager to general manager and treasurer, and then became president of the company in the early 1920s.
1920s. Mr. Cordes also served as president of the Florence Savings Bank. Beacon Street was laid out during the 1860s and connected Pine and South Main Streets along the top of the river
terrace. George Burr, a prominent Florence industrialist bought 8 ½ acres on both sides of the street n 1868 and had his own homestead built and sold a few lots off over the next decade-and-a-half.
After Burr’s death his widow sold a few more lots. The Cordes house backs up to the terrace drop-off and is well set back from the street.” BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Beers, F. W.
County Atlas of Hampshire Massachusetts, New York, 1873. Hales, John G. Plan of the Town or Northampton in the County of Hampshire, 1831. Miller, D. L. Atlas of the City of Northampton
and Town of Easthampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, 1895. Registry of Deeds. Book 621-page 361. Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts,
Boston, 1884. Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [32 Beacon Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.223 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 Cordes House would contribute to a Beacon Street Historic District developed and resided in by some of Florence’s leading
industrialists in the 1860s-1910s. It represents the shift in Florence from neighborhoods that mixed mill workers’ housing with mill owners’ housing of the first half of the century
to that of neighborhoods of economically-similar residents with, in this case, large lots, grand homes set back from a broad street. Architecturally, the district is significant for
its range of high style homes and a church in the Stick Style, Italianate, Queen Anne and Tudor Revival styles. Further research would indicate which among them were architect-designed,
as many certainly were. The Cordes House is a fine example of the Tudor Revival style, or which there are relatively few in Florence.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [32 Beacon Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 3 NTH.223