Bedford Terrace 8.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): April, 2010 Assessor’s Number
USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 31B-225 Easthampton NTH.689 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 8 Bedford Terrace Historic Name: Mary Brewster House Uses: Present:
Smith College building Original: single-family residence Date of Construction: 1899 Source: Springfield Daily Republican Style/Form: Georgian Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Second story of porch enclosed or added, n.d. Condition: good Moved:
no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.22 Acres Setting: This is a south-facing house on a short short street lined with houses and college dormitories.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [8 BEDFORD TERRACE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.689 _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. The Mary Brewster House is a fine example of the Georgian Revival style that was a refinement of
the Colonial Revival style. It is two-and-a-half stories under a slate-covered gambrel roof. The house is three bays wide and three bays deep, where the original Georgian house would
have been five bays wide, but in the Revival style proportions grew larger. The house has a two-story wing on its northwest corner. The main block of the house has a two-story porch
centered over the entry. At first floor level the porch is supported by fluted Doric columns with respondent pilasters framing the door surround, which has an elliptical leaded glass
fanlight and leaded glass sidelights. Turned balusters form the porch railing at first floor. The second floor has been enclosed. Pilasters ornamented with oval patera above the capitals
frame the house and window lintels have wide friezes with a dentil row beneath a narrow cornice. There are three dormers on the roof’s east façade. Two of them are simply pedimented
but the center dormer has a broken swan’s neck pediment. There is an off-center chimney on the roof and a three-sided, one story bay on the south elevation of the house. The wing is
entered through a porch on paired columns. A balustrade tops the porch roof and suggests the original appearance of the main porch. Windows in the house have 1/1 sash. 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.
Mary J. (F.) Brewster and her partner Mary Augusta Camp, were both physicians and lived and practiced here in 1900. Mary Augusta Camp was Smith College’s physician. By 1908, however,
Mary A. Camp and Mary Brewster were no longer listed in Northampton directories. By 1917 this house had become the Mary Lois James Alumni House and by 1937 was German House under Julia
Bueckling. 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. Hampshire Daily Gazette, November 30, 1895. Springfield Daily Republican, December 28, 1895, p.4. U.S. Federal Censuses, 1880-1930. 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] [8 BEDFORD TERRACE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.689 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 Mary Brewster House would contribute to a potential Bedford Terrace historic district that developed after the street
was laid out at the end of the 19th century with houses built by well-to-do merchants, educators and independently wealthy residents. Many of the first owners were single women several
of whom were professional academicians and physicians, as in the case of Mary Brewster and Mary Mary Augusta Camp, both physicians . The street is significant for its long association
with Smith College as early on it became a part of the Smith College housing plan when the school had insufficient on-campus housing and a growing student body. At the end of the 19th
century the houses became student boarding houses, dormitory residences or single rooms were rented out. The Bedford Terrace association with Smith College grew even stronger with construction
of two large-scale dormitories on the street and Smith College gradually acquired the houses. Architecturally the potential historic district is significant for the fine examples of
the Colonial Revival style that line its western side and for the architect-designed Revival style dormitories on its eastern side. This potential historic district has integrity of
workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.