Bright Street 32.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: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Date (month /year):
March, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 31B-137 Easthampton NTH.630 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 32 Bright Street Historic Name: Charles
and Rose Chesney House Uses: Present: single-family house Original: single-family house Date of Construction: 1881-1885 Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette, 1/23/1883; 5/15/1883; 6/17/1884.
Style/Form: eclectic Architect/Builder: William Fenno Pratt & Son, attributed Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: aluminum Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: Acreage: 0.176 acres Setting: This house faces north and has a fenced-in yard shaded by mature trees.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [32 BRIGHT STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.630 __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 James F. Shaughnessy House is a one-and-a-half story house with a jerkin head roof and one
interior chimney. It is three bays wide and two deep and has a one-and-a-half story rear ell under a shed roof. This house closely resembled the Bright Street houses at #33, and #28
that also were built in the early 1880s in an eclectic style that mixed Stick Style with Queen Anne. While While those two have been sided so that many of their features are no longer
visible, this house has been sided more carefully so that its varied exterior siding is suggested. There is aluminum siding now where clapboards were previously used on the first floor
and wood shingles remain at the second floor level. A broad belt course separates the two. The wide frieze beneath the eaves remains as does the shed roof porch on Queen Anne style turned
posts with wood shingles in its side frieze and Stick Style braces at the eaves. The porch railing has turned balusters. Stick Style trusses decorate the centered, front-gable dormer
on the north roof and its paired windows have Queen Anne style molded surrounds with corner blocks. This house best represents the appearance of Bright Street architecture as it developed
at the turn-of-the-century. 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 1980 form, “Parker R. Whitcomb purchased a large tract of land known as the Bright Estate from Professor Benjamin Blodgett
about 1881. Whitcomb proceeded to erect a number of cottages on the property. By January 1883 Whitcomb had built several cottages on “Bright Street” and planned to build others; in June
1884, a total of nine cottages had been built along the new street. Whitcomb rented the dwellings whose style and proximity to the center of Northampton made them popular; residential
development of the section of State Street south of Summer Street to Main occurred at this time, with brick and wooden single family homes predominating. Whitcomb retained the cottages
in Bright Street until the early 1900s; in 1905 he sold #32, known as lot #3, to Charles Chesney. “ Charles and Rose Chesney and their daughter Greeta were still here in 1910. Charles
was a millwright working in a local sawmill at a time during which many houses were going up in Northampton and milled lumber was in demand. By 1920 the Chesneys had been replace by
James and Mary Shaughnessy and their son Robert. James was a clerk in the Post Office. The Shaugnesseys were in the house through 1937, but by then James had retired. 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. Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston,
1884. Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860. Registry of Deeds, Hampshire County, Book 551, Page 131; Book 600, Page 252.