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Chestnut Street 81-83.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 17C-164 Easthampton NTH.103 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 81-83 Chestnut Street Historic Name: Florence Sewing Machine Company Housing Uses: Present: three-family house Original: multi-family workers’ housing Date of Construction: ca. 1870 Source: Map and History of Florence Style/Form: Italianate Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: stone Wall/Trim: asbestos shingles Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): siding added, ca. 1950; windows replaced ca. 1980. Porch enclosed, ca. 1950. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.455 acres Setting: Set on a corner lot, this house is shaded by mature maple trees. INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [81-83 Chestnut Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.103 __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 Florence Sewing Machine Company workers’ house is a two-and-a-half story house under a side-gable roof with a one-and-a-half story wing on its south elevation. It has two chimneys on its roof serving two to four units on the interior. The main block is five bays wide and two bays deep; the wing is three bays wide and two bays deep. Although it is fairly large in scale, it it remains a domestic scale that fits into its neighborhood. The wing has two knee-high windows at its second story level. What gives this building its Italianate stylistic determination are the two porches. The main porch has been enclosed with glass, so much of it has been covered, but it is clear that it retains its hipped roof, wide entablature supported by Italianate chamfered posts. The porch on the wing has not been altered. It has a low hipped roof supported on chamfered posts that have high impost blocks and plinths in the Italianate fashion and cut-out brackets at its eaves. The building is elsewhere rather standard and utilitarian with simple molded window and door surrounds and thin boxed eaves. Window sash has been replaced with 1/1 vinyl. 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 B, “This large tenement house was constructed for workers of the Florence Sewing Machine Company. The Company was established during the early 1860s and had an extensive plant constructed at the corner of Main and Chestnut Streets. During the 1860s the Company had a substantial amount of housing constructed for its workers. Mostly these were cottages, but an 1866 Gazette article does mention three large blocks capable of housing 25 to 30 families (in total) being built. None of the larger blocks remains today.” 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 Gazette, October 30, 1866. 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. INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [81-83 Chestnut Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.103 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. This property would contribute to a Florence Center Historic District. The potential historic district of Florence Center is significant as the commercial, residential, institutional center of the village that developed from 1657 when it was set off as Northampton’s “Inner Commons” as agricultural land and 1681 when the first sawmill was erected at a falls on the Mill River. The agricultural and and industrial village developed through the 18th and 19th centuries around industry on the Mill River, agriculture on the alluvial flood plain and the Strong Tavern and later Cottage Hotel at the intersection of Main and Maple Streets. It is significant for the silk industry that flourished through the Civil war as an alternative to slave-picked cotton and for the establishment of the Northampton Association for Education and Industry, a utopian community that existed 1843-1847. Association members after its close continued in Florence their principles of equality by running the Underground Railroad through the village and harboring fugitive slaves. It is significant as the home of Sojourner Truth. 19th century industry in the Center included the Florence Sewing Machine Company, which built its own housing. Architecturally the Center is significant for the range of Gothic Revival, Italianate, Stick Style, French Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival style homes, for its commercial blocks and library in the Revival styles of the late 19th century. Gothic Revival and Italianate style churches are architect-designed in high style versions. The potential district has integrity of workmanship, design, feeling, association, and materials.