Crescent Street 203.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 24C-180 Easthampton NTH.318 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 203 Crescent Street Historic Name:
William O’Brien House Uses: Present: Single-family house Original: Single-family house Date of Construction: 1884-1895 Source: atlases Style/Form: Queen Anne Architect/Builder: Exterior
Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Carriage barn Major Alterations (with dates): Porch filled in, sash
replaced and one window Filled in. Ell extended ca. 1900-2000. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.25 acres Setting: This is an east-facing house on a tree-shaded,
residential street.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [203 CRESCENT ST.] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.318 _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 is one of three originally identical houses clustered near each other on Crescent Street.
The others are numbers 199 and 207. The houses are two-and-a-half stories in height under a front-gabled roof and they have cross-gables on their north elevations for L-shaped plans.
They are only two bays wide and the equivalent of three bays deep. They have side-hall entries adjacent to a single window on the east façade and have full-width porches on turned posts
with brackets at their eaves. This house has a two-and-a-half story rear ell and sash is mostly 1/1. One second story window on the east façade has been filled in. The house is clapboard
on the first and second stories and has a small wood shingle section in a wave pattern in the gable field. The three houses are modestly Queen Anne and were probably built on speculation
by a local builder. 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, “Crescent Street was opened in 1886 along the middle slopes of Round Hill. The street almost completely encircles
the hill and provides fine vistas to the north and east. This is one of three virtually identical houses built on the western side of the hill adjacent to each other. They all appear
on the 1895 atlas, with this one being owned by William O’Brien, a letter carrier. “ 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.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [203 CRESCENT ST.] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.318 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 O’Brien House would contribute to a potential historic district that extends north of Northampton’s primary corridor,
Elm Street, encircling and encompassing the primary feature of that landscape, Round Hill. The potential historic district is significant for its 19th century development from a few
gentlemen’s farms to a neighborhood dense with the homes of its most prominent residents and educational institutions that shaped the character of Northampton for several hundred years
to the present. Architecturally the potential historic district is significant for the mix of high style late Gothic Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne style houses, the Colonial Revival
and Tudor Revival styles of the 20th century that were often architect-designed by the region’s most well-known designers. The O’Brien House is a modest example of the Queen Anne style
but it would contribute to the district as a whole. This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.