Crescent Street 235.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 31A-49 Easthampton NTH.473 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 235 Crescent Street Historic Name:
Robert E.S. Olmstead House Uses: Present: Single-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1912 Source: Atlas and Springfield Daily Republican Style/Form:
Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: fieldstone Wall/Trim: shingles, fieldstone Roof: asphalt Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Garage Major Alterations
(with dates): Entry altered, windows replaced, ca. 2000 Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Date Acreage: 0.205 acre Setting: This house faces east on a quiet residential street.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [235 CRESCENT STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.473 _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 Robert Olmstead House is a Colonial Revival style house in one of its most common forms of
the 20th century – a Dutch Colonial Revival under a gambrel roof. It is two-and-a-half stories in height with the second story formed by three shed roof dormers arranged along the lower
slope of the roof. The first story is three bays wide with fieldstone piers at its outer corners and shingles in the inner bays. Triple composition windows flank the center entry that
has been altered to consist of a projecting portico on columns above an enclosed entry vestibule. The portico is topped by a balustrade. There is a side porch on the south elevation
of the house that is supported on Colonial Revival columns. At the upper level of the gambrel roof at its center was an eyebrow window that has been replaced by a skylight. Fieldstone
chimneys are located at each end of the roof. Windows are all replacement 1/1. 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 Form B of 1980: “This house was built in 1912 at a cost of $8500 for Robert
Olmstead, a professor of vocal music at Smith College. Crescent Street had been laid out in 1886, but the section south of Bancroft Road was not developed until the early 20th century.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/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] [235 CRESCENT STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.473 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 Olmstead 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 Olmstead House is a good example of the Colonial Revival
style. This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.