Elm Street 150.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-241 Easthampton NTH.698 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 150 Elm Street Historic Name: James
C. Ward House Uses: Present: Smith College dormitory Original: residence Date of Construction: c. 1884 Source: Registry of Deeds & Atlas Style/Form: Stick Style/Eastlake Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboard Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.161 acres Setting: This house is in a row of similarly styled and dated 19th c. houses.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [150 ELM STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.698 ___ 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 C. Ward House is a Stick Style house with Eastlake ornament. It is two-and-a-half stories
in height under a truncated hipped roof that is slate covered. On the roof are two interior chimneys and three, front-gable dormers on the north façade and single dormers on the east
and west. The gables of the dormers have cross trusses with infill of Eastlake jigsaw cut floral ornament. Eastlake ornament derives from the furniture designed by Charles Eastlake that
used this type of ornament incised and jigsaw cut and was transferred to architecture. Below the wide eaves of the roof is a frieze of vertical matchboard, a Stick Style feature, with
pairs of braces supporting the eaves. The clapboard-sided house is a simple three bays wide and three bays deep, but proportions are large. On the north façade is a centered projecting
one-story pavilion holding a paneled entry door and covering it, a flat roof portico on chamfered posts with arches between the posts and bosses above the pedestals. Sash in the windows
is 2/2. 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: “In 1865, James C. Ward purchased a large tract of land west of Elm Street and bounded by the Mill River that became known as ‘Paradise.’
Paradise Road was soon opened and lots sold for residential development. Mr. Ward built his own house on the street, however, by 1885, Mr. Ward had died and his widow Margaret was making
her residence in the house at 156 Elm Street on the corner of Paradise Road. The 1884 Atlas shows both of these houses owned by Mrs. M. Ward, and a mortgage taken on this property in
1884 mentions the ‘new dwelling thereon.’ In 1890, this house and lot were sold to Emma Bonney, who in turn sold the property to Smith College in 1898. The house seems to have been rented
by Smith College to a series of persons, including Clara Allen, who ran a small shop on the premises. In 1917, this house was first used as a dormitory for the College and was part of
the Elm Street group, which included numbers 146, 150, 156, and 164.” 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:
Bk. 512-P.102, 432-215, 393-383, 388-481