Graves Avenue 8-22.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 32A-78 Easthampton NTH.2035 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 8-22 Graves Avenue Historic Name:
Dr. Silas R. Cooley Rowhouses Uses: Present: Rowhouses Original: Rowhouses Date of Construction: 1886 Source: Registry of Deeds, 399.12, 431.218 Style/Form: High Victorian Gothic Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: brick, brownstone Roof: not visible Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Some windows replaced, ca. 2005.
Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.135 acres Setting: This row of houses faces south on a dead end, residential street.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [8-22 GRAVES AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.2035 ___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. This property is on the National Register. 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 row of attached houses has a side-gable roof from
which project eight cross-gable bays -one at each side of four shed-roofed porches. Each cross-gable bay has two, tall, and narrow windows at first and second floors, and a rondel window
in the gable field. The porches rest on posts and have solid brackets at their eaves. The porches shelter two doors at the first floor and above them are two windows. Windows and doors
are all segmentally arched. The brickwork of the building is High Victorian Gothic in style with tarred bricks marking stringcourses at first and second stories and the arches of the
window lintels. Brownstone adds to the polychromy at sills and the springings of the window arches. A brick watertable surrounds the building as well. This is a fine block of masonry
rowhouses. 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 1975: “This modest brick block on Graves Avenue was constructed between 1886 and 1890 to accommodate the growing urban population in Northampton.
A number of multi-family structures were built close to the center of the city during this period. Some were built by private individuals, while others, like the Foote Button Company
Block on Lyman Road, were erected for a specific group of workers. Dr. Silas R. Cooley was the original owner of the tenement. Cooley purchased the tract of land ‘designated as lots
1, 3, 5, on a plan of land in Book 389, page 470’ in January of 1886, and had erected the block on the easterly two-thirds of the lot by 1890, at which time he sold the westerly third
to Avon and Henry Matthews. (The ‘brick block owned by said Silas R. Cooley’ is mentioned as a point of reckoning the property lines.) The block was in fact built in 1886. The Gazette,
on February 16, 1886, noted, in an article entitles ‘Modern Tenements’ that Silas R. Cooley was in the process of erecting a brick block on Graves Avenue. The description identifies
the building as the structure in question.” 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, 399.12, 431.218