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Kennedy Road 64.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 14-17 Easthampton NTH.46 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Leeds Address: 64 Kennedy Road Historic Name: Todd Family Farm Uses: Present: Single-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: pre-1831 Source: map of 1831 Style/Form: Georgian Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: fieldstone Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Additions on north and west, ca. 1990 Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 3.87 acres Setting: This is a south-facing house set on a rise in the landscape in a rural area. INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [64 Kennedy Road] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.46 ___ 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 main block of this house is one-and-a-half stories under a side, gambrel roof. It has a large center chimney, which was characteristic of the Georgian period as are the low, fieldstone foundations and clipped eaves in the gable ends. The house is five bays wide and two bays deep and window has sash that is 12/12 in configuration. The center entry has a trabeated surround that has thin pilasters supporting an entablature, but this surround appears to be a later alteration. Window surrounds have simple drip moldings. Later additions in the form of west wings one-and-a-half stories in height add to the complexity of the floor plan without compromising the early Georgian section of the house. This is one of a handful of Georgian houses remaining in Northampton and is additionally important for its rural landscape setting. 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. The earliest map on which this house appears is the map of 1831, but the owners of the house are not identified. This section of Leeds was so sparsely populated that subsequent map makers ignored it from 1860-1873. But we can trace the farm back from the map of 1895 as being in the ownership of the Todd family. Following the censuses backwards, the Todd family was on the farm from 1850 through 1930. In 1850 Ira and Julian Todd with their daughter Juliette, son Ira, Jr. Irene and Nancy, twins, Caroline and Lydia twins, and two-year old John were farming here in Roberts Meadows. In 1860 Ira and Julian were farming with their six children, Ira, Jr. who was already working as a machinist, Irene, Caroline, John, Rosa, and Josephine. It would appear that two of the twins, Nancy and Lydia, had died. In 1870 Ira and Julia were farming with their son John, while their son Ira, Jr. was working as a machinist. Two daughters had been born since 1860, Josephine and Ester, but Caroline and Rosa were no longer in the household. In 1880 John Todd had married Agnes and the two of them and their three children, George, Marion and Mabel were living with John’s parents Ira and Julia on this farm. On the map of 1895 the owner of the house is identified as Mrs. Agnes Todd but the farm was still occupied by Ira and Julia who were 70 and 65, along with John, Agnes and their children. Living with them as well was Theophulus Gagnon, a farm laborer. In 1900 Ira and Julia had died as had John Todd, so Agnes Todd lived in the house with her son George and her daughters Marion, Mabel, Ina, and Leslie. George and Agnes were running the farm, Marion was working as a dressmaker and Mabel was working as a winder in a silk factory. In 1910 Agnes is no longer living in the household, and George had married Lillian. Their children were 2 and 3 years old, Earl and Mertin, so George and Lillian were farming with the help of a farm laborer Alvan Sargeant. They continued through 1930 in which year Agnes was back living with them at the age of 82. 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. U. S. Federal censuses. 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 ] [64 Kennedy Road] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.46 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 Todd Farm is individually eligible for the National Register as one of the few remaining Georgian farmsteads in its agricultural setting remaining in Northampton. The history of the homestead is closely allied with the Todd family from the middle of the 19th century through the first third of the 20th century and is representative of the means by which families supported themselves through farming farming mixed with outside labor as the century progressed. The early history of the farm is yet to be researched but would clearly contribute to an understanding of Northampton’s farming history. The Todd House is significant as an example of the Georgian gambrel-roofed house that has been preserved several hundred years without significant alterations.