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Kensington Avenue 17.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-233 Easthampton NTH.544 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 17 Kensington Avenue Historic Name: Herbert R. Graves House Uses: Present: Single-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1890-1892 Source: Registry of Deeds & Directory Style/Form: Queen Anne Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles Roof: asphalt shingles and slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: garage Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.181 acres Setting: This house faces east on a residential street of late 19th century homes. INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [17 KENSINGTON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.544 _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 the fine high style Queen Anne houses that characterize Northampton Center’s residential streets and it is among the best-maintained of these houses. It is two-and-a-half stories in height under a front-gabled roof. To add to the picturesque quality of the house there is a cross-gable bay on the south and an angled tower on the northeast corner, which rises three stories under a polygonal roof. A wraparound porch with a rounded corner crosses the east façade and turns on to the north elevation. It is a stacked porch with a second story portion, one bay wide, set over the first story entry. The porch at both stories rests on turned posts. At the first story it is ornamented with a spindled frieze and railing with turned balusters. At the second story level it has a shingled railing. Entry to the porch is marked by a pediment. The house is clapboard sided on first and second stories with a band of shingles bordered by stringcourses between stories, in the gable fields, and on the third story of the tower. There is a secondary enclosed portico entry on the south elevation. 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: “Kensington Avenue was laid out as Delano Ave in 1890 by Charles Crouch. Lots were sold for residential development and by 1895, houses had been built on 22 lots. The 1915 atlas shows both sides of the street lines with houses, however about half of the houses on the eastern side of the street were demolished for Smith College’s Quadrangle during the 1920s and 1930s. This house was one of the first houses to be built on the street, if not the first, and was built in 1891 for Herbert Graves at a cost of $5000. Mr. Graves was a bookkeeper for ML & MW Graves, as well as secretary for Northampton Co-operative Bank and bicycle dealer.” 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. 558-P. 339, 443-291, 442-131, 433-245 INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [17 KENSINGTON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.544 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. This property would contribute to a potential historic district that would encompass the residential/institutional side streets laid out on the south side of Elm Street in Northampton Center between Main Street on the east and the west boundary of Childs Park on the west. This potential historic district is significant according to criteria A and C and would have local significance. These residential streets are significant according to criterion A for their reflection of the development of Northampton from the mid-19th century as a relatively affluent community that supported several private schools for young women, which prepared them after 1875 for attendance at Smith College, and the Clarke School where deaf students were given an education that thoroughly prepared them for the hearing world. The residences in this area made a shift from gentlemen’s estates to accommodation of the growing middle class in Northampton during the 19th century with businessmen, scholars, teachers, doctors, and retired farmers. According to criterion C this district would be significant for the range of historical styles that it includes. Gothic Revival, Italianate, French Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles are all well-represented within a landscape of individual large lots, and streetscapes that were laid out and developed at one time.