Kensington Avenue 65.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-243 Easthampton NTH.552 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 65 Kensington Avenue Historic Name:
Charles Crouch House Uses: Present: Single-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1895-1898 Source: Atlas & Directory Style/Form: Queen Anne/Panel Brick
Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: brick/brownstone Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Garage Major Alterations (with dates): Windows
replaced, ca. 2000. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.112 acres Setting: This is an east-facing house on a residential street of mostly 19th century houses.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON [65 KENSINGTON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.552 _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 house is virtually identical to its neighbor at 54 Kensington Avenue and both were probably
speculatively built by Charles Crouch to the same set of plans. It is two-and-a-half stories in height under a steeply-pitched, hipped roof. A shed roof dormer adds the half-story and
a three-sided bay projects from the northwest corner under a polygonal roof. A shed roof porch shelters the center entry that is adjacent to a single window. The porch is supported on
posts and respondent pilasters and has a railing of fine, square balusters. The brick building is Panel Brick in style, a masonry version of the Queen Anne style, and has corbelled bricks
that create lintels, a stringcourse between stories, a frieze at the eaves, and a watertable. The segmentally arched windows have scroll-cut ornaments in their shallow arches. 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 is one of four brick houses built on Kensington Avenue in 1897 by Charles Crouch. The street had been opened in 1890 by Mr. Crouch, who was
Northampton’s most prolific builder of the 19th century. He built houses on contract and also built them to lease as tenements.” 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.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON [65 KENSINGTON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.552 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.