Main Street 108.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 32C-13 Easthampton NTH.2128 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center Address: 108 Main Street
Historic Name: Isaac Damon Granite Store Uses: Present: Commercial, residential Original: Commercial Date of Construction: 1826-1828 Source: David Oliver Merrill Style/Form: trabeated
form Architect/Builder: Isaac Damon, architect, Northampton Exterior Material: Foundation: granite Wall/Trim: granite/wood Roof: not visible Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major
Alterations (with dates): Wood cornice added, n.d., windows replaced and roof lowered. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.04 acres Setting: This building faces north
in Northampton’s downtown section.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [108MAIN STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.2128 ___ 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 Isaac Damon granite store at 108 Main Street is a three-story granite building under a flat
roof that has been lowered from its original side-gable configuration with high, pointed brick end walls. It is four bays wide, its windows in the second and third stories set in a granite
façade. It has a wood paneled cornice that is 20th century in origin, replacing a simple cornice that crossed both this building at 108 and its companion building at 110-112. On the
first story there is a storefront with a recessed entry to the upper stories, as well as to the storefront, adjacent to a glass display window. Granite piers, partially covered in a
pebbled surface, which support the granite lintel are visible at the outer walls of the building, though the lintel is not visible. On the upper two stories the trabeated construction
system is clearly visible in which granite piers separating the openings support granite lintel blocks spanning each window opening. The lintel blocks meet above the pier, where their
seams are visible. The narrow granite sills project slightly. Windows on the second story are replacements that have 1 fixed light above a hopper, while the third story windows have
1/1 replacement sash. Windows originally appear from old photographs to have had 8/8 sash. The trabeated structural system in granite extends to the neighboring building at 110-112 Main
Street, the second of the twin buildings. 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: “The present Gare Jewelry Store is located in Isaac Damon’s ‘Granite Stores’ (1826-1828) [110-112
Main Street]. It was first the site of the shop of Samuel Stiles, goldsmith, in 1785. Since that time, jewelers have continuously sold their wares here, including General Benjamin Cook,
from 1827-1900. The quarry granite for the stores came from Dedham, and is the same granite as that used in the Dedham Courthouse construction.” Old photographs from the 1950s indicate
that Ann August women’s store occupied this building’s first story and that it had an urban-renewal-inspired false façade that rose through the second story. 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. Merrill, David Oliver. “Isaac Damon
and the Architecture of the Federal Period in New England”, dissertation from Yale University, p. 207-209, fig. 139. 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.