Main Street 124-128.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-008 Easthampton NTH.2295 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center Address: 124-128 Main Street
Historic Name: Northampton National Bank Uses: Present: Commercial, residential Original: Commercial Date of Construction: ca. 1913-20 Source: Map of 1895 and photographs Style/Form:
Classical Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: not visible Wall/Trim: limestone Roof: not visible Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates):
Windows replaced and storefront altered, 2000-2009 Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Date Acreage: 0.054 acres Setting: This building is north-facing on downtown Northampton’s
major thoroughfare.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [124-128 Main Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.2295 ___ 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 a three-story commercial building with a limestone façade that is three bays wide. It is
a building with a reserved style in its upper two stories. Square head windows with no sills or lintels are recessed slightly into the limestone surface of the building. They are separated
from the first floor storefront by a thin unadorned stringcourse. Beneath the cornice line of the building is a frieze with a circle in low relief at each end and at the center. The
cornice itself projects in a simple geometric form from the plane of the façade. A concrete block connector attaches this building and the former bank on its west. 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.
Although this building has been given an 1880 date in the National Register nomination for Downtown Northampton, it would appear from the map of 1895 that it replaces an earlier building
on the lot or has had a new façade constructed since 1895. On the map of 1895 the building on this site was identified as the Northampton National Bank, which previously had been located
on the north side of the street in the building at 131 Main Street. In fact, a photograph in the collection of Historic Northampton of Main Street, 1880-1890, shows a three-story, brick
building of four bays on this lot with a horse-drawn trolley in the street in front of it. As the Northampton National Bank, the commercial building on the lot was part of what was known
as Merchants Row through much of the second half of the 19th century. When the new Northampton National Bank immediately on its west was constructed replacing two commercial blocks,
this building seems to have been made part of it with a new, narrower façade in order to increase the size of the new bank’s north facade. For a number of years of the mid-20th century,
the building’s first story was occupied by Todd’s clothing store. 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.