Main Street 129.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 31B-286 Easthampton NTH.717 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center Address: 129 Main Street
Historic Name: First Church of Christ Congregational Church Uses: Present: Congregational Church Original: Congregational Church Date of Construction: 1877-1878 Source: Daily Hampshire
Gazette Style/Form: Romanesque Revival Architect/Builder: Peabody & Stearns Exterior Material: Foundation: granite Wall/Trim: brownstone Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.729 acres Setting: This building occupies a corner lot in downtown Northampton.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [129MAIN STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.717 ___ 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 an architect-designed Gothic Revival style building based on the Early English Gothic style.
The church design manages to demonstrate monumental features of the style on a relatively narrow city lot. The building is built of randomly-coursed, quarry-faced brownstone. It has
a front-gabled nave with two cross-gable wings on the west, between which is a one-story side aisle. On the east there is a single cross-gable that does not extend beyond the plane of
the nave. The nave has at its southeast corner a buttressed, square bell tower with a broached spire. That is, an octagonal spire set atop the square tower with half-pyramids making
the transition from square to octagon. What is particularly fine about this spire is that rather than being roofed with slate or wood, it is brownstone sided. Further adding to the complexity
and asymmetry of the building, on the southwest side of the nave in an angle between the nave and a buttress is an engaged octagonal tower with a stone roof. The main entry to the nave
is a Gothic pointed arch with molded jambs. Two identical entries are located in the tower and the first wing on the west. These entries are also Gothic pointed arches, smaller in size
than the center entry, their arches filled with carved, stone trefoil ornament. Above the center entry within a pointed arch surround is a rose window above a five-window arcade. A stringcourse
runs between the window arcade and the main entry and encircles the building at that level. The wings of the building have high and sharply-pitched parapets that add verticality to the
building. As an Early English Gothic Revival this building merges the Norman Romanesque asymmetry and heavy stone forms with the Gothic pointed arches and increased verticality. It is
both an academic stylistic interpretation and a thoughtful response to the givens of its site. Attached to the north elevation of the church is a veritable complex of additions. The
first is a one-and-a-half story shed roof addition across the north elevation about one-and-a-half stories in height. To its northwest corner, under a side-gable roof is a wing that
also is brownstone with a slate roof. In the angle created by the wing and the north elevation of the church is a two-part, two-story stucco ell. One of its sections has a hipped roof;
the second section has a front-gable roof. They are each the equivalent of three bays in length and width. 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 First Church of Christ, Congregational,
stands on the site of the third meeting house of 1737-1812. The Victorian structure of 1877 was designed by the Boston firm of Peabody & Stearns, who also did a number of buildings at
the time for Smith College.” 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.