Main Street 179.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 31D-141 Easthampton NTH.778 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 179 Main Street Historic Name: Fitch
Hotel Building Uses: Present: Seven-unit residence Original: Hotel Date of Construction: 1871 Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette, 7/11/1871 Style/Form: Italianate Architect/Builder: J.M.
Miner, architect, Cleveland and Northampton Exterior Material: Foundation: not visible Wall/Trim: brick, brownstone Roof: not visible Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations
(with dates): Eastern 2/3 of the building demolished in 1955. Windows replaced ca. 1990. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.14 acres Setting: This building faces
south and is the tallest building on its block.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [179MAIN STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.778 ___ 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 Fitch Hotel remains as this building, having once been three times its size. It is a wing of
what was a three-part building with two six-bay-wide wings flanking a slightly recessed, five-bay center section with iron balconies at two of its four stories. Today the red brick building
is four stories in height and is six bays wide. It has rusticated brownstone piers at the first story level and rusticated brownstone quoins framing the upper three stories. The building
has a flat roof with a projecting metal cornice with a centered pediment in which is a raised letter “F”. The first story of the building is devoted to two storefronts separated by brownstone
piers painted, and in the westernmost bay of the first story is a door to the upper stories. The second story has straight-head brownstone sills and lintels; the third story has segmentally
arched brownstone lintels and those of the fourth story are arched in Italianate style. Windows in the building have replacement 1/1 sash. 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 Fitch Hotel and two hotel blocks, built in 1870-1871, replaced the burned Warner House. Only the westernmost block remains. The group of three buildings was executed by J. M. Miner.”
This building is a portion of the large hotel that was constructed by the Fitch brothers, two men from Hatfield who were prosperous tobacco farmers in 1871. By 1895 the hotel had changed
hands and was known as the Draper Hotel, or Mansion House. It served as a hotel until in 1955 the center and easternmost sections of the building were demolished, leaving only this 1/3
of the original. In the place of the demolished sections of the hotel are one-story commercial buildings. 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.