Main Street 99.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):
January, 2011 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 32A-134 Easthampton NTH.855 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center Address: 99 Main Street
Historic Name: Hampshire County Courthouse Uses: Present: Courthouse Original: Courthouse Date of Construction: 1884-1886 Source: Gazette: 3/23/1886. 5/4/1887, 12/20/1887 Style/Form:
Romanesque Revival Architect/Builder: Henry F. Kilburn, architect, New York Exterior Material: Foundation: granite Wall/Trim: granite, brownstone Roof: slate, tile, copper Outbuildings/Secondary
Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Ell added ca. 1980 Condition: good Moved: no | | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 1.021 acres Setting: This large building occupies a corner lot
in downtown Northampton at its principal intersection. It is set back on the lot and surrounded by a wrought iron fence.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [99MAIN STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.855 ___ 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 Courthouse is a Romanesque Revival style building three and a half stories in height under
a front-gabled roof that has hipped roof cross-gable wings at all four corners of the building. Centered on the south façade is a five-story square tower under a steeply pitched pyramidal
roof with corner turrets. The tower is crossed at second story, or piano nobile level, by a porch with Romanesque arched openings. The porch is reached by a broad granite stoop. The
building is constructed of randomly coursed, rough-faced granite with brownstone trim. The round-arched windows of the second and third stories have brownstone archivolt surrounds that
are keyed into the adjacent granite. There is a brownstone stringcourse between first and second stories, a brownstone beltcourse between second and third stories and stringcourses at
the level of sills and lintel springings at second and third stories. Brownstone appears in the center tower at the upper level where arcaded openings extend between the turret walls.
On the south façade of the tower at third and fourth story levels is a staircase window arched in shape, with a brownstone archivolt surround that is again keyed into the adjacent granite,
similarly to the windows. Hipped roof and pedimented dormers of copper punctuate the roof. This is one of the largest buildings in downtown Northampton and adds significantly to its
stylistic diversity. diversity. The courthouse has on its north elevation a second-story level glass and metal enclosed bridge that connects the main building to a large section of the
building that fronts at 15 Gothic Street. A three-story, cement block tower connects to a Colonial Revival style ell of two stories nine bays long, that, in turn, attaches to a second
cement block ell of two stories. 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 courthouse was built on this site in 1739. Court sessions were held here alternating every other
year with Springfield, then part of Hampshire County. The building was replaced in 1767 by a courthouse on the west portion of the lot. In 1786, Shay’s Rebellion saw its first action
here when armed countrymen prevented the court from convening and passing further pay-or-jail judgments. A new house designed by Isaac Damon was erected on the site in 1822 and was leveled
by fire in 1886. (There was discussion of a new courthouse in 1876, at which time local architect W. F. Pratt drew plans for an addition.) The Paul Revere bell was saved and transferred
to the present courthouse and is now displayed on the second floor.” Henry F. Kilburn, was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts in 1844. He served in the Civil War and then settled in Northampton
to study and to practice architecture. He remained only a few years, then moved to New York where he remained for the rest of his life. He died there in 1905. Kilburn was in 1896 elected
to the New York Chapter of the AIA, was a member of the Architectural League of New York and was elected a Fellow of the AIA in 1889. Kilburn specialized in church architecture in New
York but was also active designing residences, stables, hotels and more. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Hampshire Massachusetts, New York, 1873. Hales, John
G. Plan of the Town 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.