Meadow Street 48.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 Please see attached continuation sheet. Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons Organization: Pioneer Valley
Planning Commission Date (month /year): March, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 22B-014-001 Easthampton NTH.2527 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village)
Florence Address: 48 Meadow Street Historic Name: Austin and Sarah Shearn House Uses: Present: two-family house Original: single-family house Date of Construction: 1860-1870 Source:
atlases of 1860 and 1870. Style/Form: side-hall entry form Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: parged Wall/Trim: wood shingles Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary
Structures: carriage barn Major Alterations (with dates): Windows replaced, ca. 2000. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.67 acres Setting: Set on a small rise above
the Mill River, this is a north-facing house shaded by large maple trees.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON [48 MEADOW STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.2527 ___ 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 one-and-a-half story house under a front-gabled roof. The main block of the house is
three bays wide and three bays deep and there is a transverse gable bay on the east and a one-story ell on the south. On the west elevation are two, through-cornice dormers, one of which
had been opened as a door leading to an exterior circular metal staircase. Beneath the second dormer at the first floor is a three-sided bay window. The house has 1/1 replacement sash,
wood shingle exterior and interior chimney with a decorative pot. South of the house is a large carriage barn. This house is typical of the size and modest detail of many of the houses
in Florence. 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. This house first appears on the map of 1873 occupied by Austin and Sarah Shearn, English immigrants who were farming in Florence. They had a young son Charles.
By 1884 the Shearns had moved on and the house was owned by Kate and Edward T. Barrett and their son Edward Jr., Edward Sr.’s father John Barrett, and two boarders who worked in the
silk mill, one from Ireland and one from Hadley. Edward was a sewing machine dealer. The shift from the Shearns who were farming to the Barretts and their boarders who worked in local
Florence industry is typical of the period between the 1870s and 80s when industry grew and Florence became a more suburban than rural village. By 1895 Edward T. Barrett had left the
sewing machine business and he and James O’Brien had formed a company to sell real estate and insurance. Edward was a justice of the peace for Florence at that time. By 1902 the Barretts
had moved to Forbes Avenue. One of the next occupants of the house was a daughter of nearby farmer and landowner Austin Ross. Street numbers changed between 1902 and 1926 and it would
appear that by 1930 two families were living in the house: Edward J. and Theresa Anderson and George and Grace Grant. Edward worked as a painter at the Veterans Administration Hospital
and George worked at Propper McCallum Hosiery Company. George and Grace had moved to 61 Meadow Street by 1940 and in 1950 there were three families living here W. E. and Norma Wagner,
Jr.; Anthony and Elizabeth Ferrante, and J. Al and Hazel Doppman. Wagner worked as a machine operator at the International Silver Company; Ferrante worked as a carpenter; and Doppman
worked as foreman of maintenance at Prophylactic Brush. The Ferrantes shared the house in 1960 with Edward J. and Anita Foley. Edward was a custodian. 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. Sheffeld, Charles. The History of Florence, Florence, 1895. U.S. Federal censuses and Massachusetts
Directories 1860-1900. Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884. Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON [48 MEADOW STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.2527