Nonotuck Street 191.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, 2011 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 23A-250-001 Easthampton NTH.2439 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 191 Nonotuck Street Historic
Name: Basil Dorsey-Thomas H. Jones House Uses: Present: Single-family house Original: Single-family house Date of Construction: 1849 Source: History of Florence and Registry of Deeds
Style/Form: late Greek Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: vinyl Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with
dates): Siding added ca. 1990. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.273 acres Setting: This house faces south at the foot of a hillside on a raised lot.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [191 NONOTUCK STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.2439 ___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. This house was listed as a contributing resource to the NR historic district the Underground
Railroad; it is also on the National Register as an individual listing. 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 with a front-gable roof. It is three bays wide and the equivalent of three bays
deep. The house has a one-story wing on the east for and L-shaped plan. The wing is preceded on the south by a recessed porch on posts. A portion of it has been enclosed at its eastern
end. The main block of the house, which sits on high brick foundations, is very modest with narrow eaves, 6/6 sash, and a center chimney. Siding may cover additional details such as
cornerboards. 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 was the home of two fugitive slaves, Basil Dorsey and Thomas H. Jones. Basil Dorsey born to a white Englishman and a slave was legally a free
man, but his status was not accepted in the South and he was enslaved in Maryland. When promised freedom for $350 was rescinded by his master, Dorsey escaped from Maryland, and was arrested
in Pennsylvania, but then released on a technicality. After joining up with his wife, a free Black woman, and his two children, Charles Robert and John, Basil Dorsey went to New York
where he met up with David Ruggles, a free Black activist against slavery who helped the Dorseys. Using the Underground Railroad piloted by several abolitionists from Florence, the Dorseys
settled in Charlemont, Massachusetts but then Basil and his two sons and a new-born daughter returned to Florence in 1844. Dorsey’s wife, whose name may have been Louisa, died after
giving birth to the daughter. Once in Florence, Basil Dorsey was given work as a teamster for the Greenville Manufacturing Company, a cotton mill, and in order to keep him safe when
he traveled out of town, townspeople bought his freedom. Basil Dorsey remarried to Cynthia Jones from Pittsfield and had eleven more children. They built this house in 1849. In 1850
on the federal census of that year Basil and Cynthia Dorsey, John and Charles Robert were living in the house sharing it with a second Black family, Jacob and Eliza Benson and their
daughter Anna. Jacob also came from slavery in Maryland. In 1852 the Dorseys sold this house. It was re-sold in 1854 to Thomas H. Jones, a fugitive slave who had written an account of
slavery that had become well-known. He lived here until 1859 then moved to Worcester, finally settling in New Bedford. 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.