Nonotuck Street 296-298.pdf
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. FORM A -AREA MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220MORRISSEY
BOULEVARD BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Photograph Assessor’s Sheets USGS Quad Area Letter Form Numbers in Area 22B-43 Easthampton NTH.152 NTH.997-998; 2534-2535 Town: Northampton Place
(neighborhood or village): Florence Name of Area: Nonotuck Mills Present Use: Commercial, industrial Construction Dates or Period: 1847-early 20th century Overall Condition: good Major
Intrusions and Alterations: South wing addition of ca. 1990. Acreage: 3 + acres Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons Organization: PVPC Date (month/year): April, 2011 Topographic or Assessor's
Map
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. ___ see continuation sheet
Continuation sheet 1 _x__ 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, structural
and landscape features and evaluate in terms of other areas within the community. The Nonotuck Silk Company building complex is composed of segments dating as early as 1847 and continuing
through the 1950s. The earliest section is the two story, three-bay brick building in the attached photograph, the I.S. Parsons Store. Built between 1847 and 1850 it was designed as
a general store with a center entrance and flanking windows with 6/6 sash. It has a flat roof and parapet wall on the north façade. The main entry and windows have straight granite lintels
and granite sills. Attached to it on the south elevation by a 20th century metal connector is a second, two-and-a-half story, front-gabled brick building, with a slate roof and circular
window in its south gable field, and which may be the second oldest remaining building in the complex. It was in place along with the power house after 1860 and by 1902 acting as the
Spooling House for the Nonotuck Silk Company. Due to the exposed basement on the south is three stories on that elevation. Two bays wide and four deep, the building has straight granite
lintels over its windows and its wide eaves have exposed rafters that may originally have been boxed. Attached to the Spool House by a two-story, flat roofed connector that is three
bays wide and added ca. 1915, is the brick Power House that also dates between 1860 and 1902. It is one story in height under a flat roof and on its west elevation is a four-story high
square chimney. Four bays deep and seven bays wide it is two stories on the exposed south elevation. Attached to the northwest elevation of the I.S. Parsons store is the second section
of the Nonotuck Nonotuck Silk Company directly on Nonotuck Street. Called “Annex B” by the Nonotuck Silk Company, it was in place by 1895 and had storage, shipping and fabricating functions.
It is a three-story, red brick building that is nineteen bays long and on the sloping site becomes four stories in height on the west and south elevations. It has a four-story stair
tower on its south elevation. The building curves to follow the street’s curve after the fifth bay, and on its west elevation becomes a wing of four stories but only one bay by one bay,
added between 1915 and 1930. Windows in the mill are segmentally arched, suggesting a later 19th-early 20th century date and they have replacement sash. There are three pedestrian entries
on the first story and the easternmost had retained its transom with vertical lights. South of the Spooling House is a one-story, ca. 1940 brick Vehicle Garage with a flat roof. It is
four bays wide separated by pilasters and has a tiled cap on its low parapet wall. There is an added metal, metal, shed roof shelter on its west elevation. Attached on the eastern end
of the I.S. Parsons Store is a post-1930 Manufacturing Building one story in height on Nonotuck Street constructed of brick, concrete and industrial steel sash. The large sashes have
24 lights with hoppers at their bases. Extending from this section’s south elevation is a concrete and corrugated metal wing dating ca. 1990, with loading docks on its western elevation.
It is two stories in height and has a flat roof. Set back from Nonotuck Street and east of the Manufacturing Building is a three-story, Art Deco style Mill Building of brick, poured
concrete and industrial steel sash. A large loading dock is on the north façade of the building along with paired, 30-light steel sashes and pedestrian entries to the building. The flat-roofed
building has Art Deco pendants of cast stone and brick circles in the end bays of its third floor. It dates ca. 1950. West of the mill buildings is a one-story, Gatehouse of board and
batten siding under a steeply-pitched roof with wide eaves. It rests on stone foundations at the edge of the Mill River and at the north end of the dam. This small building dates post-1874.
The Mill River dam dates 1873 and was the only dam to survive the 1874 flood. It is a stone dam about 25 feet in height and 45 feet wide. On its south end it is built against a rocky
outcropping then follows the river bottom across to a cut stone embankment on the north end.
Continuation sheet 2 HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Explain historical development of the area. Discuss how this relates to the historical development of the community. From Form B of 1980: “The
Nonotuck Silk Co. was organized in 1855 by Samuel L. Hill, Samuel Hinckley, Edwin Eaton, Alfred Lilly, Lucius and Ira Dimock, and J.D. Atkins. This company took over the site of the
Northampton Silk Company, which had been established in 1836, and operated by the Northampton Association of Education and Industry during the early 1840’s. The new company built a brick
mill and from the very beginning was a success. The business steadily increased in 1866, the company was incorporated. New buildings were added at this site and the company expanded
to Leeds, Haydenville, and Hartford, Connecticut. The firm manufactured ‘machine twist, sewing, embroidery, rope, etching, and knitting silks in fast colors also silk hosiery and underwear.’
Their trade names, ‘Nonotuck’ and ‘Corticelli,’ were known throughout the country. By the turn of the century, 800 hands were employed and between five and six thousand pounds of raw
material a week were used in production. The original incorporators were all residents of Northampton and remained as directors and officers of the company for the remainder of their
lives. This was the largest and most important industrial concern in Florence and the directors played a leading role in many other area business activities. The company continued to
grow well into the 20th century. The First World War, with its cutoff of German Textiles, caused a great expansion, and this carried through into the early 1920’s, the period of greatest
local production. In 1921, the company passed out of local hands with its merger with the Brainerd and Armstrong Co. The new firm was named the Corticelli Silk Co. and incorporated in
Connecticut.” From the David Ruggles Center, “In 1847-1849 Samuel L. Hill established the first store in Florence. He was joined in the business by I. S. Parsons in 1850 and their general
store business was conducted at 296 Nonotuck Street in the two-story building at that address. In 1860, Mr. Hill retired from the general store business, and Henry F. Cutler, who had
been a clerk in the store was admitted as a partner; and in 1863, Plympton H. Smith became a partner. Mr. Cutler retired in 1866. The name of the firm remained the same through all these
changes. The partners by the 1880s were I. S. Parsons and P. H. Smith. A large trade always was carried out at this store. A second business took place in this building on its second
floor. In 1854, Samuel L. Hill and I. S. Parsons became associated with A. P. Critchlow, in the manufacture of paper mache buttons, and union cases for daguerreotypes and ambrotypes.
The name of the firm was A. P. Critchlow & Co. Daniel G. Littlefield, then a merchant in Haydenville, was hired to travel and sell the goods, and in 1857 he became an equal partner in
the business. Mr. Critchlow disposed of his interest in the manufacturing in 1858. The name of the firm was then changed to Littlefield, Parsons & Co., which continued until it was organized
as the Florence Manufacturing Company in 1866 and moved further west to Pine Street and the Florence Manufacturing Company mills. By 1873 this Nonotuck Street building had been converted
to ownership and use of the Nonotuck Silk mills and the building began to expand to the northwest on Nonotuck Street as well as construct new textile mill buildings along the banks of
the Mill River south of the former store. Between 1873 and 1895 the current mill buildings were constructed on the northwest of the store while to its east was a large mill pond that
occupied the land on the south side of Nonotuck Street to Maple Street. These mill ponds were in existence through the 1930s limiting expansion of the mills along the street until they
were filled in and water power was no longer in use. In 1886 the Nonotuck Silk Company bought the Greenville Manufacturing Company and its mills further east on Nonotuck Street and expanded
into its lot and and one of its buildings. Expansion of the silk manufacturing company along Nonotuck Street then meant new buildings constructed after 1930.” 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. Sanborn Insurance Maps, 1889-1930. Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City,
Massachusetts, Boston, 1884. Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860.
Continuation sheet 3 Data Sheet Address Name MHC# 296 Nonotuck Street store NTH.152 Gatehouse NTH.997 Garage NTH.2534 Dam NTH.998 Power house NTH.2535