Spring Street 254.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 16C-015-001 Easthampton NTH.2550 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 254 Spring Street Historic
Name: William H. Adams House Uses: Present: single-family house Original: single-family house Date of Construction: ca. 1910 Source: Street directories and census Style/Form: gable-and-wing
form Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Condition:
good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 2.85 acres Setting: This is an east-facing house set an a slight rise on a busy street.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [254 SPRING STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.2550 ___ 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 a gable-and-wing form house much like its neighbor at 240 Spring Street. It is one-and-a-half
stories in height under a front-gable roof. The gable section of the house is three bays wide and two deep and the wing is one story in height and the equivalent of three bays wide behind
an enclosed porch. The house is very modest in trim with narrow cornerboards and flat stock window and door surrounds with drip edges, but it is a well-maintained version of the vernacular
housing the appeared on Spring Street in the second half of the 19th century. It has brick foundations and a single interior chimney. Sash is /21 and there is a bay window that has been
added on the north elevation. 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. Although Spring Street appears on Northampton maps as early as 1831, it was so sparsely populated that subsequent atlases did
not include the area through 1895, and the Sanborn Insurance Maps do not include the street, due to its rural nature, through 1930. Tracking the property is possible through the directories
of Northampton in a limited fashion, but it is possible to identify the property’s owner in 1922 as William H. Adams, a farmer, and his wife Agnes and to say that Adams was not at the
property in 1910. The Federal census for 1900 indicates the family was in Northampton and that William was working as a stage driver as was their eldest son Henry. Their other children
were Herbert, Theodore, Martha, Clara, James, Sarah, and William who were in school or too young for school. The census of 1910 tells us that the family was on Market Street and that
William was working in a stable as a hosteler while Agnes was at home with their children Martha, James, Sarah, William, Agnes and Gladys who were either working or at home. Martha worked
as a cook in a restaurant and James as a clerk in a market. In 1920 the census places William and Agnes here on Spring Street and they were farming with their son William L. who was
19 at the time, while their two younger daughters Agnes and Gladys 16 and 18 were working in the silk mills as “boxers”. By 1930 William had died and daughter Agnes had married Philip
Spencer and the younger generation had taken over the farm but Agnes, mother, and Gladys were living with them. Gladys was working as a spooler in the silk mill while Philip was a fireman
in the Northampton Fire Department. The Spencer/Adams family had left the farm by 1940 when it was owned by Ray Upham. Ray and Grace Upham were here through 1960 and Ray worked as a
gardener for Smith College. At some point after 1983 this property’s address changed from 208 to 254 Spring Street. The history of this property’s owners reflects that of many of the
people who lived in Florence and balanced their work lives through farming and working in the mills. Children were educated during the primary years and then moved into trades or mill
work, meanwhile farming the land they had acquired. 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.