Spring Street 40.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-057 Easthampton NTH.2547 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence
Address: 40 Spring Street Historic Name: Celeste and Henry Anthony House Uses: Present: single-family house Original: single-family house Date of Construction: ca. 1840 Source: 1840
census Style/Form: Italianate Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: garage Major Alterations
(with dates): Rear ell added, ca. 1900; east side of ell porch enclosed, ca. 1940; exterior chimney added, n.d. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.288 acres Setting:
This house is set on a flat lot, back from the road in a neighborhood of relatively widely separated buildings.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [40 SPRING STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.2547 __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 features. Evaluate
the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. The Anthony House is a two-story house under a side-gable roof. It is set sideways on its lot so
that it is south-facing although there is no longer an entry door in the main block of the house. Rather, one enters the house through the later-added, two-story west wing. The main
block of the house is surrounded at first floor level by a post-supported porch with a hipped roof. The The porch posts are chamfered and have brackets at their eaves and provide an
Italianate character to the modest house. The house is the equivalent of three bays wide and two bays deep and its boxed eaves make returns. The house is trimmed with a fairly wide frieze
beneath the eaves and cornerboards. There is an exterior chimney on the north elevation. This house is a well-preserved building whose simplicity and lack of ornament is characteristic
of the agricultural section of the village of Florence found west and south of the Mill River. 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. Celeste and Henry Anthony were fugitive slaves and were among
the first identified African-Americans living in Florence, as Henry appears in the census of 1840. They were hired by Lydia Maria Childs after she came here in 1838 with her husband
David Lee Childs to begin a beet sugar factory. The purpose of producing beet sugar was to avoid slave-grown sugar cane. According to the Ruggles Center, it is likely that Henry was
a “fiddle-playing ‘fugitive from injustice’ who was living in the Swamp House when Lydia Maria Child purchased 100 acres of land on Florence Road in 1840.” But Henry Anthony was primarily
a farmer at this point in time, and is thought to have built this house ca. 1840 and worked farming its surrounding land. By 1850 Celeste no longer appears in the census and Henry appears
as having married Marion/Mary Ann Anthony, an Irish immigrant. In that year the Fugitive Slave Act was published and Henry Anthony was among the signers of a call to Northampton residents
to reject that act and keep Northampton from becoming a “slave hunting ground”. While most of the more than 35 fugitive slaves in Northampton moved to Canada after 1850, Henry remained
in Florence, indicating his freedom may have been purchased, which was the case with other fugitive slaves in Florence, such as Basil Dorsey. In 1860 Henry and Mary Ann were still in
the house and Henry listed himself as a laborer rather than a farmer. By 1870 Mary Ann was no longer listed and Henry was living with Robert and Emma Dorsey and working with Robert as
a stone mason. The map of 1873 indicates that Mrs. Harriet Randall was living in the Anthony House. She was an African-American woman who worked across the street in David Ruggles Water
Cure as a laundress and later lived at 47 Florence Road. By 1884 the house was owned by Alfred Theodore and Lucy Lilly. Alfred Lilly was from Connecticut where he worked as a young man
for a silk manufacturer in Mansfield and then in Providence, Rhode Island as a grocer, until he moved to Florence in 1853 to be superintendent of the Nonotuck Silk Company. He worked
for the silk mill until 1887. He invested in the company and rose to become its treasurer in 1872. He was very active in other Florence enterprises as director of the Florence Furniture
Company, an incorporator of the Florence Savings Bank, and a committee member for erecting Memorial Hall and Forbes Library in Northampton center. In 1884 he donated money to erect Lilly
Hall of Science at Smith College and in 1888 he donated money for Lilly Library in Florence. Lucy Lilly died in 1886 and he in 1890. 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, Massachusetts, Florence, 1895.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [40 SPRING STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.2547 U.S. Federal Censuses 1840-1880. 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] [40 SPRING STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 3 NTH.2547 National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form Check all that apply: Individually eligible Eligible only in an historic district Contributing to a potential
historic district Potential historic district Criteria: A B C D Criteria Considerations: A B C D E F G Statement of Significance by _____Bonnie Parsons___________________ The criteria
that are checked in the above sections must be justified here. The Celeste and Henry Anthony House would contribute to the multiple resource Underground Railroad Historic District as
the home to fugitive slaves living in Florence as early as 1840. Henry was also a signatory to the paper calling for a repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act signed by more than 35 fugitive
slaves in Florence in 1850. This house is also representative of the type of home owned by slaves who were able to buy their own homes after being employed by Florence businessmen.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [40 SPRING STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 4 NTH.2547