Prospect Street 169.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):
April, 2011 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 24D-216-001 Easthampton NTH. Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 169 Prospect Street Historic Name:
Denis Bowen House Uses: Present: Three-family house Original: Single-family house Date of Construction: ca. 1900 Source: map of 1895 Style/Form: Stick Style/Queen Anne Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.101 acres Setting: This house occupies a corner lot and faces west behind a high hedge of boxwood.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [169 Prospect Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH. ___ 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 house is a good example of a stylistically blended house mixing elements of the Stick Style and the Queen Anne.
It is a two-and-a-half story house under a slate-covered, front-gable roof and has a two-and-a-half story ell on the east as well as a cross-gable on the north for a complex plan. The
clapboard-sided house has Stick Style Queen Post trusses in its gable ends and a Stick Style shed roof porch across its west façade. The façade is two bays wide and the porch is half-enclosed
as a square bay window adjacent to the main entry to the house. The porch roof at the entry is supported on chamfered posts with scroll-cut brackets at the eaves. The square bay on the
west façade has a Queen Anne, multi-paned window on the west. On the north elevation in the angle between the cross-gable and the ell is a two-story porch, a feature found relatively
frequently in Northampton’s Queen Anne style houses. It is supported on simply turned posts and has brackets at its eaves. Window sash in the house is its original 2/2. 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.
The Denis Bowen House and its neighbor at 163 Prospect Street were built after the map of 1895 was drawn and they replaced a single large house that occupied the two lots. Soon after
the 1895 map was made, Prospect Court was created, the original house was gone and its lot divided into two lots. In 1919 this house was occupied by Denis Bowen who was a plumber. By
1930 Bowen had been replaced by John and Mary Diggins and John Foley. John Diggins was a laborer and John Foley was either retired or unemployed. The Diggins were the sole occupants
of the house in 1940 and John worked as a hod carrier – still a laborer’s position requiring him to carry mortar and bricks in a trough on his shoulder as part of the mason’s trade.
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. Northampton Street Directories 1919-1940 U.S. Federal Censuses
1900-1930 Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884. Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860.