Round Hill Road Boiler House.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 31B-004-001 Easthampton NTH. Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 50 Round Hill Road Historic Name:
Clarke School for the Deaf Boiler House Uses: Present: Boiler House Original: Boiler House Date of Construction: 1929 Source: Clarke School history Style/Form: utilitarian Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material: Foundation: poured concrete, concrete blocks Wall/Trim: brick, cast stone Roof: not visible Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Basement
extension on east, ca. 1960. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 7.4 acres Setting: This building is set on the west slope of Round Hill on the school campus.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [50 Round Hill Road] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH. _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 Boiler House is one story on the east and as the land slopes down on the east it becomes a
two-and-a-half story building on the north facade, the west and south elevations. The building is brick and has a flat roof. On the east it is three bays wide with wide buttresses separating
the bays. Windows are arched and have keystones and springing blocks of cast stone. The north façade has arched windows as well. It is five bays wide but two of the bays’ windows have
been bricked-in. On the west elevation attached to the building by a flue is a four-story brick chimney. Inset into the hillside on the east elevation and in front of the Boiler House
are concrete block foundations that create an underground space used as a carpentry shop for the school. 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 Boiler House was constructed by the Clarke School for
the Deaf in 1929 to provide a more economical and efficient, centralized heating system for the school. Prior to that the heating was by various means in the buildings that range in
age from early 19th-20th centuries. The use of a heating system with underground heating pipes was adopted in the early decades of the 20th century by numerous schools, including Northfield
Mount Hermon in Northfield Massachusetts. Here at Clarke School they burned coal until the early 1950s. Gas was installed in 2010. 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.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [50 Round Hill Road] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH. 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. This property would contribute to a potential Round Hill Historic District. This potential historic district is significant according to
criteria A and C and would have local significance. The residential streets that cross Round Hill are significant according to criterion A for their reflection of development in Northampton
from the early 19th century (1807) through the 1950s. Residential development began on Round Hill with the establishment of gentleman’s estates but grew with schools and a resort hotel
until the 1890s when residential development increased significantly. From the 1890s through the 1950s (1959 McAlister Infirmary) Round Hill became home to Northampton’s wealthy and
to the Clarke School for the Deaf. Architecturally this area of Northampton is significant for the range of residential architectural styles including the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival,
and for its institutional buildings in the French Second Empire, through High Victorian Gothic and Colonial Revival styles ending with the American International style. The potential
district has integrity of workmanship, design, feeling, association, and materials.