22 Aldrich Street
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
FORM B − BUILDING
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Photograph
Topographic or Assessor's Map
Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons
Organization: PVPC
Date (month / year): March, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
24D-181 Easthampton NTH.336
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 22 Aldrich Street
Historic Name: James and Ellen Powers House
Uses: Present: single-family residence
Original: single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1894-1895
Source: Northampton street directories
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder: James Powers, builder
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboard
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Windows replaced ca. 2000
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.104 acres
Setting: This house is on a relatively narrow street with
closely place buildings, all shaded by mature trees.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [22 ALDRICH STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.331
__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.
This is a relatively unornamented Queen Anne style house and is nearly identical to its neighbor at 26 Aldrich Street although
the latter is in masonry. It is two-and-a-half stories in height under a pyramidal hipped roof with transverse gable bays on both
the principal east façade and the south elevation for a complex plan. The clapboard-sided house has a stacked porch in the
angle created by the east bay. The porch on the first floor is two bays wide and has a stacked section at the second floor level
that is one bay wide. The porch rests on posts with capitals below thin impost blocks and has a simple square baluster railing.
There is a two-and-a-half story ell on the rear with a one-story side porch under a shed roof that is supported on posts. Eaves of
the roof make returns and beneath the returns in the transverse gable bay are scrolled brackets.
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.
From the 1980 form, “In 1892 Avon C. Matthews, a prominent Northampton building contractor filed a subdivision plan for Aldrich
Street. Two years later he sold “lot no. 3” to James Powers, a mason and builder. Mr. Powers probably built the house himself.
He is listed as living here in the 1895-1896 directory. “ By 1910 Oliver and Elmira Vanasse occupied the house with their six
children, five of whom worked in a hosiery mill as joiners and knitters. Oliver and Elmira and all but the last of their children were
French Canadian immigrants, and Oliver worked as a silk mill dyer in Florence. By 1920 Elmira had died and Oliver lived here
with two of his adult daughters Rose and Olympe. Rose had stopped working and Olympe had become a hair dresser.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston,1884.
Miller, D. L. Atlas of the City of Northampton and Town of Easthampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, 1895.
Registry of Deeds: Book 465, Page 144; Book 453, Page 49.
Northampton Directory, 1895-1896.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [22 ALDRICH STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.331
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 Powers House contributes to a potential historic district on Aldrich and Myrtle Streets, an area that was laid out
for residential development between 1870 and 1900 when Northampton’s population was expanding to fill the
growing manufacturing, commercial, and institutional enterprises that drew people to the city during those decades. It
is significant to Northampton as it incorporates the work of speculative Northampton builders such as Avon Matthews
and James Powers whose well-constructed houses are representative of the high level of construction that took place
in Northampton to serve the developing middle class.
The potential historic district is significant architecturally for the mix of late Gothic Revival, Italianate, and Queen
Anne style houses that were set in alignment on the newly laid out urban streets. They are significant for the manner
in which they were builder-designed in patterns similar in plan and elevation but differentiated in materials and
architectural details to create neighborhoods that are picturesque in the fashion prescribed by the architectural trends
of the fourth quarter of the 19th century.