26 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-180 Easthampton NTH.335
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 26 Aldrich Street
Historic Name: James Powers House
Uses: Present: two-family house
Original: single-family house
Date of Construction: 1895-1900
Source: Atlas of 1895, Directory
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.1 acres
Setting: This is an east-facing house on a short street that
is relatively narrow and deeply shaded by mature trees.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [26 ALDRICH STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.335
_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 two-and-a-half story house resembles its neighbor at 22 Aldrich Street closely even though this is brick and 22 is a frame
house. Both houses have pyramidal hipped roofs from which two transverse gable bays project to add complexity to the plan
and elevation. In this house the east transverse gable bay is on the south end of the façade and at 22 it is on the north end.
There is a two-and-a-half story ell on the rear with a one-story, shed roof side porch. The roof makes eaves returns and on the
bay the returns are full to create a pediment. Lintels and sills in the house are grey-painted stone and window sash is
replacement 1/1. There is a stringcourse of wood molding beneath the cornice level of the house and scalloped shingles in the
gable fields. There is a garage on the west side of the house.
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.
According to the Form B of 1980, …” in 1892 Avon C. Matthews a prominent Northampton building contractor, filed a subdivision
plan for Aldrich Street. Two years later he sold lot number four to Jeffery Powers, a mason. Due to the brick construction of the
house its likely Powers built the home himself. Powers lived in this house in 1900 according to the local directory.”
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] [26 ALDRICH STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.335
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.