10 Allen Place
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
31B-233 Easthampton NTH.695
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 10 Allen Place
Historic Name: William Bailey and Jeremiah Brown House
Uses: Present: single-family residence
Original: single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1884
Source: Registry of Deeds, Atlas of 1884
Style/Form: Gothic Revival
Architect/Builder: Bailey and Brown, builders
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick/brownstone
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.069 acres
Setting: This house is set on a short residential street of
four similarly aged houses with small lots for an intimate
neighborhood feeling.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [10 ALLEN PLACE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.695
_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 Bailey-Brown House is one of the best-detailed Gothic Revival style masonry houses in Northampton and would have
served as a fine demonstration of the brickwork produced by Bailey and Brown. It is a one-and-a-half story, red brick house that
is gable-and-wing in form. Its roof is steeply pitched in the Gothic manner and in the field of the front gable is a Gothic lancet
window above a square attached bay window. But what is outstanding about this small house is the level of detail of its
brickwork. Beneath first floor windows are brick checkerboard panels, while angled bricks mark two beltcourses between
stories. Decoratively laid bricks form the window lintels and tarred bricks encircle the house at the beltcourses, window lintels
and watertable. Segmentally arched windows have wood frames with scroll-cut designs at their headers. Sash in the house is
wood 2/2 and 1/1. In the angle of the two sections of the house is a corner porch on turned posts and with a railing of turned
balusters. There are a number of Gothic Revival brick houses in Northampton but this is one of the best-preserved, least
altered. It is representative of the Gothic Revival style and the level of masonry craftsmanship that was practiced in
Northampton.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
Discuss the history of the building.
According to the Form B of 1975, “This building was built in between 1883 and 1884. The plot of land on which the house sits
was purchased by William Bailey and Jeremiah Brown from an Ebenezer Strong on May 29th 1883, a description of where the
land sat was provided by the deed at the time, “with the brick shop thereon situate in the southerly side of the lane”
In the 1884 atlas the house can be seen to the left of the brick shop. Bailey and Brown were owners of a brick works in
Northampton, and this house, the house at 10 Allen Place and two others on Allen Place were built by them on speculation.
They sold this house in 1897 to Samuel C. Brown.” In 1917 Henry L. Dragon occupied the house. In 1900 Henry L. Dragon,
one of seven children, was a shoe salesman and lived with his parents Theophile and Adelina on Spring Street. Twenty years
later he had married a Rose, they had two children and were in this house and Henry continued to sell shoes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Registry of Deeds. Book 1323, Page 287; Book 1179, Page 104; Book 829, Page 421; Book 782, Page 501; Book 619, Page
217; Book 496, Page 173; Book 379, Page 359.
Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston,1884.
William McDonald, Smith College.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [10 ALLEN PLACE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.695
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 Bailey-Brown House would contribute to a potential historic district encompassing Allen Place and 61 Gothic
Street as it was in this neighborhood where the Bailey and Brown brick shop was located in the 1880s, which
furnished the brick, the design and the construction of the multiple brick Gothic Revival houses and institutional
buildings of many styles in Northampton. The two houses as 10 and 11 Allen Place are good examples of the work of
this brick making firm and represent the light industry that formed an important part of the Northampton economy at
the turn of the century. Residents of the house appear to have been part of the developing middle class of the city.
Architecturally, the Bailey-Brown House is a fine example of the late Gothic Revival style and it is one of the best-
preserved examples of the one-and-a-half story version of the style that was to be repeated elsewhere in Northampton
over a half-dozen times.