11 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-219 Easthampton NTH.683
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 11 Allen Place
Historic Name: Samuel C. Brown House
Uses: Present: single-family residence
Original: single-family residence
Date of Construction: ca. 1885
Source: Registry of Deeds, 1884 and 1895 atlases
Style/Form: Gothic Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick/shingles
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.086 acres (Northampton Assessors)
Setting: This is one of a cluster of four brick houses of
similar date and style set closely together on a short and
narrow street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [11 ALLEN PLACE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.683
_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 stylistically idiosyncratic house and unique in Northampton. It is two-and-a-half stories under a hipped roof. It is three
bays wide and two bays deep and has a three sided bay window on its south façade adjacent to a shed roofed porch on turned
posts. There are decorative brackets at the porch eaves along with a frieze of square balusters. Railings on the porch have
matching square balusters. It has a front-gabled, through-cornice dormer on its south façade above the porch. There is a
transverse gable bay on the west elevation. The brickwork at this house, as at 10 Allen Place, is out of the ordinary and was
probably intended to serve as a demonstration of the craftsmanship available in Northampton through the Bailey-Brown
brickworks who built the house. Among the details are a wide watertable, brick panels at frieze level beneath the eaves,
pedimented lintels atop label lintels at first floor windows, projecting segmentally arched lintels on beaded consoles on the east
elevation. There is a centered stair window on the same east elevation with a beaded brick frame. A diamond shaped panel in
relief at the second story level on the south facade is unusual. While the building may have been intended to be Gothic Revival
in style, it doesn’t use architectural design elements of the Gothic Revival as much as eclectic elements from Italianate, Classical
Revival and other styles.
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 1975 this house was built about 1885 for Samuel C. Brown. It was built with the brick manufactured
by William Bailey and Jeremiah Brown of Northampton whose brick also built the house across the street at 10 Allen Place and
two other houses on the street. Samuel C. Brown bought the house at 10 Allen Place in 1897 after buying this house, though
his name does not appear in the Northampton directories of the time. .
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Registry of Deeds. Book 965, page 291; Book 963, page 508; Book 852, page 391; Book 786, page 428; Book 786, pages 433-
434; Book 323, page 277; Book 292, page 171; Book 212, page 243.
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.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [11 ALLEN PLACE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.683
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 Samuel C. Brown House would contribute to a potential historic district encompassing Allen Place and a portion
of 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 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 Samuel C. Brown House is a fine example of the late Gothic Revival style and the high level of
masonry work that is found during this period in the city. It is one of the best-preserved and examples of the two-and-
a-half story versions of the style that was to be repeated elsewhere in Northampton a number of times.