395 Audubon Road
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: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
Date (month / year): March, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
6-020-001 Easthampton NTH.2
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Leeds
Address: 395 Audubon Road
Historic Name: Calvin Clark House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: ca. 1840
Source: Clark family history
Style/Form: Greek Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: stone
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Barn
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 8.87 acres
Setting: This is a south-facing house that is set on a rise
in the landscape.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [395 Audubon Road]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2
_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 two-and-a-half story Greek Revival style house under a side gable roof. It has two interior chimneys and boxed eaves
that make returns in the gable ends. The house is five bays wide and two bays deep and had a broad trabeated door surround
with pilasters supporting an entablature and enclosing half-length sidelights. Windows in the house have 6/6 sash and drip
molding surrounds. A wide frieze is beneath the eaves and pilasters form the cornerboards of the house. There is a two-and-a-
half story rear ell on the house and it has a one-story, shed roof addition on its south elevation. South east of the house is a
large, New England form, side-hill barn. The house and barn are one of the last relatively intact farmsteads on Audubon Road.
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 Form B of 1975, “This large, sprawling farmhouse is located on the Clark homestead near the intersection of the
“highway” from Williamsburg to Northampton (Audubon Road) and the “highway” from Williamsburg to Southampton (Kennedy
Road). During the last decade of the 18th century three families established themselves on the Williamsburg-Northampton Road
west of the Mill River. These were: James Smith (c.1790), Calvin Clark (1792) and Luke Day (1794). The settlement was called
Rail Hill and in later years, after the harnessing of the Mill River near its junction with Roberts Meadow Brook, and the growth of
an industrial village there, became part of Leeds.
Calvin Clark was 22 years old and just married when he settled here, about six miles from the center of Northampton, and the
nearest of the three homesteads to the Williamsburg line. Mr. Clark continued on the homestead until his death in 1862 at the
age of 93. According to Solomon Clark (1882) the present house is the third one erected on the homestead. The Greek Revival
styling would seem to date the house to about 1840. There is a large multi-level barn with “1882” inscribed on it to the east of
the house.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Hampshire Massachusetts, New York, 1873.
Clark, Solomon. Antiquities, Historicals and Graduates of Northampton, 1882, pp. 162-165.
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 FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [395 Audubon Road]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.2
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 Clark House is eligible for the National Register as one of the two remaining homes of the Clark family that
settled the area in the late 18th century and farmed the area for generations. The history of their agricultural economy
is an important feature of Northampton’s development and its current immediate setting retains the character of the
area as it appeared when the Clark family was actively working the land.
Architecturally, the house is significant as an example of the Greek Revival house of a large family, which, together
with its dairy barn, represent a working 18th century farmstead and part of the dairying industry of the Connecticut
River valley.