73 Audubon Road
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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
10B-82 Easthampton NTH.21
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 73 Audubon Road
Historic Name: Andrew Sydell House
Uses: Present: single-family residence
Original: single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1884-1895
Source: atlases
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboard
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
New England style carriage barn
Major Alterations (with dates):
Windows replaced ca. 2000/
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 3.97 acres (Northampton Assessors)
Setting: This house is on the east side of a stream that
drains into the Roberts Meadow Reservoir on a lot that
slopes down to the east.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [73 AUDUBON ROAD]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.21
___ 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 one of the five to six houses that went up on Audubon Road at the end of the 19th century in the Queen Anne style. It is a
two-and-a-half story house under a front-gable roof. It is three bays wide and four bays deep with a two-story ell and a side
porch on the east elevation. It has a hipped roof porch on its south façade on posts with scroll-cut brackets at the eaves. The
main entry door is a glass and panel door that is probably original. There is a three-sided bay window on the east elevation and
an oculus window in the gable of the south façade. Windows of the house have been replaced by 1/1 vinyl. This is a modest
house that is representative of the housing that families shared while working in the nearby mills.
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 a Form B completed in 1980 for this property, “The first known owner of the house is Andrew Sydell, who in 1895
was employed as a watchman for the Northampton Emory Wheel Company in Leeds. He may have lived here as early as 1885
when he was employed by the Nonotuck Silk Company, but no street address is given in the directory.” Audubon Road was
known as West Street in 1893 and Andrew Sydell is listed in the directory of that year on living on West Street and already a
watchman at NEW Company.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Hampshire Massachusetts, New York, 1873.
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.
Directories of 1895-96, 1885-86.