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83 Bancroft 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: PVPC Date (month / year): March, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 24D-314-001 Easthampton NTH.359 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 83 Bancroft Road Historic Name: Uses: Present: two-family residence Original: single-family residence Date of Construction: ca. 1895 Source: 1895 atlas Style/Form: Queen Anne Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Garage Major Alterations (with dates): Ell on east, ca. 2005 Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.474 acres Setting: This house faces west on the crest of a hill. Its lot is bordered by a low embankment wall behind which are flower beds. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [83 BANCROFT ROAD] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.359 _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 one of several elaborate versions of the Queen Anne style to be found on Round Hill in Northampton. It is among the best preserved of them and exemplifies well the complicated style at its peak. The main block of the house is two-and-a-half stories in height under a side-gable roof. The building is given its complexity by the addition of bays and porches at all stories. There is a two-and-a-half story bay on the north elevation beneath a jerkin head roof. It is the only bay that rises through all the stories. On the west façade a transverse gable intersects with the main roof of the house and incorporates an open porch with a jerkin head roof at the attic level, a round bay adjacent to an enclosed square porch at the second floor level. The round bay and square porch project on to the roof of a wrap around porch that crosses the west façade and continues up the south elevation. The porch shelters at first floor level a large fixed light window and a three-sided bay window. The porch has turned posts, scroll cut brackets at the eaves, and a turned baluster railing. The house’s surface is given visual appeal by the use of clapboards on the first floor and patterned shingles on the second floor. There is a large added ell on the east side of the house and a separate garage. 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 1980: “This house and 66 Bancroft Road were the only two houses to appear on the upper part of the street on the 1895 atlas. John O’Donnell had bought the northern part of Round Hill in the mid-1880s and slowly developed the property over the next forty years. He served as mayor of Northampton during the early 1890s, maintained a career as a lawyer, and was appointed a judge for the District Court late in life. The 1895 atlas shows him owning this house, but he lived across the street at no. 66. “ 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. Sanborn Insurance Co. Map of Northampton, 1915. Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884. Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860. Northampton Directories. 1885-86; 1895-95; 1900; 1905; 1915; 1922 and 1930. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [83 BANCROFT ROAD] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.359 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. This house would contribute to a potential historic district that extends north of Northampton’s primary corridor, Elm Street, encircling and encompassing the primary feature of that landscape, Round Hill. The potential historic district is significant for its 19th century development from a few gentlemen’s farms to a neighborhood dense with the homes of its most prominent residents and educational institutions that shaped the character of Northampton for several hundred years to the present. Architecturally it is significant for the mix of high style late Gothic Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne style houses that were often architect-designed by the region’s most well-known designers. This is one of the finest examples of the Queen Anne style in the district and is very well-preserved. This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.