4 Barrett 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: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
Date (month / year): October 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
31B-87 Easthampton NTH.614
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 4 Barrett Place
Historic Name: Howard Patch House
Uses: Present: single-family house
Original: single-family house
Date of Construction: 1910-1915
Source: atlases
Style/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.199 (Northampton Assessors)
Setting: The house is placed on a corner lot behind a brick
embankment. It is the first house on a dead-end street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [4 Barrett Place]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.614
__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.
There are eight houses on Barrett Place and six of them are variations of the Colonial Revival style. The Howard Patch House
is two-and-a-half stories in height beneath a slate-covered, side-gable roof. It is a 20th century interpretation of an 18th century
Federal style house with enlarged proportions and new details. The house is a very wide five bays and two bays deep. It has
an entry hood in the center bay that is barrel vaulted and supported on four elaborately carved consoles – a non-Colonial feature
that yet derives from classical architecture. A sunburst is carved in the field of the barrel vault. The entry is flanked by sidelights
that have double rows of lights rather than single – a feature often found in 18th century Berkshire County. The clapboard-sided
house has a center chimney and a second interior chimney in the main block. A two-and-a-half story ell on the south elevation
has an end wall chimney. The house has porches on both its east and west elevations. The porch on the west is two-story,
screened on the second floor perhaps as a sleeping porch, open on the first, and supported on Doric columns. The porch on the
east is one-story in height and it, too, has large Doric column supports. Windows in the house have crown molding lintels and
sash is replacement 1/1 vinyl.
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 1980 Form B, “ Barrett Place was laid out in 1910 through a portion of H. R. Hinckley’s estate (known as the Manse).
It is a short, dead-end street with eight houses. These are predominantly “Colonial” in character.
The house appears on the 1915 atlas and was the first to be built on the street. The first known owner and occupant was
Howard Patch, an associate professor of English at Smith College, who was listed here in the 1922 and 1930 directories.”
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.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [4 Barrett Place]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.614
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 Patch 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. Howard Patch as a Smith College professor is representative of the residents
who helped build the district.
Architecturally the potential historic district is significant for the mix of late 19th century and early 20th century styles
from the late Gothic Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne styles to the early 20th century Colonial Revival and Tudor
Revival style houses that were often architect-designed by the region’s most well-known designers. This fine
Colonial Revival style house was probably architect-designed and deserves further research. The potential historic
district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.