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33 Beacon Street 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): April, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 23A-194 Easthampton NTH.219 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 33 Beacon Street Historic Name: William H. Riley House Uses: Present: single-family house Original: single-family house Date of Construction: ca. 1875 Source: 1873 atlas. Style/Form: Stick Style Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Garage Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.445 Acres (Northampton Assessors) Setting: House faces south on a quiet, residential street shaded by Maple street trees. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [33 BEACON STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.219 __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. The Stick Style is relatively uncommon in Northampton and this is a fine example that has been well-preserved. It is a one-and- a-half story house under a side-gable roof with a transverse front gable and a three-story tower in the angle of the two sections of the house. The three sections are visually linked by a wraparound, angled porch that spans from the south façade around t o the east elevation. A one-story porch, it is supported on posts and is screened. The surface of the house is made visually lively by the use of clapboards and shingles and by a broad band of Stick Style picket-shaped trim that is found in the gables and beneath the house eaves and on the tower. All the gables of the house, including that of a front-gabled dormer on the west elevation have King Post trusses as ornaments. The tower has a pyramidal roof with triangular dormer windows, one to each of its four sides. Windows in the house have 2/2 sash. The front-gable section of the house has two bays on the first floor whose windows have prominent cornice lintels on consoles. The second floor has a pair of arched windows with 1/1 sash. There is a three-sided bay window at the first floor on the west elevation, which adds interior volume to the house and adds a picturesque quality to its elevation. 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 1976, “This is one of the earlier houses built on Beacon Street. The street had been laid out during the 1860s and George Burr, a Florence industrialist had bought most of the land on both sides. In 1882 William H. Riley bought a lot east of Burr’s homestead on the north side of the street and had this house built. William H. Riley was a reporter for the Springfield Union when the house was originally built. During the 1890s he and Joseph H. Riley formed their own company. Situated in Northampton center, they operated as stove dealers, plumbers, and gas fitters.” 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. Registry of Deeds. Book 376, Page 121. Northampton Directories of 1882-83 and 1895-96. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [33 BEACON STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.219 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 Riley House would contribute to a Beacon Street Historic District developed and resided in by some of Florence’s leading industrialists in the 1860s-1910s. It represents the shift in Florence from neighborhoods that mixed mill workers’ housing with mill owners’ housing of the first half of the century to that of neighborhoods of economically-similar residents with, in this case, large lots, grand homes set back from a broad street. As a business owner, Riley reflects the trends well. Architecturally, the district is significant for its range of high style homes and a church in the Stick Style, Italianate, Queen Anne and Tudor Revival styles. Further research would indicate which among them were architect-designed, as many certainly were. The Riley House is a particularly fine example of the Stick Style whose features have been well-preserved.