34 Bridge 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): 3/22/10
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
16B-001-044 Easthampton NTH.49
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 34 Bridge Road
Historic Name: Seth Warner Homestead
Uses: Present: single-family residence
Original: single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1819
Source: History of Florence, Mass., Charles Sheffeld (ed.).
Style/Form: Federal
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: stone
Wall/Trim: vinyl
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates): vinyl sided and windows
replaced, ca. 2000
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 24 acres
Setting: South-facing house is set close to the road
behind a wooden fence
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [34 BRIDGE ROAD ]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.49
___ 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 Seth Warner House is a two-and-a-half story house under a side-gable roof. It has one interior chimney that is off-center
and behind the ridge pole. The house is five bays wide and one bay deep and there is a shed-roofed ell on the north elevation.
Attached to the ell on the east is a one-and-a-half story wing with a recessed porch, followed by a one-story equipment shed two
bays wide, and an attached eaves-front carriage barn for a long rectangular plan. While the wing is vinyl sided, the shed and
carriage barn are clapboard and vertical wood sided. The house is also vinyl-sided so many of its details are no longer visible
but it is late Federal in style with long first floor windows on the façade that now contain 12/12 replacement vinyl sash. Second
floor windows have 6/6 replacement windows. The house has an Italianate style, flat-roofed portico at its center entry. It rests
on posts with caps and bases and Chippendale pattern railings fill each side opening. It was probably added to the house ca.
1850-70. There is no visible door surround.
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, “The Seth Warner House, built in 1819 is perhaps the most salient edifice in the Florence community,
today. It was Joseph Warner who built the first house in Florence in 1778, thus making the Warners Florence’s “first family”.
Shortly thereafter Solomon Warner was to establish a tavern under his name that was on the stage route to Williamsburg and
proved to be a noteworthy inn for the area. It is important to note that the family owned most of the area most charmingly known
as Bear Hill, which was the site of the Warner School District. The Warner family is still a rather cohesive and prominent faction
in Florence today. They have retained ownership of the Seth Warner homestead; a period that spans one hundred and sixty
years. “
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.