109 Bridge 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: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
Date (month / year): March, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
32A-240 Easthampton NTH.2118
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 109 Bridge Street
Historic Name: Seth Hunt House
Uses: Present: single-family house
Original: single-family house
Date of Construction: ca. 1875
Source: Registry of Deeds
Style/Form: Italianate
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: metal standing seam
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.223 acres
Setting: This is a west-facing house that is profiled against
its background by its elevation on the lot. Near the curve in
its street, the house is visually very prominent.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [109 BRIDGE STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2118
_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 Seth Hunt-Mary Ann Cochran House is a late Italianate style house that is more lively in its design than the other Italianate
houses on Bridge Street, whether they were built originally in the style or were later altered to the style. This quality is due to the
fact that the two story house under a flat roof has an L-shaped plan in the angle of which is a three-story square tower giving the
house variety in plan and elevation. The projecting section of the house [the gable equivalent in the gable-and-wing form] is one
bay wide and three bays deep and has a three-sided bay window centered on its first floor and a single window above with a
widely projecting lintel cornice. Beneath the widely projecting eaves is a frieze with an Italianate attic metal grille. Sash in
windows is 2/2. The main entry is in the corner tower and is reached through a wrap-around porch that extends across the west
and south sides of the tower. It has a copper standing seam roof that is supported on chamfered posts with high impost blocks
and scroll-cut railings. The front door surround has a projecting cornice and arched sidelights. The corner tower has round
windows with scroll work surrounds and the wing has an arched window at the second floor and a three-sided bay window on
the south.
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.
This house does not appear on the atlas of 1873, so it is dated ca. 1875. It was built by Seth Hunt who lived in the Gothic
Revival style house to the north of this house at 115 Bridge Street. In 1878 he built this house next to his house, and then sold it
on a quarter acre of land to Mary Ann Cochran, previously of Springfield, Massachusetts, for six thousand dollars.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Registry of Deeds, Book 321, Page 441 Book 339, Page 372. Book 494, Page 255, Book 967, Pages 280 and 279, Book 1073,
Page 397. Book 2227, Page 101,
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] [109 BRIDGE STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.2118
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 Hunt-Cochran House would contribute to a potential Pomeroy Terrace historic district that developed south and
east of the Bridge Street Cemetery from the second third of the 19th century as Northampton’s finest residential
district. Original residents here were merchants, retired farmers, lawyers, and other professions. As the century
progressed the adjacent streets were laid out for the growing middle class with railroad personnel joining clerks,
teachers, and others.
Architecturally the potential historic district is significant for the fine examples of the 19th century architectural styles
from the Greek and Gothic Revivals, Italianate, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles. The district includes
significant examples of the work of Northampton architect William Fenno Pratt. This potential historic district has
integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.