212 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
25C-124 Easthampton NTH.392
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 212 Bridge Street
Historic Name: Theodore Baggs House
Uses: Present: two-family residence
Original: single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1860-1873
Source: map and atlas
Style/Form: Italianate
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: asbestos shingles
Roof: asphalt
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Siding added ca. 1960. Porch added and windows altered
ca. 1910.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.165 acres
Setting: This house is set on a corner lot behind a tall
hedge. It is east-facing.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [212 BRIDGE STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.392
___ 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 a good example of an Italianate villa style house with its low hipped roof and shallow transverse gables on the east and
south. A typically wide eaves overhang is ornamented with paired brackets set on a wide frieze, and at each shallow gable end
is a round attic-level opening. The two-story building is three bays wide and three bays deep and it has a two-story ell on the
rear or west elevation and a one-story, three-sided bay window on its south elevation. A Colonial Revival style, stacked porch on
Doric columns crosses the east façade. It is likely to have been an alteration of later date that accompanied a change in
fenestration. Large, single glazed windows on the east façade at first and second floors have wide cornice lintels that are more
consistent with the Colonial Revival style than the Italianate. The porch has a pedimented entry then is stacked on the second
floor with a one bay wide section that is also supported on Doric columns. The main entry is in a one-story pavilion and has a
broad trabeated surround with broad sidelights.
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 was probably built during the late 1860s for Theodore Baggs, a local farmer. The 1873
atlas shows this house on a lot stretching from Bridge Street northerly almost 1000’ to North Street. This was one of three such
homesteads on the north side of Bridge Street between the cemetery and Grant Avenue. Not until the turn of the century were
these homesteads subdivided for residential lots. Elizabeth Street, laid out in 1908 runs through the middle of the original Baggs
lot.”
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.
Northampton Directories of 1885-86; 1873-74; 1868-69.
Hampshire County Registry of Deeds, Book 5945, Page 02, Book 3320, Page 182, (Also see Hampshire County Probate Docket
# 48958 and Release of Estate Tax Book 2202, Page 241) Book 1242, Page 125, Book 1032, Page 492, Book 992, Page 288,
Book, 1025, Page 115 (Sale of previously associated strip of land in 1947)
Book of Plans Book 31, Page 47 (Lot as it was in 1944 when owned by William A Cooney)
(Lot is originally found as Part of a series of Plans filed in Book 632 Pages 270 and 271 on July 24,1908 owned by a Mrs. H.T.
Moseley)
Hampshire County Registry of Probate, Probate Box 609, Folio Estate of William A Cooney,