252 Bridge Street
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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: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
Date (month / year): March, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
25C-061-001 Easthampton NTH.
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address:252 Bridge Street
Historic Name: Jacob Parsons House
Uses: Present: garage
Original: single-family home
Date of Construction: ca. 1746
Source: Hampshire Gazette, September 20, 1972
Style/Form: Georgian
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: stone
Wall/Trim: clapboard
Roof: asphalt shingles, metal
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates): Converted from house to
garage, ca. 1940; two garage bays added ca. 1940.
Fenestration altered and dormers removed.
Condition: poor
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.227 acres
Setting: Set on a corner lot, this building is east-facing in a
mixed commercial/residential stretch of Bridge Street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [252 Bridge Street]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.
___ 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 Jacob Parsons House is a one-and-a-half story building under a gambrel roof with a center chimney. It is the equivalent of
five bays wide and two deep. It is clapboard-sided and windows on the east have 2/2 sash and on the west 6/6 sash. A two-bay
garage was added to the north elevation. While fenestration has been altered by the replacement of four windows by two picture
windows, the form of the original house remains due to its solid construction in the 18th century. This is one of only three
Georgian period, gambrel-roofed buildings remaining in Northampton.
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 property is part of Lot 101 that was laid out by the Proprietors of Northampton in 1654 and allocated to Judah Wright and
Samuel Wright, Sr. Jacob Parsons, the great grandson of Cornet Joseph Parsons is believed to have bought the lot and built
this house at the time of his marriage to Beulah Hunt in 1746. Jacob died in 1795 and in his will of 1793 he left the house to his
wife Beulah along with half his garden, half his homelot and property elsewhere in town – as long as she stayed a widow. The
other half of the property went to his son Israel. Israel’s son Jacob (1790-1857) was a farmer here on Bridge Street. When he
died in 1857 he left his 15 year old son Albert R. Parsons under the guardianship of William Converse. Converse lived in this
house and was a sheep-shearer described by S. El Bridgman in 1872 in the Hampshire Gazette and next door at 262 Bridge
Street, Albert’s grandfather Israel lived. Five of Jacob Parsons’ lots on Bridge Street were sold in 1860, three years after his
death. By 1860 it was one of two houses – the other being at 262 Bridge Street – in possession of the Jacob Parsons estate.
By 1873 Albert R. Parsons had come into full ownership of the two houses. A. C. Parsons owns the building in 1884 but
between 1884 and 1895 the house passed out of the Parsons family and into the ownership of O. T. Keefe. Timothy Griffin was
its next owner in 1909 when he sold it to Mme. Marie von Veltheim. Mme. Von Veltheim transferred the house to Mme. De
Naucaze who turned it into a tearoom by 1923. Mme De Naucaze was Belgian and was an actor who took part in many plays in
Northampton at the Academy of Music. She died in 1924.
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.