323 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
Please see attached map.
Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons
Organization: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
Date (month / year): March, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
25A-110 Easthampton NTH.374
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 323 Bridge Street
Historic Name: William Hill House
Uses: Present: single-family house
Original: single-family house
Date of Construction: 1860-1868
Source: Registry of Deeds
Style/Form: Gothic Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
garage
Major Alterations (with dates): porch filled in ca. 1900;
rear ell added ca. 1990
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 1.21 acres
Setting: House is set on the ridge above the Connecticut
River Valley plain.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [323 Bridge Street]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.374
___ 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 Gothic Revival style is well-represented by this one-and-a-half story house that is gable-and-wing in form. The west-facing
house has in its front-gabled section at the first floor level a three-sided bay window and at its second floor level a pair of lancet
windows in an architrave surround with a trefoil cutout in its upper field. The front-gabled section of the house has a jerkin head
roof with deep, boxed eaves overhangs. The wing section of the house also has a jerkin head roof and similar boxed eaves.
There is a one-story porch - under a flat roof - that has been glassed-in with 2/2 windows in the angle between the two sections
of the house. A center chimney is located at the junction of the two roof ridges. The house has a three-story rear ell on its east
elevation under a gable roof and has faux lancet windows, a secondary entry and stairs that lead to a rear deck. This house has
seen a number of restoration improvements since it was inventoried in 1975.
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 1975, “This small Gothic cottage is one of three cottages on the easterly side of Bridge Street. Alvah
Littlefield of Boston purchased a large tract of land – ten acres – in 1859and erected on it a cottage designed by Wm. F. Pratt.
Littlefield sold the entire tract to William Hill of Northampton for $9,000 in 1864; Hill disposed of the tract in two parcels, one sold
to Winthrop Hillyer on August 13, 1868 and one sold to Susan R. Boies on August 14, 1868. The parcels sold for $6,000 and
$7,000 respectively. The Hillyer ($6,000) parcel was about 1 acre and this researcher assumes that the elaborate cottage a la
A. J. Downing on the smaller tract was the Pratt cottage. The Boies ($7,000) parcel contained 9 acres, “land w/buildings”. It is
therefore probably that Hill had the southerly cottage built. The third, most northerly cottage was built in 1880-1881 for Moses
Elwell; it was also designed by Wm. F. Pratt.”
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.
Hampshire County Registry of Deeds, Book 184 page 143; Book 223 Page 61; Book 254 page 275.
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] [323 Bridge Street]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.374