57 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-181 Easthampton NTH.2075
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 57 Bridge Street
Historic Name: Elizabeth and J. Stebbins Lathrop House
Uses: Present: two-family residence
Original: single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1840s
Source: Putnam, The Northampton Book
Style/Form: Italianate
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brownstone
Wall/Trim: flushboard
Roof: not visible
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 1.063 acres
Setting: North-facing house is set back from the street
behind a wrought iron fence. Lot is shaded by locust,
maple, beech, willow and spruce trees.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [57 BRIDGE STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2075
_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 Lathrop House is one of the fine Italianate style houses on Bridge Street built mid-19th century as single-family homes for
the well-to-do. As this section of Bridge Street was still relatively rural in the 1850s, the style was adopted to suggest an Italian
country villa. To that end the two-story house has a hipped roof that is nearly flat and is punctuated by two tall interior chimneys.
The house is three bays wide and three bays deep and it is large in scale. Flushboard siding and corner quoins are meant to
duplicate the appearance of a stone villa with wide eaves and broad frieze. The main entry to the house is beneath a flat-roofed
portico supported on two fluted Ionic columns and respondent pilasters. The door is double leaf beneath a high, two-light
transom. Windows in the house have footed sills and lintels and large 6/6 sash. The center bay of the second story has a pa ir
of full-length glass doors framed by blind sidelights. Across the west elevation is a single-story side porch on slender columns
with a dentil row at its eaves and French doors opening to the interior. There is also a decorative row of pendant ornament on
the north end of the porch frieze. Attached to the south elevation of the house is a two-story ell.
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 1970, “This is the first of three houses to be built in Northampton from the same plans. It was, until recently,
the home of Colonel and Mrs. Dwight Hughes. She was the great-great-granddaughter of the original occupant, J. Stebbins
Lathrop. Lathrop was born and educated in West Springfield, was a businessman and resident of Savannah, Georgia until the
start of the Civil War and came north during the summers. His wife Elizabeth brought a book of plans on Southern architecture
to Northampton that was used for this home. After confiscation by the federal government, the Lathrop’s home was purchased
for them at public auction by a friend, Osmyn Baker. The family returned to their home after the war from Canada where they
had fled, since Lathrop preferred not to fight against a brother in the Confederate Army.
Osmyn Baker was a lawyer, the first president of Smith Charities and a trustee of the Clarke School. He was the leading spirit in
the founding of the Hampshire County Law Library and also the Northampton Public Library. He built the house at 78 Pomeroy
Terrace from the same architectural plans as this house.”
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.
Daily Hampshire Gazette, January 24, 1970.
Putnam, Karl S. The Northampton Book, 1954.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [57 BRIDGE STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.2075
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 Lathrop 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.