33 Bright 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
31B-105 Easthampton NTH.621
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 33 Bright Street
Historic Name: Mrs. Mary Finn House
Uses: Present: five-family house
Original: single-family house
Date of Construction: 1882-1884
Source: Registry of Deeds and Atlas
Style/Form: Queen Anne/Stick Style
Architect/Builder: William Fenno Pratt and son
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: vinyl
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Converted from single-family to multi-family, 1917-1937.
Siding added, windows replaced, rear addition made ca.
2000.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.172 acres
Setting: This house faces south on a tree-shaded
residential street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [33 BRIGHT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.621
_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.
This house is one of four on Bright Street that are stylistically idiosyncratic – a mixture of Queen Anne and Stick Style not
commonly found in Northampton. This house has suffered from having been vinyl sided and having had its windows replaced so
that much of its stylistic character has been covered if not entirely lost. What characterizes all four of the Pratt-attributed houses
is the use of jerkin head roofs whether the house is two-and-a-half stories in height, as is the case here at #33, or one-and-a-half
stories in height as at 28 Bright Street. Though it is rare in the Queen Anne style, the jerkin head roof does appear as here. The
south façade only three bays wide is yet made monumental by its tall proportions and a projecting center entry pavilion one b ay
wide beneath a front-gabled roof. In the gable field of the pavilion are the remains of a Stick Style decorative truss framing an
oculus window in the center of the field. The house is two bays deep and has a two-story rear ell. Beneath the jerkin head roofs
at attic level are remaining three-part windows on the east and west. A wide frieze encircles the house beneath the eaves. The
house has a shed roof porch sheltering its entry on the south façade. The porch on thin posts appears to have been an
alteration or addition. There is a pair of center chimneys on the roof ridge.
Although this house is the work of Northampton architect William Fenno Pratt, it has been considerably altered so is not the best
example of his designs.
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 1980 form, “This is one of eight houses built from designs of William F. Pratt and Son in the early 1880s for Parker
Whitcomb. Mr. Whitcomb and Prof. Benjamin Blodgett collaborated on an opening of Bright Street between King Street and
State Street in 1882. Over the next two years Mr. Whitcomb had two houses built on either side of the western end of Bright
Street and four houses on State Street. He retained ownership of the houses after they were built and leased them to tenants.”
In 1917 the house was owned by Mrs. Mary Finn a widow of Patrick Finn. Between 1917 and 1937 the house was converted to
a multi-family and in 1937 eight unrelated people lived here in the units.
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.
Registry of Deeds: Bk. 370-P. 345; 367-85; 385-31.