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62 Chestnut 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 continuation sheet. Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons Organization: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Date (month / year): March, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 17C -187 Easthampton NTH.108 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 62 Chestnut Street Historic Name: David Ranney House Uses: Present: single-family house and bed and breakfast establishment Original: single-family house Date of Construction: ca. 1865 Source: Directory and map Style/Form: eclectic Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Shed built 2004 Major Alterations (with dates): Enclosed side porch added ca. 1930. Condition: good Moved: no |x| yes | | Date Acreage: 0.258 Acres Setting: This property is located on a quiet residential street and is adjacent to a rail-trail bike path. It is shaded by a mature maple tree. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [62 Chestnut Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.108 ___ 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 one-and-a-half story house under a front-gable roof began as a small house that has over time been expanded and embellished to become a substantial building. The main block of the house is three bays wide and the equivalent of four bays long. It has a center chimney and an added through-eaves exterior chimney on its north elevation. The east side hall entry is a Colonial Revival style alteration with slender colonettes rising through an entablature to support a cornice. This is a unique surround whose proportions are consistent with the house. There is a one-story ell on the west side of the house followed by an attached garage. A three-sided, Italianate style bay is located on the south elevation of the ell and there is a shed-roofed wing on the north elevation. This house is among a number of workers’s houses on the street and is one of the best-preserved among them. 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, “Some time before 1854 Chestnut Street was laid out from Main Street to Bridge Road. An impetus to develop was provided by the expansion of the Florence Sewing Machine Company on the southern side of Main Street at the intersection of Chestnut Street. They built and owned a number of cottages and boarding houses in this area during the 1860s and 1870s. This cottage is not much different from those owned by the company and was probably built for them in the early 1860s. The 1873 atlas shows this house as being occupied by David Ranney, an employee of the Florence Sewing Machine Company who by 1885 had risen to superintendent of the machine department.” 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. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [62 Chestnut Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.108 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [62 Chestnut Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 NTH.108 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. This property would contribute to a Florence Center Historic District. The potential historic district of Florence Center is significant as the commercial, residential, institutional center of the village that developed from 1657 when it was set off as Northampton’s “Inner Commons” as agricultural land and 1681 when the first sawmill was erected at a falls on the Mill River. The agricultural and industrial village developed through the 18th and 19th centuries around industry on the Mill River, agriculture on the alluvial flood plain and the Strong Tavern and later Cottage Hotel at the intersection of Main and Maple Streets. It is significant for the silk industry that flourished through the Civil war as an alternative to slave-picked cotton and for the establishment of the Northampton Association for Education and Industry, a utopian community that existed 1843-1847. Association members after its close continued in Florence their principles of equality by running the Underground Railroad through the village and harboring fugitive slaves. It is significant as the home of Sojourner Truth. 19th century industry in the Center included the Florence Sewing Machine Company, which built its own housing. Architecturally the Center is significant for the range of Gothic Revival, Italianate, Stick Style, French Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival style homes, for its commercial blocks and library in the Revival styles of the late 19th century. Gothic Revival and Italianate style churches are architect-designed in high style versions. The potential district has integrity of workmanship, design, feeling, association, and materials.