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78 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 Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons Organization: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Date (month / year): March, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 17C-159 Easthampton NTH.102 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address:78 Chestnut Street Historic Name: Florence Sewing Machine Company House Uses: Present: single-family house Original: single-family house Date of Construction: ca. 1865-1870 Source: map and atlas Style/Form: Italianate/Queen Anne Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Exterior wall chimney added, ca. 1990 Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.225 acres Setting: This house sits on a rise in the landscape and is surrounded by flowering shrubbery and flower beds. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [78 Chestnut Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.102 __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 one-and-a-half story, front-gabled house is representative of the Florence Sewing Machine Company housing as it has had fewer alterations than others and has been well-maintained since its construction in the third quarter of the 19h century. Similar to the workers’s house at 62 Chestnut Street it is three bays wide and the equivalent of four bays deep and has a one-story kitchen ell on the west. Where other workers’s houses have added garages, three-sided bays and enclosed porches, this house has retained its original modest plan. The most decorative feature is its porch that wraps from the east façade around to th e south elevation. The hipped roof porch supports are solid turned posts on high plinths with scroll-cut braces with pendants at the eaves. Stylistically the porch is pointing to the Queen Anne style with its turned posts and curvilinear eaves braces, suggesting that its creator was aware of stylistic trends. 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, “The Florence Sewing Machine Company was formed in the early 1860s and a large factory constructed on the corner of Main and Chestnut Streets in Florence. The Company owned a substantial amount of land in the vicinity of their plant and had workers’ housing built. Most of these were cottages, but a Gazette article does mention three large blocks, capable of housing 25 to 30 families (in total), which were built during 1866. Chestnut Street, which first appears as a road on the 1854 map, remained undeveloped until the Company cottages were built. The 1873 atlas shows nine cottages on the west side of Chestnut Street, north of Main Street. All, except for one, were one- and-a-half stories in height with a side-hall plan. “ 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] [78 Chestnut Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.102 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.