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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
31D-2 Easthampton NTH.725
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Smith College Campus
Address: College Lane
Historic Name: Smith College Plant House and
Greenhouses Uses: Present: plant house, exhibition space, and
greenhouses Original: plant house and greenhouses
Date of Construction: 1895
Source: Smith College Archives
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder: Lord and Burnham, greenhouse
designers Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick, glass, metal
Roof: slate, glass
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 2.51 acres
Setting: This complex is situated on the east side of
Paradise Pond and north of the Smith College specimen
gardens.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [College Lane]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.725
_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 Queen Anne style Lyman Plant House is a one-and-a-half story brick building that consists of a front-gabled main building
with two brick wings on the south and one glass and metal wing on the north for a wide, rectangular plan. The main block is
brick with a shingled front-gable and it has an entry portico on curved braces. It is three bays wide. Separating the first floor
from the gable field is a wide wood frieze. The first wing on the south has a copper trimmed hipped roof and a transverse fr ont-
gable. It is three bays wide. Beneath the transverse gable is a secondary entry, flanked by paired 1/1 sash windows. Set
slightly back from the plane of the facades is the second wing on the south. It is also three bays wide and has a hipped roof.
The north wing is a glass-front, contemporary addition behind a pergola porch. Extending to the east from the brick plant house
and its wings are two, parallel greenhouse ells with copper cresting rails marking their roof ridges. The greenhouses are glass
within metal framework, one story in height, that extend eastward under gable shaped roofs but then rise to the equivalent of two
and three stories under a hipped shaped roof on the north and under a rounded or curvilinear hipped shape on the south. The
south greenhouse has a wing that extends to the south. It is one-story in height and shares the curvilinear shape of the main
south greenhouse. These are elegantly shaped structures whose antecedent was the Crystal Palace of 1851 in Hyde Park,
England designed by Joseph Paxton and constructed of glass in a cast iron and steel framework and included a curvinlinear
arched vault.
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 1976, “Smith College was given the Lyman Plant House in 1896 by the Lyman family of Northampton as a
memorial to Anne Lyman. The Lyman family made later donations to expand the greenhouse facilities. The planthouse and
attached greenhouses represent one aspect of the College’s interest in providing opportunities for the study of botany. The
College grounds, originally laid out by the Olmsted Landscaping firm, contain specimens of rare trees and shrubs.”
The greenhouses were designed and manufactured by Lord and Burnham, a company that began in 1856 in Syracuse, New
York and eventually moved to Irvington, New York near the Hudson River and the great estates that were built on the river. Lord
and Burnham successfully experimented in a metal framework and large panes of glass and developed Victorian shapes for the
greenhouses that they used at both private homes and large conservatories such as the New York Botanical gardens and the
Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco’s Gold Gate Park.
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 ] [College Lane]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.725