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135-137 Crescent 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 24D-259 Easthampton NTH.350 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 135-137 Crescent Street Historic Name: John B. O’Donnell House Uses: Present: Three-family residence Original: Two-family residence Date of Construction: ca. 1895 Source: Atlas of 1895 Style/Form: Queen Anne Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboard, flushboard Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Garage Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.615 acre Setting: Set slightly below the level of the street, this south-facing house is on a lot that slopes down to the north. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [135-137 CRESCENT STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.350 _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 that prized asymmetry adapted well to the design of a two-family house. Here a two-and-a-half story house under a front-gabled, jerkin head roof is a deceptive three bays wide but has large proportions, so the main block of the building that is the equivalent of five bays deep is a large rectangle in plan. Attached at its southeast and southwest corners are features that add complexity to the plan and allowed the two-family to appear to be a single-family. Angled at each corner is on the west a square pavilion and on the east a polygonal tower of three stories. The pavilion is front-gabled and the eaves return forming a pent roof. The pavilion has a shed roof entry portico on chunky Doric columns. The tower is fenestrated at first and second stories with 2/2 sash but is blind on the third story. Centered on the south façade between pavilion and tower is a second entry portico beneath a shed roof and supported on identical columns and respondent engaged columns at the façade. The door has a trabeated surround with sidelights. Resting on the roof of this center entry is an angled bay window of one-story. The building exterior is clapboard sided with stringcourses dividing the stories and a broad frieze beneath the eaves that is flushboard sided and has vertical bands of faux strapwork. The frieze is original to the siding pattern, but the strapwork appears to be a later invention. 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 Form B of 1980: “This is one of the first dozen or so houses to be built on Crescent Street west of Round Hill Road. As early as the 1870’s, plans were made for the subdivision of Round Hill into building lots. There would be three avenues, First, Second, and Third (now known as Crescent, Hillside, and Bancroft), wrapping around the western and northern slopes of the hill, while the hotel occupied the famed eastern slope with its commanding view. Over one hundred building lots were advertised for sale in an 1874 advertisement. However, development did not get started until the 1880’s. John B. O’Donnell, a prominent Northampton lawyer, later to be mayor, bought the property in the mid 1880’s. Crescent Street was opened in 1886 and quickly became one of the most fashionable places to build in town.” 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] [135-137 CRESCENT STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.350 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 John B. O’Donnell House would contribute to a potential historic district that extends north of Northampton’s primary corridor, Elm Street, encircling and encompassing the primary feature of that landscape, Round Hill. The potential historic district is significant for its 19th century development from a few gentlemen’s farms to a neighborhood dense with the homes of its most prominent residents and educational institutions that shaped the character of Northampton for several hundred years to the present. O’Donnell was among the most prominent of the developers who shaped the area north of Elm Street. Architecturally it is significant for the mix of high style late Gothic Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne style houses, the Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival styles of the 20th century that were often architect-designed by the region’s most well-known designers. The O’Donnell House is an unusual example of the Queen Anne style and contributes to the architectural diversity of the area. This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.