136 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-296 Easthampton NTH.355
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 136 Crescent Street
Historic Name: Albert Dyer House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1904
Source: Atlas, Directory & Springfield Daily
Republican Style/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: vinyl, wood shingles
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Vinyl siding added and some windows replaced, ca. 2000
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.136 acre
Setting: This is a north-facing house on a raised
lot in a purely residential neighborhood.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [136 CRESCENT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.355
_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 plan of this Colonial Revival style house is relatively simple but its elevation has been embellished to give it a greater
picturesque quality. It is a two-story house under a hipped roof. Being three bays wide and three bays deep, it has a simple
square plan. However, it also has a full-width porch on the north with an integral projecting pavilion supported on Colonial
Revival style Doric columns. Centered above the porch is a cross-gabled bay. The bay has a front-gabled roof whose eaves
make full returns to form a pediment. At the second story the bay is angled and ornamented with scrolled consoles at the
cornice. A diamond-shaped window fills the gable field. At the first story of the north façade is a relatively narrow and
unembellished entry flanked by two large, fixed-light windows with multi-paned transom lights.
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: “In 1886, Crescent Street was laid out through the old orchards and gardens of the Round Hill Hotel
property. It encircled Round Hill, midway up its slopes, beginning at the end of Henshaw Avenue, which had been laid out in the
1860’s, and extended north, west and then south to Elm Street. Development proceeded north from Henshaw Avenue, with the
section south of Round Hill substantially complete by 1895. During the first three decades of the 20th century, the next two
sections, south to Bancroft Road and then south to Elm Street, were developed.
The house originally was built in 1904 for Albert Dyer, an employee of the Kingsley Box and Paper Company, at a cost
of $3000. This house first appears on the 1915 atlas and was occupied by the Curran family, a member of which still owns the
property. John and William Curran were Main Street grocers and Frances, Mary and Catherine Curran were listed as clerks.”
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] [136 CRESCENT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.355
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 Dyer 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.
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 Dyer House is a good example of the Colonial Revival style and is well-preserved.
This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.