204 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
24C-183 Easthampton NTH.319
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 204 Crescent Street
Historic Name: George Johnson House
Uses: Present: Three-family residence
Original: Single-family house
Date of Construction: 1884-1895
Source: Atlas
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.161 acre
Setting: This house faces northwest as the street
curves. It is a residential street that rises on its eastern
side.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [204 CRESCENT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.319
__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 is a two-and-a-half story Queen Anne style house under a side-gable roof with a cross-gable on the front for an L-shaped
plan. In the angle of the two sections of the house is a three-story square tower under a pyramidal, hipped roof. This is a not-
uncommon plan and elevation for a number of Queen Anne style houses in Northampton and includes its neighbor at 176
Crescent Street. The house is clapboard sided on the first story and shingle sided on the upper two stories and the tower in two
different patterns. The gable eaves in both sections of the house project over their attic windows. Adding to the complexity of
this house’s interior volume is a two-story oriel window on the north elevation and a three-story bay on the south elevation. The
house has a full-width porch across its west façade. It is supported by turned posts with solid brackets. The house is sided with
clapboards on the first story and shingles of different profiles on the second story and attic level, and the house has been
painted in an historically appropriate color scheme that highlights its varying exterior materials in a picturesque manner.
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 two virtually identical, late-Victorian houses on Crescent Street built c. 1890. Crescent
Street had been laid out in 1886 along the middle slops of Round Hill, through the estate of the Round Hill Hotel. The 1895 atlas
shows this house and lists George Johnson, owner of a Pleasant Street furniture and stove stores, as the owner.”
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] [204 CRESCENT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.319
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 Johnson 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 the potential historic district 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 Johnson House is a fine example of the Queen Anne style
and represents a form that was repeated more than once in Northampton. This potential historic district has integrity
of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.