235 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
31A-49 Easthampton NTH.473
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 235 Crescent Street
Historic Name: Robert E.S. Olmstead House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1912
Source: Atlas and Springfield Daily Republican
Style/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: fieldstone
Wall/Trim: shingles, fieldstone
Roof: asphalt
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Entry altered, windows replaced, ca. 2000
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.205 acre
Setting: This house faces east on a quiet residential
street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [235 CRESCENT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.473
_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 Robert Olmstead House is a Colonial Revival style house in one of its most common forms of the 20th century – a Dutch
Colonial Revival under a gambrel roof. It is two-and-a-half stories in height with the second story formed by three shed roof
dormers arranged along the lower slope of the roof. The first story is three bays wide with fieldstone piers at its outer corners
and shingles in the inner bays. Triple composition windows flank the center entry that has been altered to consist of a projecting
portico on columns above an enclosed entry vestibule. The portico is topped by a balustrade. There is a side porch on the
south elevation of the house that is supported on Colonial Revival columns. At the upper level of the gambrel roof at its center
was an eyebrow window that has been replaced by a skylight. Fieldstone chimneys are located at each end of the roof.
Windows are all replacement 1/1.
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 house was built in 1912 at a cost of $8500 for Robert Olmstead, a professor of vocal music at Smith
College. Crescent Street had been laid out in 1886, but the section south of Bancroft Road was not developed until the early
20th century.”
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] [235 CRESCENT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.473
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 Olmstead 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 Olmstead House is a good example of the Colonial Revival
style. This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.