241 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-48 Easthampton NTH.472
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 241 Crescent Street
Historic Name: Dr. Frank Dow House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1912
Source: Atlases and Springfield Daily Republican
Style/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.159 acre
Setting: This is an east-facing house on a quiet,
residential street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [241 CRESCENT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.472
_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 Frank Dow House is a brick, Colonial Revival style house under a side-gable roof with two end wall chimneys projecting
through the roof eaves and a third chimney behind the ridge line. The roof also has a centered, wood, front-gabled dormer with
a Palladian window composition as its fenestration. The two-and-a-half story house is three bays wide and has a center
trabeated entry sheltered by a portico on Doric columns with respondent Doric pilasters at the façade wall. At each side of the
entry is a window composition that has been altered from a triple window composition to four, single-glazed openings. At the
second story level windows have not been altered and pairs of 4/4 sash flank a triple window composition consisting of three
openings with 4/4 sash united by a scrolled wooden sill. The house has a one-story porch across its south elevation supported
by Doric columns. This is a relatively common house form and style and appears on a number of Northampton’s residential
streets.
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 for Dr. Frank Dow, a physician, in 1912 at a cost of $7500. Crescent Street had
been laid out in 1886 along the middle slopes of Round Hill, 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] [241 CRESCENT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.472
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 Dow 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 Dow House is a fine example of the Colonial Revival style.
This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.