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267 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-44 Easthampton NTH.470 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 267 Crescent Street Historic Name: Mather Apartment House Uses: Present: Six-unit apartment building Original: Six-unit apartment building Date of Construction: 1911 Source: Springfield Daily Republican Style/Form: Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: brick/brownstone Roof: not visible Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.167 acre Setting: This is an east-facing building, a rare, multi-family building in a neighborhood of mainly single- family houses. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [267 CRESCENT STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.470 __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 Mather Apartment block is a three-story brick building under a flat roof. It is three bays wide with a two-story wood porch occupying the center bay on the first and second stories. The flanking windows at all three stories are triple window compositions of 9/1 sash. The wood porch has a balustrade topped flat roof and is supported on colossal two-story high piers. Within the piers the porch is divided into two stories whose ceilings are supported by smaller piers at each level. Square baluster railings connect the piers. At the attic level a wood cornice surrounds the building. On the east façade it is ornamented with pendants and over the center bay is quarter-round arch. This Colonial Revival style building has three-sided angled bay windows on the north and south elevations that add to its interior floor plan. The exterior of the building is trimmed in brownstone with a brownstone watertable and window sills, and the brickwork on the building is befitting a prominent mason- builder: there is a corbelled stringcourse between first and second stories and raised brick panels between the second and third stories. 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 apartment house was built in 1911 by John Mather at a cost of $12,000. Mr. Mather was one of the most prominent masons and builders in the city and served three terms as mayor during the 1890s. ‘One of the most interesting features of the building season…the definite appearance of the apartment building in Northampton. No new buildings of the true apartment type were erected in Northampton until the Woodward apartment house on Elm Street, and the Mather apartment house on Crescent Street, both recently completed, made their appearance.’” 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] [267 CRESCENT STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.470 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 Mather Apartment 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 Mather Apartment House is a fine example of the Colonial Revival style. This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.