52 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-247 Easthampton NTH.345
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 52 Crescent Street
Historic Name: Mrs. Ellen Clark House
Uses: Present: Three-family residence
Original: Single-family house
Date of Construction: 1884-1895
Source: Atlases
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: 0.314 acre
Setting: This house occupies a raised lot and
faces toward the east.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [52 CRESCENT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.345
_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 stately version of the Queen Anne style combining some of the classical features of the Colonial Revival with the more
picturesque Queen Anne. It is two-and-a-half stories under a front-gable roof with a cross-gable on the south elevation and a
corner angled bay on its southeast corner. Eaves in the front-gable make full returns to form a pediment that projects in a jetty
from the plane of the façade. A full-width porch crosses the east façade. It is supported on rather large posts with solid brackets
beneath a delicate spindled frieze. The porch railings have turned balusters. Entry to the porch is marked by a pediment on the
roof and in its tympanum is a floral ornament in relief. The main block of the house at the first story is three bays wide. A broad
center entry has a double-leaf door with a glass upper and paneled lower half. Adjacent to the door on the north is a single-light
fixed window with an unusually low placement on the wall. At the second story the three bays become two with a single window
of 1/1 sash adjacent to a triple window composition beneath a segmental arch. The sash in this window is Queen Anne with
multiple panes. First and second stories are clapboard sided but the front-gable pediment is shingle sided and centered in its
field is a three-part oriel window. Shingles curve across the window lintel in Shingle Style fashion.
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: “Crescent Street was opened in 1886, and derived its name from its path around three sides of Round
Hill. The street cut along the middle slopes of the hill and provided vistas of the Connecticut River Valley.
This house first appears on the 1895 atlas, and is the property of Mrs. Ellen Clark.”
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] [52 CRESCENT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.345
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 Mrs. Ellen Clark 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 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 Clark House is a fine example of the Queen Anne style and is well-
preserved. This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.