55 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-246 Easthampton NTH.344
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 55 Crescent Street
Historic Name: Kate and Julia Tyler House
Uses: Present: Five-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1892-1893
Source: Registry of Deeds and Directory
Style/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: shingles
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Windows replaced, ca. 1990. Portico altered pre-1980.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.402 acre
Setting: This is a west-facing house set on a ridge that
slopes down towards the east.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [55 CRESCENT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.344
_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 large, two-and-a-half story house with a side gable roof in the Colonial Revival style. The main block of the house is
five bays wide and three bays deep but it has been enlarged considerably by cross-gable bays on the north, west, and south and
by a shallow wing of one-story on the north. The west façade has two front-gable dormers on its roof flanking a centered cross-
gable dormer with an arched window opening glazed in diamond pane sash. Below it at second floor level is an angled bay
window with a triple frieze beneath its metal, angled roof. At first floor level in this center bay is a portico on posts that appears to
be a 20th century addition. There is a shallow jetty between the shingled first and second stories and window surrounds on the
first story have double-frieze lintels. The multiplication of friezes at the windows and center bay window is an unusual feature
not seen elsewhere on this street or neighborhood.
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 large house was built for the Misses Kate and Julia Tyler in 1892 at a cost of $7000. Crescent
Street had been opened in 1886 and cut along the middle slopes of Round Hill, through the old orchards and gardens of the
Round Hill Hotel. This was one of the earlier houses constructed on the street, and features a sweeping vista to the east across
the Connecticut River Valley.”
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.
Registry of Deeds: Bk. 453-P. 222, 444-181
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [55 CRESCENT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.344
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 Tyler 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 it 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 Tyler House is a unique example of the Colonial Revival style. This potential
historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.