Loading...
60 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-248 Easthampton NTH.346 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 60 Crescent Street Historic Name: W. G. Bassett House Uses: Present: Two-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1887-1888 Source: Northampton Directory Style/Form: Queen Anne Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: stone Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles Roof: slate, copper Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Carriage house Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.623 acre Setting: Set on a rise in the landscape, this is an east-facing house. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [60 CRESCENT STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.346 __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 one of the most extravagant Queen Anne style houses in Northampton, its picturesque details heightened by its paint scheme. Like many of the late Queen Anne style houses in the city, its main block is two-and-a-half stories, and it has a hipped roof that in this case is truncated. Projecting from the main block on the north elevation is a hipped roof wing that is three bays long and has an off-center shed roof dormer on its roof. In the corner between the main block and the wing at second story level is a small oriel window that is itself set at an angle - a whimsical feature unique to the house. At the southeast corner of the main block is a three-story corner tower under a domed copper roof. It is round at second and third stories, but at first story it is rectangular, adding to the asymmetry and irregularity of the whole. The main block is three bays wide and has a stacked porch that at first story level wraps from the east around to the south elevation. It is supported on turned posts above high pedestals, has a spindle frieze, scroll-cut railing, and a lattice apron. Its entry is marked by a pedimented shed roof that rests on the porch roof. Above the shed roof is the second story of the stacked porch. It is one bay wide and repeats the turned posts and frieze beneath its flat roof. Above the porch, but quite off-center is a cross-gabled dormer. The surface of the house follows the picturesque principles of the Queen Anne style closely. Excluding the tower, it is clapboard-sided on first and second stories separated by a band of shingles. The wide eaves overhang is supported on carved brackets that rise from a frieze ornamented with a geometric pattern below an over-scaled dentil row. The tower is clapboard-sided at first story, but two shingle patterns are used on the second and third stories. Brackets, dentils and sawtooth shingles ornament its eaves and frieze. The result of the siding variations on this house is a highly lively exterior. 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 1975: “This late Victorian residence was built for W.G. Bassett, a local attorney, between 1887 and 1888. It is located on Crescent Street, in an area of large and landscaped lots, and is surrounded by large trees. Crescent Street, first laid out in 1873, was developed primarily in the late eighties and early nineties, at which time Henshaw Avenue was connected with Crescent. The new street roughly paralleled Round Hill Road and Prospect Street which dated from the 18th 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] [60 CRESCENT STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.346 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 Bassett 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 Bassett House is a fine example of the Queen Anne style and is exceptionally well- preserved. This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.