55 Dryads Green
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-266 Easthampton NTH.571
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 55 Dryads Green
Historic Name: Timothy Collins House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1884
Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette
Style/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: not visible
Wall/Trim: wood shingles
Roof: wood and asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 1.96 acres
Setting: This house occupies the last lot on a
dead end street. The land slopes precipitously down to the
north and the Mill River.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [55 DRYADS GREEN]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.571
_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 house is a compact version of the Colonial Revival style. It is two-and-a-half stories in height under a steeply-pitched,
gambrel roof. The house is two bays wide and two bays deep and there is a gambrel roofed ell on the rear or east for an L-
shaped plan. The house is wood shingle sided, including the lower angle of its gambrel roof. Its elevations are relatively
asymmetrical. The west façade has a recessed and open corner porch whose corner support is shingled, and on its roof is an
off-center, barrel-vaulted copper dormer. Eaves make returns in the gable ends to form gambrel-shaped pediments in which on
the north end is an arched window filled with multi-paned sash. Windows elsewhere in the house have 6/6 sash.
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: “Dryads Green was opened in 1890 as part of Hammond and Sullivan’s subdivision off of Elm Street,
which also included Harrison Ave. George W. Cable, the well-known author, owned most of the lots on the southern and
western sides of the street, and either sold lots for development or had houses built on contract and sold the property later.
This house first appears on the 1915 atlas and was owned and occupied by Timothy Collins. Mr. Collins was the local
manager of the F. W. Webb Mfg. Co. and also served as an automobile agent.”
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] [55 DRYADS GREEN]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.571
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.
This property would contribute to a potential historic district that would encompass the residential/institutional side
streets laid out from Elm Street in Northampton Center between Main Street on the east and the west boundary of
Childs Park on the west. This potential historic district is significant according to criteria A and C and would have
local significance.
These residential streets are significant according to criterion A for their reflection of the development of
Northampton from the mid-19th century as a relatively affluent community that supported several private schools for
young women, which prepared them after 1875 for attendance at Smith College, and the Clarke School where deaf
students were given an education that thoroughly prepared them for the hearing world. The residences in this area
made a shift from gentlemen’s estates to accommodation of the growing middle class in Northampton during the 19th
century with businessmen, scholars, teachers, doctors, and retired farmers.
According to criterion C this district would be significant for the range of historical styles that it includes. Gothic
Revival, Italianate, French Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles are all well-represented within a
landscape of individual large lots, and streetscapes that were laid out and developed at one time.