59 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-264 Easthampton NTH.569
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 59 Dryads Green
Historic Name: Reverend Robert Seneca Smith House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1915-1919
Source: Atlas and Directory
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: granite
Wall/Trim: granite, clapboards
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.181 acre
Setting: This is a west-facing house on a quiet,
dead-end, residential street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [59 DRYADS GREEN]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.569
_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 Smith House is one of the most unusual late Queen Anne houses in this section of Northampton. It is two-and-a-half stories
in height under a front-gable roof. There is a cross-gable bay on the south elevation and in the angle between the main block
and the cross-gable is a round, three-story tower with a domed metal roof. The first story of the house is rusticated granite
blocks and the second story is wood shingles. The west façade has a wraparound porch that crosses from west to north
elevation. It is distinct for its rounded corner, turned posts and bracketed eaves. There is a secondary porch on similar posts at
the south east corner of the house. An exterior wall chimney is granite block on the first story level and becomes brick as it rises
through the eaves of the south elevation, a Craftsman feature that was adopted by the designer of this house.
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 and quickly became built up with costly, modern houses. This house
is located at the end of the major leg of Dryad’s Green and provides a fitting focus for one of the most ‘aristocratic’ of areas in
the city. The house doesn’t appear on the 1915 atlas, and seems to have been built in 1918, as the Rev. Robert S. Smith is f irst
listed here in 1919. Rev. Smith lived next door at 57 Dryads Green prior to having this house constructed. He was a professor
of Biblical literature at Smith College.”
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] [59 DRYADS GREEN]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.569
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.