105 Elm 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
31B-199 Easthampton NTH. 671
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 105 Elm Street
Historic Name: E. Pierson House
Uses: Present: Smith College dormitory-Sessions Annex
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1872
Source: Gazette, 4/22/1872, 9/2/1873
Style/Form: French Second Empire
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboard
Roof: slate, asphalt
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Wing addition ca. 2005
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.269
Setting: This building is in a row of formerly residential
buildings converted to college use.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [105 ELM STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH. 671
___ 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 E. Pierson House is a two-and-a-half story French Second Empire style house. It has a front tower two-and-a-half stories in
height containing the entry to the house – a double-leaf door with glass in the upper half and panels below. A porch crosses the
south façade and wraps to the east. It is supported on chamfered posts on high pedestals that are paired at the entry stairs.
The porch apron is finely crafted with recessed lattice panels in a wood framework. The main block of the house has a complex
mansard roof with hipped dormers on the upper slope of the roof and a dormer with a bracketed, hooded lintel on the lower
slope of the roof. The main block of the house is one bay wide on the south façade and its bay consists of a large, fixed light
window. The house has a north, hipped roof ell of two-and-a-half stories connected to the main block of the house by a smaller
ell that is one-and-a-half stories with its mansard roof laid in a polychromatic pattern. There is an enclosed porch at the first
floor.
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 1976: “E. Pierson ‘of Exeter, New Hampshire’ purchased a large lot at the corner of Elm and Henshaw for
$5,000 in April of 1872. In September of the following year, a notice of Pierson’s death described him as ‘the builder of the
cottage at Elm and Henshaw.’”
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, 292.375