112 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-247 Easthampton NTH.704
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center
Address: 112 Elm Street
Historic Name: J. H. Lyman House
Uses: Present: Smith College dormitory
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1861
Source: Hampshire Gazette, 5/15/1860, 6/4/1861,
12/26/1865 Style/Form: Gothic Revival
Architect/Builder: William F. Pratt, architect,
Northampton Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: flushboard
Roof: slate, copper
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Rear ell added, ca. 2000.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 1.125 acres
Setting: This building is part of the Smith College campus
and is one of a number of houses on Elm Street converted
to college use.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [112 ELM STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH. 704
___ 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 finest examples of the Gothic Revival style in Northampton. Designed by architect William Fenno Pratt it is a
two-story house under a truncate hipped roof with wide eaves overhangs and two interior chimneys. The house is flushboard
sided and is three bays wide and two bays deep with a two-story ell on the south elevation for a T-shaped plan. The center
entry to the house is a copper-covered, hipped roof portico on paired posts separated by three-point arches. Portico railings are
jigsaw-cut with Gothic ogive arches. First floor windows have label lintels over paired sashes and second floor windows in the
two outer bays have paired pointed sashes within pointed arches, giving the mullions the appearance of Gothic tracery. The
center window of the second story has triple pointed arch windows in a single pointed arch opening with the same tracery effect.
Over each of the second floor windows the roof eaves rise in a peak. On the west elevation is a one-story, three-sided bay
window and above it is a triple pointed arch window in a single pointed arch opening. The two story rear ell has a hipped roof
and from it extends on the west elevation a flat roofed portico on four Doric columns. The ell also has a front-gabled pavilion
with stained glass transom over a pair of stained glass windows.
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 gothic mansion was built in 1861 for J. H. Lyman. In 1859, Lyman purchased from Samuel Hopkins
the lot ‘opposite the dwelling house of said Lyman’ and a year later began building. (Lyman earlier inhabited the 18th century
Sessions House and later built a second gothic mansion on upper Elm Street.) In 1866, Lyman sold the residence to Orleana
Boker for $13,000, a high figure for the period. Later in the century, a Miss Elizabeth Maltby operated a boardinghouse for Smith
College students in the residence. The house was apparently known as Maltby House at the time and this has caused some
confusion as to its original ownership. (Lafayette Malby, a prominent citizen of Northampton owned an important Greek Revival
Structure on Round Hill, that house no longer stands.)”
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, Hampshire County, 133.126, 185.110, 234.307, 305.82, 424.97, 517.82