142 Elm Street
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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-244 Easthampton NTH.699
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 142 Elm Street
Historic Name: C. B. Ferry House
Uses: Present: Residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1874
Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette, 11/17/74
Style/Form: Stick Style
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards and vertical board siding
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.257 acres
Setting: This house is in a row of similarly styled and dated
19th century houses.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [142 ELM STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.700
___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
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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 Ferry House is very close in design as a Stick Style building to the house next door east pm Elm Street. It is also a two-
and-a-half story house with a very steeply pitched side-gable roof, but rather than one central chimney, this house has two small
chimneys set close to the center of the roof. It has a similar elevation with a transverse gable bay centered on the north f açade
and resting on the roof of a three-sided porch. The exterior of the house is clapboard-sided with picket fence siding in all the
gable ends that are also embellished with King Post trusses. Other elements that defined the style are the stringcourses,
beltcourses and paneling that intended to suggest on the exterior of the building the structural members of plates, sills and
braces that made up its interior. Unadorned wide eaves are supported at their corners by carved consoles. Windows have drip
mold lintels, borrowed from the Gothic Revival style, and 2/2 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 1975: “Built on the Paradise tract in 1874, this cottage on Elm Street is one of 5 built bordering Paradise Pond in
the mid-nineteenth century. The Gazette in November 1874 noted, ‘J. C. Ward is about to erect a house on his Paradise lot
fronting on Elm Street and adjoining the house of Moses Brew(st)er. The house is designed for the use of Rev. Mr. Ferry,
Unitarian pastor. The house will be of the cottage style, similar to, but larger than, the Brewer House.’ (The Brewer cottage to
the east was built for Ward in 1865—71.). It seems unlikely that W. F. Pratt designed this cottage and its neighbor. While the
Gazette does make mention of Pratt’s designing a cottage for L. C. Ward, that cottage probably stood on Paradise Road.”
This house was for many years the residence of Smith College Professor Frank H. Ellis and his wife Constance Ellis.
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, 228.385; 283.385, 301.317