149 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-164 Easthampton NTH.646
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 149 Elm Street
Historic Name: Eames Home and Sage Place
Uses: Present: Apartments
Original: Single-family house
Date of Construction: 1886
Source: Deeds & Wills
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Converted to apartments, ca. 1935.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.376 acres
Setting: House sits on a raised lot on a residential block of
Elm Street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [149 ELM STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.646
___ 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.
Although this house has an unclear history suggesting that there may be portions of an earlier house remaining, it is from the
exterior a Queen Anne style house with an appropriate date of 1886. It is two-and-a-half stories high under a side-gable roof
with a jerkin head on the east and two interior chimneys. There is a cross gable bay on the south façade three stories high with
an open porch on the third story framed by an arch and brackets. First and second stories are square bays. The roof on the
south extends to create a second floor porch adjacent to the cross-gable. This porch rests on turned posts and had an intricate
railing above the first floor entry porch which also rests on turned posts and has brackets at its eaves. There is a shallow
pediment on the roof of this porch. At the southeast corner of the house is an angled bay of three-sides. The house is
clapboard sided but bands of shingles separate the stories and fill some of the gable ends. The house is fancifully asymmetrical
as represented by dormers on the west elevation and south façade: on the west is a shed roof dormer, on the south, one dormer
has a hipped roof and one has a front-gable.
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 1977: “References to a house on this lot, several times designated the ‘Sage Place,’ go back to the 1860s or
earlier, when records are obscured in the wills of William Clark Sr. and William Clark and to a larger property in this location
owned however briefly by Emily Sage from 1846-1850. It is also referred to as the William Clark homestead. Then Sarah Clark,
widow of Newman Clark, in 1886 moved into the house from 41 Elm, she calls it ‘my new house,’ but she acquired the property
from Miriam Clark who received life tenure from William Clark in 1868. Parts of the structure probably date in the 1840s. During
the ownership of the Eames family 1935-1958 the house was used as a guest house called Eames Home and frequented by
guests of Smith College students.”
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: 1544/451 1968, 1443/107 1964, 1443/97 1964, 1286/450 1958, 903/426 1935, 355/285 1880, 294/149 1872,
112/352 1846