187 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
31A-40 Easthampton NTH.469
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 187 Elm Street
Historic Name: Sidney Clark House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: ca. 1849
Source: deeds
Style/Form: Greek Revival/Italianate
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: stone
Wall/Trim: clapboard and flushboard
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.302 acres
Setting: House occupies a corner lot, its façade on the
side street rather than the main street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [187 ELM STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.469
___ 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 a two-and-a-half story house with a side gable roof. It is stylistically transitional between the Greek Revival and the
Italianate styles. It is five bays wide and two bays deep and there is a one-and-a-half story wing on the north followed by an
attached garage. The distinctive Greek Revival style features of this house are the broad corner pilasters supporting a full
entablature with a wide architrave and frieze separated by a fillet, and the broad, recessed entry with ¾ length sidelights . Also
Greek Revival in origin are the full eaves returns in the gables to create a pediment that is flushboarded to replicate in wood a
stone Greek temple. Stylistically transitional is the center hipped roof porch on fluted Ionic columns. Rather than resting directly
on the porch or on low pedestals as the Greek Revival style required, these columns, in the Italianate style, rest on high
pedestals, making the columns half-length. A railing of turned balusters connects them. First floor windows have crown molding
lintels with a row of fine dentils topping an Italianate pair of windows with 1/1 sash. The pairing of window sash from ca. 1850
on was a feature that aimed to provide increased light to the interior and to suggest the full-length windows of the Italian piano
nobile. A Palladian window composition in the tympanum of the pediment is rather rare for the early date of the house but
shows its stylistic sophistication. Three-sided bay windows with arched window sash on south and west add spatial complexity
to the house plan and additional light to its interior. Introducing more light and air into the interior was a particular concern from
mid-century to improve health and is visible here in the Sidney Clark 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 1976: “In 1849, William Clark sold one-third of an acre to Sidney L. Clark for $250. This was the ‘land on which
Sidney has built a dwelling house in which he now lives.’ Sidney Clark was in the office of the Florence Manufacturing Co., and
lived here until 1854 when he sold the property to the Bridgeman Brothers: Thomas Jr., William S., Edward M., and Charles J.
For the next sixty years at least one of the brothers was listed here. The last, Charles J. Bridgeman, died c. 1920.”
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: Bk. 199-P.395 and 9, 155-10 and 125, 129-196