211 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-37 Easthampton NTH.466
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 211 Elm Street
Historic Name: George P. Dickinson House
Uses: Present: Apartments
Original: Single-family house
Date of Construction: 1879-1880
Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette, 9/2/1879, 11/4/1879
Style/Form: Queen Anne/Panel Brick
Architect/Builder: Eugene C. Gardner of Springfield
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick, brownstone, faux brick
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates): Porch partially filled-in
post-1975.
Condition: fair
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.427 acres
Setting: Set on a broad lot, this house is in a neighborhood
of largely 19th c. houses.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [211 ELM STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.466
___ 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 Dickinson House is Queen Anne style house, which, in brick, is often called Panel Brick style. The house has a hipped roof
with a transverse gable bay on the south and one on the east. The brick exterior of the house is made more picturesque by the
use of corbelling bricks and tarred bricks at watertable, belt course and stringcourse between stories. The gable fields of the
transverse gables have applied wood panels in Stick Style fashion with a frieze of picket fence ornament. A porch runs across
the north façade and picks up again on the west. It rests on Doric columns that are connected by a railing with square balusters.
One third of the north façade porch has been enclosed with faux brick. Windows in the house are a mixture of 1/1 and Queen
Anne multiple pane windows along with a row of single pane casement windows in the north gable end. The eaves on this
façade are unboxed and have a row of scrolled brackets. Window lintels are rough-faced brownstone with dressed borders. The
brick chimney has been ornamented with corbelled and tarred bricks
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: “A native of Ashfield, Eugene C. Gardner (1836-1915) began to practice architecture in Florence at age
22. Possibly instructed by W.F. Pratt, Gardner settled in Springfield following the Civil War and maintained a practice there until
1911. In 1889, he formed a partnership with son George C. Gardner and George Pyne. Although Gardner designed a number
of commercial buildings in Northampton and Florence prior to his removal to Springfield, this residence is one of two remaining
buildings attributable to the architect. (The other, the King Street Armory, was designed by the partnership in 1900.) An early
work in Springfield by Gardner, Trinity Church (1870), is briefly discussed in Henry Russell Hitchcock’s volume The Architecture
of H. H. Richardson and His Times.”
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.