231 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
31A-13 Easthampton NTH.455
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 231 Elm Street
Historic Name: James D. Atkins House
Uses: Present: Apartments
Original: Single-family House
Date of Construction: 1890-1895
Source: Deeds & Town Maps
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: vinyl
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Carriage barn
Major Alterations (with dates):
Vinyl siding added and windows replaced, ca. 1990; porch
supports replaced ca. 1960.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.358 acres
Setting: This house is in a row of similarly dated Queen
Anne style houses in Northampton’s central residential
area.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [231 ELM STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.455
___ 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 Queen Anne style house has lost much of its character due to the addition of vinyl siding and the replacement of important
porch elements with unrelated wrought iron railings and posts. It has, however, retained much of the volume that was sought in
the style for middle class living. It is two stories in height and has a side-gable roof that is slate covered. Two cross gable bays
project from the south façade under jerkin-head roofs. Between them a front-gabled pavilion rises above a two-story porch on
wrought iron rails and posts on the first floor and turned posts at the second floor. The large house is only three-bays wide and
four bays deep but its proportions are large. It has tall thin windows of 1/1 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 1977: “Property on Elm Street owned by E. W. Sanderson saw plotted in 1874, Sanderson Avenue opened from
Franklin Avenue, and two lots established on Elm Street. Lot #1 was purchased by William F. Pratt, the architect, who built a
house for himself at 229 Elm. Lot #2 was purchased by J. D. Atkins in 1890. Before 1895, when the house appears on the Map
of Northampton, number 241 Elm, Atkins built his residence which continued in the Atkins family until 1920. For two decades
thereafter it was owned by Francis E. O’Brien. Division into apartments, it may be supposed, was made between 1943 and
1946.
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: 310/530 1874, 394/403 1885, 437/35 1890, 764/37 1920, 974/277 1943, 1004/80 1946, 1571/368 1970,
1832/19 1975