3 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
31D-103 Easthampton NTH.2468
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center
Address: 3 Elm Street
Historic Name: St. Mary of the Assumption Parsonage
Uses: Present: parsonage
Original: parsonage
Date of Construction: 1888
Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette
Style/Form: Queen Anne/Panel Brick
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: granite
Wall/Trim: brick
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 1.08 acres shared with adjacent church
Setting: Parsonage is on a corner lot that slopes down to
the east and marks the beginning of the section of Elm
Street mainly devoted to College buildings and residences.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [3 Elm Street]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2468
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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 Queen Anne style when constructed in brick is often distinguished by the name “Panel Brick” and the parsonage is an
excellent example of that version of the style. As Queen Anne in origin, it is eclectic picking up picturesque architectural
elements from Romanesque and Gothic styles and using them in combination with new forms and materials. Here, the building
is two-and-a-half stories in height with an exposed basement story on the east. It has a hipped roof with a projecting transverse
hipped bay on the south façade, which gives the building a gable-and-wing form. In the angle of the two sections of building is a
one-story porch under a convex copper roof. The porch rests on a single, half-length brownstone column with a capital carved in
Byzantine foliage. Respondent brick pilasters project from the façade walls and they too have brownstone capitals with
Byzantine foliage. The transverse hipped bay has a one-story rounded bay window at the first floor with a convex copper roof
topped by a cresting rail. Two windows mark the second story and a projecting, through-cornice, hipped roof dormer is at the
attic level. Sash here and elsewhere in the building is 2/2. The main or wing block of the building is four bays wide on the north
facade, one bay of which is an exterior wall chimney. At the first floor level, the chimney is flanked by arched windows; at the
second floor level it is flanked by windows with flat, rusticated brownstone lintels. A single hipped roof dormer is centered on the
main roof. Adding visual complexity, the east elevation of the building has a one-story rounded bay on the first story level and a
projecting, through-cornice hipped roof dormer at the attic level.
Panel Brick buildings used complicated brickwork to emulate the brackets, braces, pendants, consoles and moldings of the
frame Queen Anne. Here, a corbelled cornice rises above a frieze of alternating recessed bricks that carries across the
chimney. Two panels of brick with terracotta corner rosettes further ornament the chimney along with bands of rustication and
stringcourses. Two similar chimneys ornament the west elevation. A granite watertable and granite stoop add contrast to the
brick and brownstone materials of the building.
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: “The Roman Catholics in Northampton—at first chiefly French men and women—first worshipped on King
Street. The “Catholic Society” built there a church and a parsonage in 1866. By the 1870’s the Catholic population was large
enough that a separate parish was organized for Florence, Haydenville, and Leeds. In 1880 the Florence church was completed
and in 1881 Saint Mary’s was under construction on the Hill above the Edwards Church, on the sire of the old Mansion House. It
is worth noting that in 1866 landowners on upper Elm Street—Protestant pillars of the community—purchased a lot on the corner
of Elm and Prospect Streets to prevent the Roman Catholics from locating there.”
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.