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336 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: PVPC Date (month / year): February, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 31A-001-001 Easthampton NTH.2447 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 336 Elm Street Historic Name: Frank E. and Margaret Davis House Uses: Present: Church Offices Original: single-family residence Date of Construction: 1903-1904 Source: Northampton Directories Style/Form: Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: vinyl Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): sided and windows replaced ca. 1990; office addition made ca. 1990. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.599 acres Setting: This house is set back from the street on a lot with mature maple trees. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [336 ELM STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.2447 ___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. This property is within a local historic district. 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 Davis house is a two-and-a-half story Colonial Revival style house under a hipped roof. It is vinyl sided, has brick foundations and an asphalt shingled roof. There is a transverse gable bay on the west elevation that has a pent roof crossing beneath the eaves to create a pediment. This bay has an unusual configuration in that one vertical half of it is occupied by a tall stair window with diamond pane glazing and a diamond pane transom light, and the other half is occupied by a two-story oriel that is two bays wide on the second story level and three-sided on the first story level. The vinyl siding obscures any decorative details on this oriel. There is a two-and –a-half story ell that is five bays long on the rear of the house. A pent roof also crosses its gable end, suggesting that it was part of the original house construction. Attached to the ell is a one-and-a-half story addition with a hipped roof. It is 3 x 2 bays and serves as an office. There is a Colonial Revival style porch traversing the north façade of the house and wrapping around to the east. It is supported on ¾ length Doric columns that rise from tall brick piers. The porch railing has narrow, closely spaced square balusters. The façade of the house is three bays wide on the first floor and a simple two bays wide at the second floor. At the first floor the bays consist of a large, fixed light window and a projecting entry enclosure with a door and a diamond pane stair window. The large window is a replacement for a window/transom combination. There is a single, centered, hipped roof dormer on the north façade roof. Most of the windows in the house are vinyl replacements with the exception of the diamond pane stair windows. 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. This house was built within a year of the construction of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament next door to it. This western section of Elm Street in 1895 was occupied by several large estates that were then divided into smaller lots. One of the lots became the home of Frank E. and Margaret Davis who owned a jewelry store on Main Street in downtown Northampton. The jewelry story, Bridgman’s, had been established by Margaret’s father Malcolm Bridgman. From about 1900 until they built this house in 1903, the Davises were living with Margaret’s mother Marion Bridgman, by then a widow, in Northampton. Between 1903 and 1920 Margaret disappeared from the street directories and the US federal censuses, but her mother appeared in 1912 at the Davis house on Elm Street as a widow, and in 1920 Frank was living here with a new wife, Marian L. Davis. Davis was an active businessman in Northampton and was president of the Board of Trade. He was a Mason, a Shriner, trustee of Dickinson Hospital, and member of the Edwards Church. By 1925 Frank and Marian Davis had moved to Crescent Street, and the Church of the Blessed Sacrament had bought the Davis house for a church rectory. The new rectory replaced a rectory that had been west of the church, but was taken down. Rev. James Broderick, a second generation Irish immigrant, occupied the new rectory along with Herbert Carroll, a Catholic clergyman and their housekeeper Mary Moreau, a widowed, French Canadian immigrant. The house has remained a Catholic Church property to the present, housing the clergymen of the parish and serving as an office. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, 1873. Walker, George H. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884. Miller, D. L. Atlas of the City of Northampton and Town of Easthampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, 1895. Registry of Deeds, Book 785 page 139. US Federal Censuses 1900-1930. Northampton Directories 1900-1910. Sanborn Insurance Map of 1915.