41 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
31B-224 Easthampton NTH.687
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 41 Elm Street
Historic Name: Enos Clark House; Eleanor Duckett
House Uses: Present: dormitory
Original: single-family house
Date of Construction: early 19th century
Source: Maps & visual evidence
Style/Form: altered Federal to Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: not visible
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Connected to Elijah Clark House ca. 2005
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 1.18 acres
Setting: Building is set on a corner lot in the midst of
college dormitories and other college buildings on
Northampton’s main street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [41 ELM STREET ]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.687
___ 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 Enos Clark House is now one segment of a U-shaped dormitory, having been connected to a second house at 45 Elm
Street by a new wing. This portion of the complex is a three-and-a-half story front-gable building whose roof eaves make full
returns to form a pediment. The south façade is five bays wide and is entered through a center door behind a pedimented
portico on piers with arches connecting them. The building has a side porch resting on six colossal columns with capitals
outside the classical orders and ornamented with Egyptian palms rather than acanthus leaves. The building’s cornice is finely
decorated with modillion blocks on its eaves rake and above the frieze. As a Federal style house that was altered considerably
during the last decade of the 19th century for school use, it is apparent that the domestically scaled Federal house was enlarged,
perhaps by the raising of its roof and the addition of the side porch, if not more. These additions brought the Federal house into
a Colonial Revival style with oversized ornamental trim, the entry portico, and a larger scale building. A wing recently
constructed continues the clapboard exterior to connect to the second house at a large new brick chimney that is set at an angle.
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 1980: “This house occupies land that first came into the Clark family about 1710. Increase Clark established his
homestead on this property at the house that formerly stood at the east corner of Bedford Terrace. His son Deacon Elijah
succeeded to the homestead and lived upon the place 1730-1791. Elijah’s youngest son, Enos was named the 27th deacon of
the First Church in 1818 at the age of 39. He retained this office until 1832. At that time the Edwards Church was formed and
he was chosen their first deacon, a position he held until his death in 1864.
It seems probable that Enos established his homestead here on a portion of his father’s homestead in the early 19th
century. After his demise the house passed to his heirs who maintained the property until 1886. At that time the house and lot
were sold to Mary L. Southwick. Mrs. Southwick opened the house as a residence for Smith College students living outside the
College. In those years it was called Southwick House. In 1916, the newly established Hampshire Bookshop was opened on the
first floor and remained in the building until 1918. It was subsequently purchased by the Burnham School which had acquired
the Hunt-Lyman House at 45 Elm Street and was for some years a part of the Burnham School complex. In 1968 the Burnham
School properties were purchased by Smith College. The house was considerably remodeled and established as the Eleanor
Duckett House dormitory, named for Miss Eleanor Duckett, eminent Latin scholar and author, Smith professor 1916-1949.
Smith awarded her an honorary L.H.D.; she received her D. Litt. from Cambridge and from University of London.”
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. 1533-P.4, 721-523, 404-8 and 10