45 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.
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 45 Elm Street
Historic Name: Elijah Hunt Mills House/Burnham House
Uses: Present: Smith College dormitory
Original: single-family residence
Date of Construction: c. 1810
Source: Smith College Archives
Style/Form: French Second Empire altered Federal
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: stone
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Mansard roof added and wings added ca. 1877; connector
to house at 41 Elm Street added ca. 2005.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 1.18 acres shared with 41 Elm Street
Setting: Building is among a number of college
dormitories lining Elm Street and part of the Smith College
campus.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [45 ELM STREET ]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.688
___ 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 building is now part of a U-shaped college dormitory created by construction of a connector between the two buildings. The
second building is 41 Elm Street. Little of this two-and-a-half story building remains visible from its Federal origins. It now has a
mansard roof and a wing added ca. 1877 on its northeast corner also with a mansard roof. The main block is five bays wide and
four bays deep and the wing is three bays wide. It no longer has the domestic scale of a Federal style house, due, no doubt to
the alterations made when it was converted to school use. The building’s center entry is a portico on paired, fluted Ionic
columns with respondent pilasters and a recessed entry with paneled intrados. The portico is topped by a balustrade in front of
a Palladian window composition. Windows in this section of the dormitory have architrave surrounds with crown molding lintels
on the first floor and simple architrave surrounds on the second floor. Front-gabled dormers on the roof have Stick Style King
post trusses in their gables and four chimneys rise through the roof. The wing has an exposed brick basement and a one-story
porch on the south that is half enclosed. Second floor windows of the wing have crown molding lintels. The connector of two-
and-a-half and two-stories has a small section on bay wide under a mansard roof followed by a large angled brick chimney of
recent construction that marks the joining of the two buildings.
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 1970: “Standing on part of what was one of the original grants of land given by early settlers to welcome Deacon
Jonathan Hunt, a later arrival from Hartford, this house was probably built in the early 19th century by Elijah Hunt Mills, the last
member of the Hunt family to occupy the original land. He was the last of five generations, and was one of house US Senators
sent to Washington by Northampton voters. He is said to have presided at a dinner given for Lafayette at the old Warner House
here; and with Judge Samuel Howe, established and ran Northampton Law School (see Capen House). After Mills’ death it was
owned and occupied by Thomas Napier who came here from New York in the 1830’s, among many southerners who arrived at
about that time. He was a slave-auctioneer, anti-abolitionist, and called ‘a man of wealth and high society.” His opposition to the
abolitionist cause is said to have led to the establishment in Northampton of an ‘underground railroad’ station. He is recorded as
still living here in the 1840’s although the house was then owned by a Mr. Oscar Edwards, and later by John Huntington Lyman.
Mr. Lyman sold it to Miss Mary Burnham in 1877 to establish a school for young ladies because of the need felt y the newly
established Smith College for better academic preparation for young women wishing to attend the college. It remained part of
the Burnham School until that institution moved from Northampton to a new campus. In 1968 it was purchased by Smith College
and named Mary Ellen Chase House to honor longtime professor and noted author.”
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.