50 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-002 Easthampton NTH.724
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center
Address: 50 Elm Street
Historic Name: Clarke House
Uses: Present: Smith College Residence Hall
Original: single-family house
Date of Construction: 1878 or c. 1890
Source: Smith College Archives/general style
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder: attributed to Peabody & Stearns
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Wing added on west, ca. 1990.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: over one acre
Setting: Set close to the street behind a cast and wrought
iron fence on the Smith College campus.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [50 ELM STREET ]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.724
___ 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 is a two and a half story, Queen Anne style house with a front-gable roof. It has a slate roof, clapboard and shingle exterior
and a transverse gable bay on the east, and a wing on the west. The main block of the house is three bays wide. It has a side
hall entry with an architrave surround and ¾ length sidelights. It has a paneled door. Sash in the house is 6/2. The front gable
projects with two shingled jetties on brackets with paired consoles on the lower jetty corners. A Palladian window is in the gable
field with Queen Anne scroll cut sill ornament. The façade has a wrap around hipped roof porch on turned posts with a twisted
rope surface. Spindle railings and a porch apron with jigsaw cut pattern are Queen Anne in style. On the east side of the roof
are hipped dormers and two tall chimneys. On the west is a two-and-a-half story wing. The east transverse gable has two
shingled jetties as well.
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 1976: “College archives indicate that the structure was designed by Peabody & Stearns for a Charles Clarke,
whose summer home it was. There is, however, no documentation concerning the architect. A second possibility is that Smith
College, which acquired the property from the Clarke family in 1889, had the residence built on the land at this time. Queen
Anne style dwellings of this size and detail were erected in Northampton in the 1890’s. If the house is in fact the work of
Peabody & Stearns in the late 1870’s, it represents an extremely advanced design.”
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.