Elm Street (2)
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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-252 Easthampton NTH.708
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center
Address: Elm Street
Historic Name: John M. Greene Hall
Uses: Present: college assembly hall
Original: college assembly hall
Date of Construction: 1910
Source: Smith College archives
Style/Form: Classical Revival
Architect/Builder: Charles A. Rich, Architect, NY
Exterior Material:
Foundation: granite
Wall/Trim: brick, brownstone
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 1.44 acres
Setting: Building is on the Smith College campus, facing
north on Elm Street, Northampton’s main street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [ELM STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.708
___ 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.
John M. Greene Hall is a Classical Revival style building. This is the style that gradually replaced the High Victorian Gothic on
the Smith College campus and is found at Seelye Hall (1899) and Neilson Library (1909). It is two-stories in height in brick with
granite and brownstone trim. The main block of the building has a truncated hipped roof. On the north it has a pedimented
entrance block with one-and-a-half story wings at each side. The Classical Revival temple front has colossal brownstone fluted
Ionic columns. Its tympanum has blind brownstone lobed ornament. The main block of the building is five bays long and the
north has three entries in the porch. Two outer entries have brownstone architrave surround with entablatures over them and
the center entry is double wide with an architrave surround and crowning entablature topped by a blind brownstone arch.
Brownstone forms a watertable, stringcourse and rondels in the frieze.
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 the Form B of 1977,”Funded in part by an anonymous friend of the College and by John D. Rockefeller, the building was
dedicated at the ceremonial of President L. Clark Seelye’s retirement. The assembly hall was named for Rev. John M. Greene,
at whose suggestion Sophia Smith acted in founding Smith College. Completed in 1910, John M. Greene Hall contains Smith
College’s largest interior assembly space, with a seating capacity of 2,225. Chas. A. Rich of New York designed the red brick
and brownstone structure which was built by Hurton & Hemenway of Boston.” Charles Rich also designed the two dormitories
across Elm Street, 47 and 49 Elm Street, known as Northrop House and Gillett House, in the Georgian Revival style.
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.