Elm Street at College Lane
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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, 2011
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
31B-247 Easthampton NTH.702
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: Elm Street at College Lane
Historic Name: Dwight B. Look House
Uses: Present: Smith College offices
Original: Single-family House
Date of Construction: 1892
Source: Registry of Deeds 439.165; 1896 Atlas
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: asphalt
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 1.125 acres
Setting: This is a north-facing house that is set at the edge
of the Smith College campus on a lot that slopes down to
the south.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [Elm Street at College Lane ]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.702
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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 Dwight Look House is a textbook example of the Free Classic version of the Queen Anne style in that it adopts elements of
classical architecture and substitutes them for the spindles, turned posts and jigsaw-cut ornament of the more common version
of the Queen Anne style. Here the house is two-and-a-half stories in height under a front-gable roof on which is centered a
clustered chimney. The roof has a cross-gable on the east, a wing on the west, and a two-and-a-half story ell on the south for a
complex plan. The eaves of the north façade make full returns to form a pediment in the gable end. The pediment is stepped
with a projecting upper section above a lower section containing a classically-derived Palladian window composition. The
pediment is shingle-sided. The first and second stories of the north façade are three bays wide with a two-story, angled bay
window projecting from the northeast corner, and a rectangular bay window projecting from the second story at the northwest
corner and resting on the hipped roof of a wraparound porch that crosses the north façade and ends on the west elevation at the
wing. The position of the two bay windows on the north façade creates a recessed center bay at the second story. At the first
story the entry is composed of double leaf doors and a simple architrave surround. The porch is supported on classical colum ns
and its stairs are marked by a pediment on the porch roof. This pediment has ornamental panels suggesting half-timbering in its
tympanum. The east and west elevations are as complex and the north façade. On the west the eaves of the cross-gabled wing
make full returns to create a pediment that is stepped as on the north. In the lower half is a band of three windows. At second
story level of the wing is a recessed corner porch that has a column post and a respondent pilaster adjacent to a rondel window.
On the east elevation the cross-gable roof eaves again make full returns for a stepped pediment. Beneath the pediment is a
two-story angled bay window and recessed porches at first and second stories. The variety in designs of the elevations and
façade of this house create a sophisticated and picturesque composition.
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 1976, “This residence was built for Dwight B. Look on land purchased from Laura Eager in early 1891. The
house appears on the 1895 atlas. The Look House is now owned by Smith College but fronts on Elm Street and is part of the
nineteenth century residential development of the street.”
Smith College bought the house in 1920.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Registry of Deeds Hampshire County, 439.165
1895 Atlas of Northampton, Forbes Library