122 Federal Street
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
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
30B-85 Easthampton NTH.442
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Bay State Village
Address: 122 Federal Street
Historic Name: Northampton Paper Company/E.E. Wood
Cutlery Uses: Present: vacant, and driving school
Original: paper mill
Date of Construction: c. 1860
Source: visual evidence; 1860 map of
Northampton Style/Form: utilitarian
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick, concrete
Wall/Trim: brick, corrugated steel, wood
Roof: asphalt and other
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Added wings, ca. 1900-2000
Condition: fair
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 25.93 acres
Setting: Property is set on the north bank of the Mill River.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [122 FEDERAL STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.442
_x__ 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.
Typical of mill buildings that were constructed in the second half of the 19th century, this mill building has been added to over
time until it has become a mill complex with wings dating from 19th – 20th centuries. What is apparently the oldest section of the
mill complex is the two-and-a-half story, brick building under a front-gable roof and fronting directly on Federal Street. It has
segmentally arched windows with replacement sash and its ornament is a corbelled brick cornice beneath the eaves. The
building is three bays wide and approximately ten bays long and to it on the east is attached a one-story, brick wing that is again
about ten bays long. It has a corbelled cornice that is interrupted only where loading docks were inserted in the wing. Three
wings are attached to the west side of the main block. The northernmost wing is from the 20th century and includes a two-bay
loading dock and a recent one-story brick building that is now an active driving school. The second wing is one-story and brick
with a sealed monitor roof and is about six bays long. The third wing is brick, two-stories in height and extends beyond the main
block about six bays. These sections of the mill all date prior to 1902. 20th c. additions of concrete block extend south of the
west wing and a corrugated metal ell extends south from the driving school. Chain link fence surrounds the building complex
and now covers what was a pond and raceway into the mill on the west.
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 1975: “The first mill on this site was a paper mill connected with the Hampshire Gazette and its founder, William
Butler. Successive companies included: Butler Mill (1786-1835), Northampton Papermills (1835-1843), William Clark and Co.
(1843-1869), Vernon Paper Co. (1869-1886), Northampton Paper Co. (1888-1889), E. E. Wood Cutlery (1889-). The
Northampton Paper Mills at one time owned the factory site on which the Northampton Cutlery is now located. Butler’s
papermill, ‘one of the first in western Massachusetts, (was located) on the site of an old fulling mill in Bay State Village.’ The area
was often designated ‘Paper Mill Village’ on nineteenth century atlases.
Deeds conveying property along the river often make specific mention of dams, raceways, and other water-control
equipment; clauses restricting owners’ rights to discharge material into the water often appear: paper making required good
quality of water.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
“A Chronicle of Industry on the Mill River, “ Smith College Studies in History, Volume XXI, Nos. 1-4, P. 22, 47.
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.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [122 FEDERAL STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.442
National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form
Check all that apply:
Individually eligible Eligible only in an historic district
Contributing to a potential historic district Potential historic district
Criteria: A B C D
Criteria Considerations: A B C D E F G
Statement of Significance by _____Bonnie Parsons___________________
The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here.
This property would contribute to a Paper Mill Village Historic District for the industry that occupied the site on the
Mill River from 1789 – 1889 and included a water power system, whose canal remains, as well as a boarding house
for its workers at 111-117 Milton Street and the Mill superintendent’s house at 122 Federal Street. Several properties
not yet inventoried would contribute to the potential district as well. Subsequent history of the properties would
develop further industrial uses and residences for those associated with the cutlery industry after 1889. The remains of
a canal are important as part of a water power system that began in the late 18th century.
Architecturally the buildings in this potential historic district represent Federal and Greek Revival and the common
forms constructed for boarding houses, superintendents’ houses, single-family workers’ house and a paper mill.