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4 Florence Road 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 22B-046-001 Easthampton NTH. Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 4 Florence Road Historic Name: William Warner/Basil Dorsey House Uses: Present: single-family house Original: single-family house Date of Construction: ca. 1840 Source: History of Florence Style/Form: raised Cape form Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: parged brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: metal Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Garage added, ca. 1950; portico added ca. 1940. Handicap ramp added ca. 1980. Condition: Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.303 acres Setting: This house occupies an island of land and is south-facing. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [ 4 FLORENCE ROAD] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH. __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. This is a one-and-a-half story raised Cape Cod form house that is five bays wide and two bays deep. It is primarily sided in clapboards, although there are other siding materials used on the east elevation. It has a metal roof with a center chimney and a wide frieze beneath its eaves. A shed roof garage has been added to its east elevation. The door surround remains behind th e added portico and is composed of Greek Revival style pilasters and corner blocks. Window surrounds are molded. There is a side entry portico on posts that was added. A portion of a canal passes in front of the house and is part of Florence’s former industrial water power system. It is about 8 feet deep and 10 feet wide and is lined in concrete. 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. This house is the second of two houses occupied by Basil Dorsey in Florence, the first house, which Dorsey built in 1849, is at 191 Nonotuck Street. He sold that house in 1852, bought six acres on Florence Road including this house, and moved to the new location. The house had been built around 1840 by William and Roxanna Warner. Warner was a joiner and farmer in Florence. Basil Dorsey was a fugitive slave who came to Florence between 1840 and 1850 and in the latter year was working as a teamster for the Greenville Manufacturing Company. He lived in this house with his second wife Cynthia Jones Dorsey, an African-American woman, whose parents were from Pittsfield, the Almond Joneses. The Dorseys lived here with their daughter Louisa, as well as with Basil’s sons Charles and John. Basil that year was 40 and Cynthia was 19. He had came from Maryland as a fugitive slave, so when the Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1850 he was in danger of being recaptured on his trips outside Florence for the Company. To keep him safe, a collection among townspeople was raised to buy Dorsey’s freedom. By 1870 Basil, who was 60, had retired from teamstering. As a freed slave he continued to live in Florence until his death on February 15, 1872. Cynthia Dorsey remained in Florence until 1882. After Basil’s death she owned the house at 15 Ryan Road and appears to have lived in it until she moved to New Haven, Connecticut in 1882. In the federal census of 1870 Cynthia listed her ten children who were at home. Louisa is no longer listed, but Usiah, Julia, Anna, Millie, Edward, Herbert, Betsy, Clara, Gertrude, and 2 year old Bertha were all at home. By 1895 the house was owned by John D. and Mary Coughlin, their son John, Jr., John Sr.’s mother Mary and two boarders. John Coughlin worked in the drying room at the silk mill; the two boarders worked as a night watchman for the mill and as a laborer for the electric railroad. The Coughlins and their boarders were immigrants from Ireland and represent the many immigrants who came to Florence to work in its mills after the 1860s. The 1895 Northampton Directory lists Miss Mary Coughlin as an employee of the Florence Manufacturing Company but at that time she was boarding on Bridge Street, so it appears that the family underwent a large change. The section of road on the west side of this house was constructed in 1961, placing the house and its neighboring lot effectively on an island. 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. Northampton Street Directories, 1895, 1915, 1926, 1935. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [ 4 FLORENCE ROAD] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH. Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884. Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860. Ruggles Center. African American Heritage Trail, Florence, Massachusetts 1840-1860, n.d. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [ 4 FLORENCE ROAD] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 NTH. 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. The Warner-Dorsey House would contribute to the multiple resource Underground Railroad Historic District. As the home to a fugitive slave, this house would have considerable importance to Florence history and the larger history of the Abolition Movement.