12 Forbes Avenue
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
31A-148 Easthampton NTH.505
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 12 Forbes Avenue
Historic Name:
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1895-1915
Source: Atlases
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brownstone blocks
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: asphalt
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Attached garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.184 acres
Setting: This house is in a neighborhood of predominantly
late 19th-early 20th c. homes.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [12 FORBES AVE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.505
_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 Queen Anne house is a good example of the high level of design and construction in Northampton as its side streets
developed in the late 19th century. It is a two-and-a-half story house with a front-gable roof, and a two-and-a-half story wing with
a jerkin head roof. A rear ell creates a T-shaped plan. There is a single interior chimney on the roof. The house’s exterior
material create visual interest, a principle of the Queen Anne style. Rusticated brownstone foundations are high and above them
the house is mainly sided in clapboard with scalloped shingles in the front-gable. A porch in the angle of the two sections on the
west rests on half-length columns above rusticated or rough-faced brownstone piers. The front-gabled section of the house is
square at the second story and angled at the first story and scroll-cut braces mark the transition between the two volumes.
Between the two windows at its second story is a decorative panel. The entry surround is trabeated.
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 1980: “Forbes Avenue was opened off of Elm Street in 1887 by J.C. Hammond and J.A. Sullivan, two
developers who played a prominent role in opening up a number of residential tracts in Northampton around the turn-of-the-
century. The western end of the street, from the rear of Vernon Street School to Washington Place, was opened in the mid
1920’s.”
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.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [12 FORBES AVE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.505
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 potential historic district that would encompass the residential/institutional side
streets laid out on the south side of Elm Street in Northampton Center between Main Street on the east and the west
boundary of Childs Park on the west. This potential historic district is significant according to criteria A and C and
would have local significance.
These residential streets are significant according to criterion A for their reflection of the development of
Northampton from the mid-19th century as a relatively affluent community that supported several private schools for
young women, which prepared them after 1875 for attendance at Smith College, and the Clarke School where deaf
students were given an education that thoroughly prepared them for the hearing world. The residences in this area
made a shift from gentlemen’s estates to accommodation of the growing middle class in Northampton during the 19th
century with businessmen, scholars, teachers, doctors, and retired farmers.
According to criterion C this district would be significant for the range of historical styles that it includes. Gothic
Revival, Italianate, French Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles are all well-represented within a
landscape of individual large lots, and streetscapes that were laid out and developed at one time.