15 Franklin 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
31A-33 Easthampton NTH.464
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 15 Franklin Street
Historic Name: George and Eleina Hannum House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1881-1884
Source: Registry of Deeds & Atlas
Style/Form: Italianate
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: parged brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.228 acres
Setting: This is a west-facing house on a quiet, residential
street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [15 FRANKLIN ST]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.464
__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.
1881 is rather a late date for an Italianate style house, and, indeed, this version shows some Queen Anne features as well. This
is a two-and-a-half story house with a front-gable roof. It has a shallow cross-gable on the south as well as a dormer, and it has
a one-story ell on the rear. The roof’s boxed eaves make partial returns in the gable end where an Italianate round-arched
window is found. The house is a simple three bays wide and its windows at both stories have footed Italianate lintels and 2/2
sash. But the full-width porch is supported on Queen Anne style turned posts with scroll-cut brackets at the eaves, rather than
the more common chamfered Italianate posts. It has a jigsaw-cut porch railing of particularly notable pattern. Northampton’s
residents took to the Italianate style and many examples remain today. A house like this demonstrates how styles changed
slowly and older fine elements continued to appear along with new ones.
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: “In 1881, George and Eleina Hannum purchased a small lot on Franklin Street from Jared Clark for $400.
Mr. Hannum was a mason and perhaps worked on this house himself. It first appears on the 1895 atlas and is owned and
occupied by the Hannums.”
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.
Registry of Deeds: Bk.475-P. 347, 364-74
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [15 FRANKLIN ST]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.464
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 Hannum House would contribute to a potential historic district that extends north of Northampton’s primary
corridor, Elm Street, encircling and encompassing the primary feature of that landscape, Round Hill. The potential
historic district is significant for its 19th century development from a few gentlemen’s farms to a neighborhood dense
with the homes of its most prominent residents and educational institutions that shaped the character of Northampton
for several hundred years to the present.
Architecturally the potential historic district is significant for the mix of high style late Gothic Revival, Italianate, and
Queen Anne style houses, the Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival styles of the 20th century that were often architect-
designed by the region’s most well-known designers. The Hannum House is a good example of the Italianate/Queen
Anne style. This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.