25-27 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-31 Easthampton NTH.462
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 25-27 Franklin Street
Historic Name: Avon & Henry Matthews House
Uses: Present: Two-family residence
Original: Two-family residence
Date of Construction: 1885-95
Source: Registry of Deeds & Atlas
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Carriage barn
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.668 acres
Setting: This house faces west on a quiet, residential
street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [25-27 FRANKLIN ST]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.462
__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.
The Queen Anne style adapted well to use for a two-family house, as its objective to provide multiple interior spaces through
gables, bays, oriels and porches accommodated well a two-family arrangement. This house has a truncated hipped roof topped
by cresting rail, with two cross-gables on the west façade, cross-gables on north and south and a polygonal dormer centered on
the west roof. Between the two front gable bays is a two-story porch open on the first floor and glass-enclosed on the second
floor. It has a flat roof. The first floor porch supports are bracketed posts that rise to a spindle frieze. The north and south
cross-gables become oriels supported on consoles, projecting from the second story only. The house’s exterior is composed of
clapboards separated by bands of shingles that continue across the porch and reappear in the gable fields. They provide
maximum visual interest to the exterior. A carriage barn, contemporary with the house, is located to its south east.
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 1885, Avon and Henry Matthews, carpenters and builders, bought 1 ¾ acres of land on the eastern
side of Franklin Street, south of Bancroft Road for $1700. The Matthews brothers sold several lots for residential development
and also built two double houses, of which this is one.”
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. 402- P. 31
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [25-27 FRANKLIN ST]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.462
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 Matthews 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 Matthews House is a fine example of the Queen Anne style
as applied to a two-family residence. This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting,
design and materials.