90 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
24C-141 Easthampton NTH.306
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 90 Franklin Street
Historic Name: George W. Smith House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence, carriage barn
Original: Single-family residence, shop, carriage
barn Date of Construction: 1895-1905
Source: Atlases & Directory
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, flushboards
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Carriage barn
Major Alterations (with dates):
Connector built between house and shop, ca. 1980.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.217 acres
Setting: Set on a corner lot, this house occupies
half a block with its carriage barn, shop, and main house.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [90 FRANKLIN ST]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH. 306
_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 complex of buildings that suggests the appearance of some of the early 20th century crafts persons’ establishments of
Northampton. The Queen Anne style house is a two-and-a-half story building with a hipped roof from which project cross gables
on the east, south and north. It has a full-width porch on the east façade with a pediment marking the stair entry. The porch has
chamfered posts with scroll-cut brackets and an ornamental railing. A two-story connector with a flat roof joins the south
elevation of the house to a one-story entry that has been added to a former shop. The shop is one-and-a-half stories in height
under a front-gabled roof. It is flushboard-sided, a good advertisement for its original carpenter owner. It has a band of windows
on its first floor and a shed roof addition on its south elevation contains a garage. At the south end of the lot, and not in the
attached picture, is a carriage barn that backs up to an embankment and has brick foundations that are part of the embankment.
This is actually a fairly rare survival of such a complex of buildings in good condition.
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: “This house was built around the turn of the century and first appears on the 1915 atlas. George W.
Smith, a mason and contractor, owned this property and is first listed here in the 1905 directory. There are several other
similarly styled houses near this house on Franklin Street and Mr. Smith was probably involved in constructing them. A side lot
to his homelot contains two outbuildings used in his business.”
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 ] [90 FRANKLIN ST]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH. 306
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 Smith 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 Smith House is a fine example of the Queen Anne style.
This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.