29 Graves Avenue
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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
32A-87 Easthampton NTH.2044
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 29 Graves Avenue
Historic Name: Andrew Hancock House
Uses: Present: Two-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1885-1895
Source: Registry of Deeds and Atlas
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: vinyl
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Siding added and windows replaced ca. 1990
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.135 acres
Setting: This is a north-facing house on a dead
end street of single and multi-family buildings.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [29 GRAVES AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2044
___ 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 two-and-a-half story, front-gable house follows a plan that was often used for Queen Anne style houses in Northampton at
the turn-of-the-century. Now covered with vinyl, it has lost much of its stylistic character but some of the form remains. It is
three bays wide and the equivalent of four bays deep and has a two-story rear ell for a long, rectangular plan. There is a one-
story angled bay on the west elevation. A full-width porch crosses the north façade. It rests on turned posts. Windows in the
house have been replaced with 1/1 sash and their surrounds are beneath the vinyl siding.
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 1886, Andrew Hancock, a printer with the Gazette Printing Company, purchased lot no. 10 of the
Graves subdivision. This plan was for Graves Avenue, which had been opened in 1884, through the Graves homestead on
Market Street. By 1895, fourteen of the present fifteen houses had been erected, and they spanned the range of residential
types leading the Gazette to proclaim this ‘our most citified street.’ This house is one of four single family houses on the street.”
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. 400-P. 473