32 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-80 Easthampton NTH.2037
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 32 Graves Avenue
Historic Name: Phelix & Delia Tardiff House
Uses: Present: Three-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1889-1895
Source: Registry of Deeds & Atlas
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder: Phelix Tardiff, builder
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: shingles, clapboards
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.135 acres
Setting: This is a south-facing building on a dead end,
residential street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [32 GRAVES AVE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2037
___ 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 two-and-a-half story Queen Anne house with a steeply-pitched, front-gable roof. It has cross gables on both east and
west elevations and a two-and-a-half story rear ell. It has a porch on turned posts with high pedestals and scroll-cut brackets at
the eaves that crosses the south façade and wraps around to the west. There is also a side porch on the ell with the same posts
and turned baluster railings. The porches have lattice aprons. One bay of the side porch has been filled in. The cross gable
bays have braces with pendants at their second story angles and the first floor of the house is clapboard-sided, the second is
shingle-sided in a staggered butt pattern. This house is representative of the Queen Anne style that was constructed by builders
most often using plans from pattern books that proliferated after 1870.
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 1899, Phelix Tardiff, a carpenter, purchased lot no. 9 of the Graves subdivision for $900. This plan
was for Graves Avenue, which had been opened through the Graves homestead on Market Street in 1884. By 1895, the street
had become lined with fourteen of the present fifteen buildings; all residential and spanning the range of building types. T here
were several rowhouses, as well as double houses, and four single houses. This was one of the single-family houses and was
constructed by Mr. Tardiff for his own residence.”
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. 422-P. 443