34-36 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-81 Easthampton NTH.2038
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 34-36 Graves Avenue
Historic Name: Charles Lamb House
Uses: Present: Four-family residence
Original: Four-family residence
Date of Construction: 1891-1895
Source: Registry of Deeds and Atlas
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: vinyl
Roof: asphalt
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Windows replaced, siding added, ca. 2000.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.135 acres
Setting: This is a south-facing house on a dead
end residential street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [34-36 GRAVES AVE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2038
___ 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 four-family house is the only one of its design on Graves Avenue, although it was based on a bay/shed roof porch module
that appears relatively often in Northampton’s frame rowhouses. It is two-and-a-half stories in height under a side gable roof.
Two cross-gable bays project from each end of the façade and set between them is a two-story, shed roof porch. The porch is
supported at each story by posts with solid brackets at the eaves. At first floor level the porch has a spindle frieze. Vinyl siding
has meant the loss of much of the exterior texture of the building and replacement 1/1 windows contribute to that effect. What
remains is the scale of the building, which was generous even for a four-family.
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 1891, Charles Lamb, a principal in the Horace Lamb Wire Mfg. Co. in town, bought lot no. 11 of the
Graves subdivision. This plan was for Graves Avenue which was opened through the Graves homestead in 1884. The street
was quickly developed and in 1895, the Gazette termed it ‘our most citified street; because of its rowhousing and double houses.
This double house was built before 1895 and has an upper and lower tenement on each side.”
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. 446-P. 435