8-22 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-78 Easthampton NTH.2035
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 8-22 Graves Avenue
Historic Name: Dr. Silas R. Cooley Rowhouses
Uses: Present: Rowhouses
Original: Rowhouses
Date of Construction: 1886
Source: Registry of Deeds, 399.12, 431.218
Style/Form: High Victorian Gothic
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick, brownstone
Roof: not visible
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Some windows replaced, ca. 2005.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.135 acres
Setting: This row of houses faces south on a dead
end, residential street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [8-22 GRAVES AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2035
___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. This property is on the National Register.
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 row of attached houses has a side-gable roof from which project eight cross-gable bays - one at each side of four shed-
roofed porches. Each cross-gable bay has two, tall, and narrow windows at first and second floors, and a rondel window in the
gable field. The porches rest on posts and have solid brackets at their eaves. The porches shelter two doors at the first f loor
and above them are two windows. Windows and doors are all segmentally arched. The brickwork of the building is High
Victorian Gothic in style with tarred bricks marking stringcourses at first and second stories and the arches of the window lintels.
Brownstone adds to the polychromy at sills and the springings of the window arches. A brick watertable surrounds the building
as well. This is a fine block of masonry rowhouses.
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 1975: “This modest brick block on Graves Avenue was constructed between 1886 and 1890 to accommodate
the growing urban population in Northampton. A number of multi-family structures were built close to the center of the city
during this period. Some were built by private individuals, while others, like the Foote Button Company Block on Lyman Road,
were erected for a specific group of workers.
Dr. Silas R. Cooley was the original owner of the tenement. Cooley purchased the tract of land ‘designated as lots 1, 3,
5, on a plan of land in Book 389, page 470’ in January of 1886, and had erected the block on the easterly two-thirds of the lot by
1890, at which time he sold the westerly third to Avon and Henry Matthews. (The ‘brick block owned by said Silas R. Cooley’ is
mentioned as a point of reckoning the property lines.)
The block was in fact built in 1886. The Gazette, on February 16, 1886, noted, in an article entitles ‘Modern Tenements’
that Silas R. Cooley was in the process of erecting a brick block on Graves Avenue. The description identifies the building as
the structure in question.”
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, Hampshire County, 399.12, 431.218