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34 Harrison Avenue 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 31A-227 Easthampton NTH.539 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 34 Harrison Avenue Historic Name: Caroline A. Thompson House Uses: Present: Single-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1890-1895 Source: Registry of Deeds & Atlas Style/Form: Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.232 acres Setting: This is a west-facing house on a quiet, residential street. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [34 HARRISON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.539 _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. Perhaps the best-preserved house on Harrison Street, the Thompson House was designed in the Colonial Revival style but followed few of the Colonial Revival models of the time. It is two-and-a-half stories under a truncated hipped roof that has a roof balustrade. Two pedimented dormers are located on each side of the roof. They are classically designed with pilasters supporting an entablature beneath the dentilled pediment. The eaves of the roof are wide and are ornamented with a row of shaped modillion blocks. Corner pilasters from the building and rise to an entablature beneath the eaves. Three bays wide and three bays deep the house is square in plan with a side porch at its northeast corner. The center bay of the west façade is preceded by a one-story porch on square posts with respondent pilasters. The shaped modillion blocks are repeated at its wide eaves. The center entry to the house is a broad door flanked by wide sidelights and surmounted by a large elliptical fanlight. At each side of the porch are Palladian window compositions framed with classical pilasters, entablatures and keystone-centered arch. They are over-scaled in comparison to more traditional versions of the Colonial Revival style and their location on the first floor, and the fact that there are two of them are all departures from the traditional as well. The second story center bay hall window is a triple composition, but geometric. 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 in 1895 for Miss Caroline Thompson from plans of local architects Putnam and Bayley at a cost of $5000. Putnam and Bayley established themselves in Northampton in 1893, with R.F. Putnam coming from Amherst, Massachusetts and Lewis Bayley coming from Louisville, Kentucky. Within a few years they had established themselves as one of the leading firms in the city. Mr. Bayley soon left the area, but Mr. Putnam remained. His specialty was Colonial architecture.” 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. 449-P. 411 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [34 HARRISON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.539 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. This property would contribute to a potential historic district that would encompass the residential/institutional side streets laid out on the south side of Elm Street in Northampton Center between Main Street on the east and the west boundary of Childs Park on the west. This potential historic district is significant according to criteria A and C and would have local significance. These residential streets are significant according to criterion A for their reflection of the development of Northampton from the mid-19th century as a relatively affluent community that supported several private schools for young women, which prepared them after 1875 for attendance at Smith College, and the Clarke School where deaf students were given an education that thoroughly prepared them for the hearing world. The residences in this area made a shift from gentlemen’s estates to accommodation of the growing middle class in Northampton during the 19th century with businessmen, scholars, teachers, doctors, and retired farmers. According to criterion C this district would be significant for the range of historical styles that it includes. Gothic Revival, Italianate, French Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles are all well-represented within a landscape of individual large lots, and streetscapes that were laid out and developed at one time.