35 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-211 Easthampton NTH.526
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 35 Harrison Avenue
Historic Name: W.K. Staab House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1890-1895
Source: Registry of Deeds & Atlas
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: shingles, clapboards
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.196 acres
Setting: This house faces east on a shady,
residential street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [35 HARRISON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.526
_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.
This is a Queen Anne house that has been extremely well-maintained and preserved. It is two-and-a-half stories in height and
has a front-gabled roof with a cross-gable bay on the north. The eaves of the front gable make full returns to form a pediment.
The east façade is composed of an angled, three-sided bay window that rises two stories to the pediment, and an adjacent two
bays of door and window behind a stacked porch. On the first floor the porch is a wraparound with a round corner. At the
second story it is two-bays wide under a hipped roof with a spindle frieze, turned posts and a low, spindled railing above
shingles. The first story porch repeats the turned posts and spindle frieze, but its railing is an ornamental jigsaw-cut pattern.
The house is sided in clapboards with a shingle band separating first and second stories. Shingles also fill the front gable and
the upper story of the cross-gable bay.
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 for William Staab during the early 1890’s. Mr. Staab was a merchant tailor on Mai n
Street. Harrison Avenue was opened in 1890 by J.C. Hammond and J.A. Sullivan and quickly became considered one of the
most ‘aristocratic’ streets in the city. By 1895, nine houses had been constructed and most of the others were built early n the
20th century. The eclecticism in design of the turn of the century period is well demonstrated on this 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. 449-P. 411
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [35 HARRISON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.526
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.