50 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-224 Easthampton NTH.536
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 50 Harrison Avenue
Historic Name: William A. Coburn House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1894
Source: Registry of Deeds, Atlas, & Springfield
Daily Republican Style/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: asphalt
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.215 acres
Setting: This is a west-facing house on a
residential street of mainly turn-of-the-century houses.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [50 HARRISON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.536
_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 two-and-a-half story house that is an asymmetrical Colonial Revival in style, a relatively early version of the style. That
is, it has a pyramidal hipped roof with a cross-gable at one side of the west façade and is thereby asymmetrical. The main block
of the house is a four-square – a simple square box under a hipped roof. It is three bays wide on its west façade with a center
entry flanked on the south by an angled bay window of two stories and on the north by a small stair window. A stacked porch on
flared posts wraps across the west to the north at first story level. Connecting the posts are railings with turned balusters. A
second story section of the porch, one bay wide, has a pedimented roof on the west and open arched sides on north, west, and
south. The house is clapboard sided on the first story and shingled on the second story as was common practice for the
Colonial Revival style. With its flared posts and arched porch openings, this house was a progressive version of its style in
1884.
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 1894 for William Coburn at a cost of $4000. Mr. Coburn was co-owner of a Main
Street drug store. Harrison Avenue was opened in 1890, and by 1895, nine houses had been constructed. Most of the other
houses were constructed early in the 20th century.”
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 ] [50 HARRISON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.536
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.