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51 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-213 Easthampton NTH.528 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 51 Harrison Avenue Historic Name: J.W. Hartwell House Uses: Present: Single-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1894-1895 Source: 1895 Atlas, Northampton Directory Style/Form: Queen Anne Architect/Builder: B.H. Seabury, Springfield Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.294 acres Setting: This house faces east on a tree-shaded, residential street. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [51 HARRISON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.528 __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 house is Queen Anne in style and stands out as a unique version of the style. It is two-and-a-half stories in height under a truncated hipped roof from which rises a large chimney ornamented with tarred bricks. A cross-gable bay projects from the south elevation and a cross-gable projects from the east façade. What is unconventional in this house is the fact that the first floor is recessed on the east façade and the upper stories are supported at first story level on paired, slender columns. At the second floor level on the east façade the southeast corner is also recessed as an open porch on slender columns. Porches in this house are voids in the mass of the building rather than space created outside the perimeters of the building. The first story of the building is clapboard and the second story and attic levels are shingle sided with varying patterns – as was commonly practiced in the Queen Anne style. On the east roof is a modified eyebrow dormer. A window sill scroll cut ornament is found in the south bay at the attic level beneath a semi-circular window opening. 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 1976: “One of a pair of houses on Harrison Avenue designed by architect B.H. Seabury. Seabury was a Springfield architect who planned 2 commercial blocks and two residences in Northampton between 1895 and 1900. At this period, the city no longer relied solely on its local architects; Seabury and the Gardner firm received numerous commissions. Seabury himself had worked with the Gardners on his arrival to Springfield in 1882, but soon opened his own office. Seabury was a Newport native, MIT student, and engineer for the Brooklyn Bridge project prior to his arrival in Springfield.” 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. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [51 HARRISON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.528 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.