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53 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-214 Easthampton NTH.529 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 53 Harrison Avenue Historic Name: Edwin B. and M.E. Emerson House Uses: Present: Single-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1895 Source: Registry of Deeds, Atlas, & SDR Style/Form: Queen Anne Architect/Builder: Putnam & Bayley, architects, Northampton Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Carriage barn Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.196 acres Setting: This house faces southeast on a residential street. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [53 HARRISON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.529 __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. Although in plan and elevation this house is not as complicated as some of its neighbors, it is a substantial version of the Queen Anne style. The house is two-and-a-half stories under a front-gable roof with two cross-gable bays on north and south elevations for a Greek Cross plan. It is a simple two bays wide at the first story and has a pedimented entry porch supported on columns. The porch pediment is ornamented with festooning in relief in its tympanum. The door surround is trabeated with pilasters supporting an entablature and enclosing sidelights. The eaves of the front-gable roof are broad and make full returns on the façade to create a second pediment in whose field is a band of three windows under a single crown-molding lintel with a dentil row and a sill with a scroll-cut ornament. The fact that this house had retained its carriage barn adds to its significance. 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 Edwin Emerson in 1895 from the designs of Putnam and Bayley at a cost of $4000. Mr. Emerson was co-owner of a Main Street store which carried paints and oils, as well as contracting for painting and paper hanging. Putnam and Bayley were members of an architectural firm that had been established in 1893. Within two years, twelves houses had been constructed from their designs in Northampton. Mr. Bayley soon left the area, but Roswell Putnam remained and became one of the most prominent local architects of the turn of the 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 ] [53 HARRISON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.529 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.