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60 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-222 Easthampton NTH.534 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 60 Harrison Avenue Historic Name: John Skinner House Uses: Present: Single-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1908 Source: Atlases & Springfield Daily Republican Style/Form: Colonial Revival/Craftsman Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: fieldstone Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Porte-cochere Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.217 acres Setting: This house faces northwest on a dense, residential street. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [60 HARRISON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.534 _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 Colonial Revival style house is two-and-a-half stories in height under a slate-covered, pyramidal hipped roof with flared eaves. It has a cross-gable bay on the west façade and hipped dormers on all visible roof elevations. The west façade is three bays wide with a center entry between the cross-gable bay and a large, fixed-light window. A hipped roof porch on paired, fluted Colonial Revival style posts extends from the cross-gable bay across the west façade and wraps around to the south elevation. The stair entry is marked by a pediment on the porch roof. As was common during the Colonial Revival style period, the first story of the house is clapboard-sided, the second story is shingled, and there is a shallow jetty between the two stories. As an early 20th century design, the house shows the influence of other styles in its details. The exposed rafter ends, for instance, derive from the Craftsman style that had begun to appear in numbers ca. 1905. The barge boards in the gable end of the large west bay shows the influence of the Tudor Revival style that had been current from the 1890s. This house is also notable for the separate porte-cochere that was added in a very compatible style to the house. 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 1908 for John Skinner at a cost of $12,000. Mr. Skinner was treasurer of the West Boylston Mfg. Co. and Easthampton Company which manufactured cotton goods and yarn. Harrison Avenue had been opened in 1890 and quickly became one of the most ‘aristocratic’ streets in the city. Most of the houses were built in the turn-of- the-century period and illustrate the eclecticism of this era.” 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 ] [60 HARRISON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.534 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.