78 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-220 Easthampton NTH.532
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 78 Harrison Avenue
Historic Name: Fred D. Cary House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1931
Source: Smith College Archives
Style/Form:
Architect/Builder: Karl S. Putnam, architect,
Northampton Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: shingles
Roof: asphalt
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Attached garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.183 acres
Setting: This house faces northwest on a quiet,
residential street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [78 HARRISON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.532
__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.
As the twentieth century progressed, architects working in the Colonial Revival style narrowed their interpretations of the style
more closely to the original Colonial antecedents. Earlier, the style enlarged the scale and proportions and exaggerated details
by over-scaling them. From about 1920 the Colonial Revival became more sedate and by the 1930s, it was almost
archaeological, though room was provided for garages, furnaces, and other modern conveniences. Karl Scott Putnam followed
the latter track carefully as demonstrated in this house. It is two-and-a-half stories under a side-gable rather than a hipped roof
and is five bays wide by three bays deep. End wall chimneys lace through the roof eaves and there are several rear ells and an
attached garage on the east and south. The center entry on the west façade is based on Georgian precedent with engaged
columns with high impost blocks supporting an open pediment that is trimmed with dentils. Within the surround a fanlight tops
the paneled door. Windows in the house have 6/6 sash. The house is shingle-sided and it has a one-story porch on the north
elevation with a balustrade at its roofline.
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: “Fred Cary, the president of Kimball and Cary Co., coal and wood dealers on Main Street, Northampton,
had a $10,000 house built for himself on this site in 1914. This was replaced by the present house in 1931, from designs of Karl
Putnam, Northampton’s most prominent architect of 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.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [78 HARRISON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.532
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.