81 High Street
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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
17C-107 Easthampton NTH.90
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 81 High Street
Historic Name:
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1884-1895
Source: Atlases
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Some windows replaced, ca. 1980.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.241 acres
Setting: This house occupies a corner lot in a
neighborhood of mid-late 19th century houses.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [81 HIGH STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.90
___ 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 unique Queen Anne style house in Florence designed to accommodate its corner lot. It is one-and-a-half stories in
height under a front-gable roof with a jerkin head. It has a cross-gable bay with a jerkin head on the west and a two-story ell on
the north or rear. The façade of the clapboard-sided house is two bays wide with a three-sided angled bay window adjacent to
its main entry that is set at the corner of south and west elevations. A wrap around porch on posts with brackets at the eaves
crosses the south façade and turns to the west elevation. While the houses in this section of Florence were more modest in s ize
than elsewhere in Northampton, they were often well-designed and stylistically up-to-date, and this is a good example of their
architectural achievement.
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 first appeared on the 1895 atlas and was owned by Fred Crossman, co-owner of Crossman
and Polmatie [also spelled “Polmantie”], plumbers and hardware dealers in Florence.” The two invested in land on Stilson Street
just north of this property. The Polmantie house occupied a lot in 1895 owned by both Crossman and Polmantie.
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.