2-4 Highland Avenue
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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): December, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
25C-183 Easthampton NTH.402
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 2-4 Highland Avenue
Historic Name: Morris Stront-William Fenno Pratt House
Uses: Present: Three-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: ca. 1835
Source: Registry of Deeds
Style/Form: eclectic
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: asphalt shingles
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates): Siding added, windows
replaced, porches altered, building converted to 3-family,
1950-2000.
Condition: fair-poor
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.151 acres
Setting: This house occupied a raised corner lot in a
neighborhood of mainly 19th c. houses.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [2-4 HIGHLAND AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.402
___ 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 two-story, south-facing house under a low-pitched hipped roof, a form that was more common in the Federal style than
the Greek Revival style of the 1830s when it was constructed. The house is five bays wide and three bays deep and rests on
high brick foundations. It has two entries on the south façade corresponding to the two living units and an exterior wood stairs
on the east elevation leads to a third unit. The south entries are sheltered by two porches of flat roofs resting on replacement
fluted columns of artificial material. Respondent pilasters, however, are Italianate in style and rise to an Italianate arched frieze
with a dentil row at the roof eaves. There is a one-story bay window on the west elevation that has three Italianate arched
windows. It is likely that the porches and bay window were alterations made by William F. Pratt, architect. All the windows of
the remainder of the house have been replaced with 1/1 sash and the house has been sided with artificial shingles, so further
historic details are obscured.
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 appears to have been built between 1834 and 1836 by Lewis Bliss, a ‘house carpenter.’ In
1836, Mr. Bliss sold 1 ½ acres and the house to Morris Strong, who made his homestead here and maintained the property until
1861. In that year, the property was purchased by William F. Pratt. Mr. Pratt was Northampton’s most prominent architect of the
second half of the 19th century and had grown up in the house next north to this one, which was still owned by his father,
Thomas Pratt, himself a noted ‘master builder’ of the early 19th century. Mr. Pratt went bankrupt in the late 1870’s and his
homestead was foreclosed on. Walter Rodiman, the agent for the Connecticut River Railroad owned the house for a few years,
and then in 1883, Charles Stevens, treasurer of the Crystal Emory Wheel Co. at Hawley and Main Streets bought the property.
Mr. Stevens lived in the house for a while, but soon moved to King Street. The 1895 atlas shows the house with the eastern
addition, and the new street- Highland Avenue. Mr. Stevens still owned this property as well as two other residences on the
north side of Highland Avenue, and rented out tenements in all of them.”
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. 378-P. 31, 347-93, 199-333, 76-549, 73-27, 67-186