27 Highland 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
25C-192 Easthampton NTH.404
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 27 Highland Avenue
Historic Name: William Bingham House
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: vinyl
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Shed
Major Alterations (with dates):
Siding applied, windows replaced, 2009-10.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.132 acres
Setting: This is a north-facing house on a narrow
residential street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [27 HIGHLAND AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.404
___ 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-and-a-half story house with a front-gable roof whose eaves make full returns on the north façade to create a
pediment at the attic level. The north façade is three bays wide and the first story is recessed beneath the second with a porch,
two-bays wide, adjacent to an angled, one-story bay window. A cross-gabled bay on the west elevation is two-and-a-half stories
in height under a pedimented gable. There is a one-story ell on the south. One of the few decorative elements remaining is an
arched brace between posts on the front porch. This is an uncommon elevation for a Queen Anne house in Northampton.
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: “Highland Avenue was opened between 1884 and 1895 through Charles Steven’s North Street
homestead. This was the northernmost of the streets which cut through the colonial homesteads on Market and North Streets.
These streets, as the homesteads had, extended easterly to the Bridge Street Cemetery. Nine of the present thirteen residential
structures are shown on the 1895 atlas and the other four were built by 1915.
This house first appears on the 1895 atlas as property of William Bingham, an employee of the Northampton Paper Box
Company on North Street.”
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.