25 Kensington 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-234 Easthampton NTH.545
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 25 Kensington Avenue
Historic Name: Michael Keating House
Uses: Present: Two-family residence
Original: Single-family house
Date of Construction: 1890-1895
Source: Registry of Deeds & Atlas
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.127 acres
Setting: This is an east-facing house set on a
slightly raised lot on a quiet, residential street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [25 KENSINGTON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.545
__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 house is not as ornate a Queen Anne style house as its neighbor next door at #17, but it is also a fine example of the style.
The house is two-and-a-half stories in height under a front-gable roof with cross-gables on north and south to add variety to the
roofline. In an angle between the south bay and the main block of the house is a stair hall with three windows angled up the
south elevation of the house. There is a shed-roofed, full-width porch on turned posts across the east façade. It has solid
brackets at the eaves and a Chippendale patterned porch railing. The shed roof with shingled spandrels is repeated over a one-
story, three-sided bay window on the south elevation. On the first story of the east façade the house is three bays wide with a
side entry, foyer window and a large, fixed-light window. The latter window is a common feature among Queen Anne houses in
Northampton from the 1890s. The house is clapboard-sided except for gable ends that are decoratively shingled.
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: “Kensington Avenue was opened in 1890 by Charles Crouch, one of Northampton’s most prolific
developers, and described in his obituary as ‘one of the most enterprising citizens the town ever had… his motto was progress.’
He built about 150 houses in Northampton, either as tenement houses or on contract for others. By 1895, there were 15 houses
built on the street and by 1915 all of the lots but two were filled with houses
This house appears on the 1895 atlas as property of Michael Keating, a mason who is also listed here in the 1895
directory.”
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.442-P. 131
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [25 KENSINGTON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.545
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.