29 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-235 Easthampton NTH.546
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 29 Kensington Avenue
Historic Name:
Uses: Present: Three-family residence
Original: Rooming house
Date of Construction: 1895-1915
Source: Atlases
Style/Form: Queen Anne/Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.117 acres
Setting: This house is east-facing and overlooks
the Smith College Quadrangle.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [29 KENSINGTON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.546
__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 is a two-and-a-half story house that is transitional in style between the Queen Anne and the Colonial Revival. It has a front-
gable roof with a jetty in the gable end supported on small brackets – a late Queen Anne feature. On its east façade as well is a
stacked porch that wraps around at the first story to the north elevation. It is supported on Colonial Revival style chamfered
posts with square capitals. The porch has a square spindle frieze on the first story level and solid brackets pierced with a single
circle at the second story – two features used in Queen Anne style that have been interpreted here in a more spare and
geometric fashion. The house is clapboard sided on the first story and shingle-sided on the second story and in the gable fields.
There is a cross-gable bay on the south elevation that has a Colonial Revival style paneling in its gable field.
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 and quickly became one of the most ‘aristocratic’ streets in the
city. This house first appears on the 1915 atlas and the first known occupants were all professors at Smith College, who
probably leased rooms here.”
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 ] [29 KENSINGTON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.546
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.