54 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-251 Easthampton NTH.557
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 54 Kensington Avenue
Historic Name: George W. & Carrie E. Traphagen House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1897-1898
Source: Registry of Deeds & Directory
Style/Form: Panel Brick
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.74 acres
Setting: This is a west-facing house at the edge of
Smith College’s Quadrangle.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [54 KENSINGTON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.557
_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 virtually identical to its neighbor at 65 Kensington Avenue and both were probably speculatively built by Charles
Crouch to the same set of plans. It is two-and-a-half stories in height under a steeply pitched hipped roof. A pedimented frame
dormer adds the half-story and a three-sided bay projects from the northwest corner under a polygonal roof. A shed roof porch
shelters the center entry that is adjacent to a single window. The porch is supported on posts and respondent pilasters and has
a railing of fine, square balusters. The brick building is Panel Brick in style, a masonry Queen Anne, and has corbelled bricks
that create lintels, a stringcourse between stories, a frieze at the eaves, and a watertable. The segmentally arched windows
have scroll-cut ornaments in their shallow arches.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
Hipped roof 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 was built in 1897 for George Traphagen, a dentist. It was one of four brick houses built on
Kensington Avenue that year by Charles Crouch. Mr. Crouch was Northampton’s most prolific builder, constructing over 150
houses in his career, which spanned the entire second half of the 19th century. It was Mr. Crouch who opened Kensington
Avenue in 1890 through the Elm Street homestead of Aaron Breck.”
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. 760-P.233, 498-59
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [54 KENSINGTON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.557
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.