55 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-240 Easthampton NTH.550
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 55 Kensington Avenue
Historic Name: Esther Pease House
Uses: Present: Three-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1890-1892
Source: Registry of Deeds & Directory
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: vinyl and asphalt shingles
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Siding added ca. 1960-1990.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.117 acres
Setting: This house faces east on a quiet,
residential street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [55 KENSINGTON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.550
_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 one of at least four houses on Kensington Street built on the same model. Others are #61, 62, and 64. It is two-and-a-
half stories in height and has a side-gable roof with a three-story tower under a pyramidal hipped roof adjacent to a two-story,
stacked porch. There are cross-gables on the east façade as well as a cross-gable bay on the south elevation and a two-and-a-
half story ell on the rear making this a very large house on Kensington Street. The porch is supported on turned Queen Anne
posts with square posts serving as additional supports on the sides. The house has vinyl siding on first and second stories and
asphalt shingle siding on the attic level.
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 is one of the earliest houses to be constructed on Kensington Avenue. The street was opened in
1890 through the Elm Street homestead of Aaron Breck by Charles Crouch. Mr. Crouch was Northampton’s most prolific builder
of the 19th century, constructing over 150 houses.
The house appears on the 1895 atlas as the property of Esther Pease. Mrs. Pease is first listed at the address in the
1892-93 directory.” Esther Pease was the widow of Solomon Pease.
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 ] [55 KENSINGTON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.550
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.