62 (64 officially) 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.559
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 62 (64 officially) Kensington Avenue
Historic Name: G. Gere House
Uses: Present: Four-unit college residence
Original: Two-family residence
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: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage
Major Alterations (with dates): window replacements.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.74 acres
Setting: This house faces west and abuts Smith
College’s Quadrangle on the east.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [62 KENSINGTON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.559
_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 two houses with the official city number 64 Kensington Avenue on the same block. The lot was reconfigured whe n
it came into Smith College ownership. It was previously 62 Kensington Avenue. It is a two-and-a-half story Queen Anne style
building with a side-gable roof and a three-story tower at its southwest corner. It shares with several of its neighboring houses
several common architectural features such as the stacked porches with identical friezes, corner towers, entry location and
fenestration on the first and second stories of the west tower of a large fixed-light window. This version, however, appears to
have been expanded with two broad stories of porches that wrap from the west to the north elevation with bracketed eaves
above a spindled frieze. A two-story bay window is located on the south elevation adjacent to a through-eaves, end-wall
chimney. The house also has a two-and-a-half story ell on the east adding to its floor plan. The clapboard exterior has been
ornamented with paneling beneath the windows.
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: “In 1890, Kensington Avenue was opened through the Elm Street homestead of Aaron Breck. The street
was developed by Charles Crouch, Northampton’s most prolific builder of the 19th century. Mr. Crouch built houses on contract
or built houses for himself then leased out as tenements. This house appears on the 1895 atlas and was the property of
Frederick Crouch, probably Charles’s son and a carpenter. By 1900, the property was owned and occupied by George S. Gere,
co-owner of the Gazette Printing Company.”
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 ] [62 KENSINGTON AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.559
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.