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67 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: PVPC Date (month / year): January, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 31A-244-001 Easthampton NTH.2458 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 67 Kensington Avenue Historic Name: Marjorie E. Pike House Uses: Present: single-family residence Original: single-family residence Date of Construction: ca. 1950 Source: street directories Style/Form: Colonial Revival Cape Cod Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: brick Roof: asphalt shingles. Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Garage Major Alterations (with dates): Some windows replaced in 2002. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.137 acres Setting: This is an east-facing house set in alignment with its neighbors in a well-developed residential neighborhood. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [67 KENSINGTON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.2458 _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 one-and-a-half story brick Cape Cod form house in the Colonial Revival style. It has a center chimney and is three bays wide and three bays deep. It has a shallow wing on the south that is one bay long, adding to the square plan. The center entry is slightly recessed and flanked by windows with 6/6 sash. Other sash in the house is replacement 1/1. This house is representative of the many post-World War II houses that were constructed in western Massachusetts towns, but is more substantial in its brick construction than the wood frame majority. 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. Kensington Avenue was laid out from Elm Street in 1890 on land that had previously been the farm of Daniel Clark and of Aaron Breck, but had recently been sold to Mrs. Emory Wells who had laid out a street that she named Delano Avenue. Charles Crouch, the most prolific developer in the history of Northampton bough the property from Mrs. Wells and renamed the street Kensington Avenue. He finished developing the street with sidewalks, sewer lines and trees and he began building houses on the street as rental properties, some as properties for sale, and others for which he was the general contractor. The street was largely built up by 1915 but this was not in time to save Crouch from grave financial problems that only ended with his death in 1901. The inventory of his property after his death shows that Crouch had built more houses than anyone else in the City but that he had also overextended his loans so that when housing values declined, Crouch owed more than his properties were worth. His death of tuberculosis may have been a result of a childhood in which he worked the Springfield streets selling newspapers before he moved to Northampton. He became a carpenter when he was 17 and that experience served as the basis for his development work. Once in Northampton he became its most vociferous booster, advocating for new roads, schools, roads and sidewalks to attract people to the community. He borrowed heavily to buy land and build houses and at his death he owned five half-houses on Kensington, a full house on Kensington and several brick blocks on Glenwood. His wife had additional half-houses and lots on Kensington in her name. This house replaced one of the earlier houses that had been built by 1910 by Crouch, but was gone between 1930 and 1940, perhaps to fire or demolition. The new house’s first owner appears to have been Marjorie E. Pike who owned the Blue Bird Sports Shop in Northampton. She owned the house through 1960. The addition of this house to the street, the last house to be built on Kensington, brought its range of building styles to the mid- 20th century and represents the type of housing that went up in Northampton post-World War II. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, 1873. Massachusetts Historical Commission. Reconnaissance Reports, “Northampton”, 1982. Miller, D. L. Atlas of the City of Northampton and Town of Easthampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, 1895. Northampton Directories 1910-1960. Sanborn Insurance Maps, Northampton, 1915. U. S. Federal censuses 1890-1930. Walker, George H. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [67 KENSINGTON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.2458 Massachusetts Historical Commission Community Property Address State Archives Facility 220 Morrissey Boulevard Northampton 67 Kensington Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02125 Area(s) Form No. NTH.2458 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 from 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.