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75 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-246-001 Easthampton NTH.553 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 75 Kensington Avenue Historic Name: Cyrus and Ermina Stimson House Uses: Present: apartments Original: single-family residence Date of Construction: 1897 Source: Registry of Deeds Style/Form: Panel Brick Architect/Builder: Charles Crouch, builder. Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: brick Roof: asbestos shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): ell added, n.d.; siding added to ell and front dormer and new windows installed, 2003. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.128 acres Setting: House is on a corner lot, facing east in a tree- shaded, residential area, although there are college dormitories further north on the street. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [75 Kensington Avenue] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.553 _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. The Charles Crouch House is the brick version of the Queen Anne style, generally called “Panel Brick” for its use of ornamental brick patterns - and often terra cotta - to convey the visual liveliness that frame, Queen Anne style buildings conveyed with wood shingles, clapboards, turned, and jigsaw-cut elements. There are two other examples of the style at 54 and 65 Kensington Avenue, both of which retain their unpainted brick appearance. This is a two-and-a-half story, white-painted, brick house under a hipped roof on which is a center, vinyl-sided dormer. On its north and south elevations are three-sided bays that add complexity to the interior volume of the house. The house has a two-and-a-half story ell on the rear that has been sided in vinyl. Moss-covered roofing material appears to be asbestos shingles with copper trim. Dormers on the north and south elevations of the roof have jerkin-head roofs that add interest to their elevations. The main block of the house is three bays wide with a band of ornamental terra cotta blocks between stories, and terra cotta blocks used together with corbelled bricks at the eaves, at the segmentally arched window lintels, and over the segmentally arched entry surround. The entry door is flanked by sidelights and topped by a 5-light transom. A front-gabled portico on fluted posts is a later addition as are the concrete stoop and its wrought iron railings. 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 Dryads Green to Elm Street by Charles Crouch in 1890. He divided the land into lots, put in the street, sidewalks, sewer lines and trees and the lots sold rather rapidly. Crouch built on contract and on speculation and in 1897 he built four brick houses on Kensington Avenue on speculation including this house. Crouch was to die of tuberculosis before the properties all sold, so he died in 1901leaving a great deal of debt behind, among which were at least six houses on Kensington Avenue. The people who came to Kensington Avenue were a mix of professionals – doctors, dentists, businessmen and academics – and laborers who were dressmakers, store clerks, and security personnel. In 1919 this house was owned by a family in the first category: it was owned by Rev. Cyrus F. and Ermina Stimson who occupied the house with their family of six children through 1940. By 1929 Rev. Stimson lived in it with his son Cyrus Jr., who was a college professor, and married daughter Mrs. Ermina S. Kinnell, an artist. Rev. Stimson listed himself as Field Service for America’s Playgrounds. By 1950 the house had been divided into six apartments occupied by people who worked in local businesses and as far away as Westover Air Base in Chicopee. Between 1950 and 1960 the building was bought by Smith College and occupied mostly by faculty and staff at Smith. 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. Massachusetts Historical Commission Community Property Address State Archives Facility 220 Morrissey Boulevard Northampton 75 Kensington Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02125 Area(s) Form No. NTH.553 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.