131 King Street
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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
31B-81 Easthampton NTH.610
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 131 King Street
Historic Name: Armory Building
Uses: Present: Office building
Original: armory
Date of Construction: 1900
Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette, Aug. 28, 1900
Style/Form: Gothic Revival
Architect/Builder: Gardner, Pyne & Gardner,
architects, Springfield Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick/brownstone
Roof: asphalt and not visible
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Windows replaced, ca. 1990.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.562 acres
Setting: This building occupies a corner lot and
faces west on a major thoroughfare. Its lot abuts railroad
tracks.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [131 KING STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.610
___ 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 Armory building is one of two Gothic Revival style government buildings in Northampton, the second being Northampton’s
City Hall, which this building consciously reflects. The brick building is composed of two sections: the main block that is two
stories in height under a flat roof and the rear ell that is one-story in height under a front-gable roof. The main block’s west
façade is five bays wide with rounded bays projecting from the flat façade in the second and fourth bays and rising to a
crenellated parapet wall suggestive of a Gothic fortress. Between the two rounded bays is a one-story portico with a
segmentally arched opening that creates a recessed entry. Windows in the main block have straight, round and segmentally
arched openings and have metal replacement 1/1 sash. Their sills are brownstone. A brick stringcourse divides the first and
second stories and a second stringcourse divides the second story from the parapet roof above it. The ell is eight bays long and
has stepped parapet roofs on its eastern elevation and the partially exposed western elevation. Windows are segmentally
arched and there is a corbelled cornice at the roofline.
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 1975: “The Springfield architectural partnership consisting of E.C. Gardner, his son, George C., and George
Pyne, formed in 1889. Gardner was a native of Ashfield who began to practice architecture in Florence in 1858. Gardner
relocated to Springfield in 1870 after having designed a number of commercial buildings in Northampton. Although portions of
several factory complexes designed by Gardner remain, only one residence (a later 1880 design on Elm Street) and the Armory
in the downtown area survive in Northampton. An early work in Springfield, Gardner’s Trinity Church (1870) received mention in
H.R. Hitchcock’s volume The Architecture of H.H. Richardson and His Times.
The Armory building was built by the city in 1899-1900 and purchased by the state in 1912. The structure served as a
constabulary headquarters and as the barracks for various police and military groups. Recreational activities were also held at
the Armory and an occasional civic event like an auto show in 1931 took advantage of the large interior space which the
structure offered.
The Armory is now the first significant building one encounters on entering the city from the north, the residential charm
of King Street having long been erased by commercial development.”
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.