32 Laurel 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
38A-39-001 Easthampton NTH.2179
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 32 Laurel Street
Historic Name: Hospital Hill School
Uses: Present: two-family house
Original: school and house
Date of Construction: ca. 1860
Source: maps
Style/Form: utilitarian and Cape Cod form
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick and vinyl
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates): Cape Cod house added to
school; windows and doors of school infilled – ca. 1930;
replacement windows added; house vinyl-sided – post-
1980.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.395 acres
Setting: This building is in an area of mixed 19th and 20th
century housing.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [32 Laurel Street]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2179
___ 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 building made up of two sections. The older section is a one-and-a-half story brick building under a side-gable roof. It
is six bays wide and two bays deep and is east-facing. On its south elevation is an east-facing Cape Cod form house under a
side-gable roof. This portion of the house is vinyl-sided and has an enclosed porch across its east façade and a full-width, shed-
roof dormer across its east roof. The former schoolhouse has had its windows and possibly its original entries in-filled to
accommodate smaller sash and a door. The building has a corbelled brick cornice at its eaves and a single interior chimney.
Sash is metal replacement in both sections of the house. The Cape Cod section of the house makes eaves returns and appears
behind its enclosed porch to be three to five bays wide.
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 small brick building was originally built as a schoolhouse for the inhabitants of ‘Hospital Hill’. This
area, named after the nearby Northampton State Hospital was centered around the 18th century ‘highway’ to Westhampton.
After the hospital was established in the early 1850s the area grew substantially and a school was needed. This served as the
school for at least until 1930, and some time afterwards was transformed into a variety store, its present use.”
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.