36 Liberty Street
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
30A-55 Easthampton NTH.427
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Bay State
Address: 36 Liberty Street
Historic Name: Martin Brown House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: ca.1870
Source: Registry of Deeds & Atlas
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Dormer added, bay added and fenestration changed, ca.
1920-2000.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.28 acres
Setting: This house faces east and is set on a
high lot on a sloping street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [36 LIBERTY STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.427
_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 house appears to have begun life as a modest Italianate style house one-and-a-half stories in height under a front-gable
roof, ca. 1870. It has, and had, full boxed eaves that made returns above corner pilasters. Three bays wide with a side-hall
entry and two 6/6 sash windows, the house is clapboard-sided and has a center stove chimney. Within two decades it received
the porch in full-blown Queen Anne style. The porch has a projecting pediment on triple turned posts above its stairs and
extends across the east façade with turned baluster railings, Eastlake-style brackets at the eaves and a spindled frieze that is
further embellished by a row of prominent and over-scaled dentils at the cornice level. The house was later expanded slightly
with the addition of a through-cornice shed roofed dormer on the south elevation and a one-story, shed roofed bay on the south
as well.
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 is one of the small one and a half story cottages which were built for employees by the Bay State
Hardware Co. The 1873 Atlas shows the house with the name of Brown next to it, and lists it as lot #12. In 1883, lot #12 was
sold to Martin P. Brown. He sold it the next year to Thomas Cantwell, a mechanic at the Northampton Cutlery Co. (the
successor to the Bay State Hardware Company) and Cantwell lived here for the rest of the 19th century.”
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. 383-P. 519, 371-442, 264-183
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [36 LIBERTY STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.427
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 Bay State Village Historic District as the home of families who worked in the local cutlery
factories that dominated the industry of the village from the middle of the 19th century into the 20th century. Architecturally the
house is a fine example of the Queen Anne style.