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75 Lyman Road 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: Jayne Bernhard-Armington Organization: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Date (month / year): June, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 39A-064 Easthampton NTH.1092 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 75 Lyman Road Historic Name: Henry S. Gere House Uses: Present: Single family residence Original: Single family residence Date of Construction: 1884-1888 Source: Atlas & Registry of Deeds Style/Form: Queen Anne Architect/Builder: Charles H. Jones Exterior Material: Foundation: Brick Wall/Trim: Clapboard & wood shingle Roof: Asphalt Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): - New windows in 1998 - Enclosed second story porch in 2009. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 1.2 acres Setting: House among other stately single family or former single family homes in a well-established residential neighborhood, which contains mature trees throughout. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [75 LYMAN ROAD] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.1092 __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 large two-and-a-half story Queen Anne style house with a front gable roof and rear cross gables to form a modified cross gable plan. Overall, the home is a fairly simple rectangular mass. The house is enlivened by large amounts of Victorian decoration and structural elements. The first story is clad in clapboard while wood shingles add visual interest to the upper stories. In addition, string courses are used to further define the first, second, and attic stories. This combined with cornerboards and the window surrounds help to delineate the structure’s component parts. The side cross-gables, the front gables, and the porch’s entrance gable are decorated with sunbursts and rosettes. The one story shed roof front porch with gabled front entry terminates with a gazebo at its eastern end. Elaborate turned posts, a frieze of spindles, and balustrade of sticks in geometric pattern compose the screened porch. Within the cross gable on the eastern elevation, there is a three-story shallow bay that is topped by its own pediment. On this eastern elevation, the 1980 Inventory Photo showed that there had previously been a recessed porch with geometric balustrade on the second story, but the porch has since been fully enclosed and all traces of this feature has been lost. The western elevation of the home has a triangular dormer, a two-story oriel with second story shed roof porch. A variety of window forms are used. There is an oriel window in the front gable with projecting roof. Many windows are multi-paned and several contain stained glass. More of the windows had stained glass components when the home was first inventoried in 1980. New windows were added to all levels of the house in 1998. Interior remodeling occurred in 2009. The house is located at the brow of the terrace above the old bed of the Mill River. Meadows stretch easterly from the old bed to the Connecticut River, and beyond that to the Holyoke Range in Hadley. Thus a spectacular panoramic vista is opened up to the east and south from this house. 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 Queen Anne styled house was built from designs of local architect Charles E. Jones. Mr. Jones learned the trade of house painter in Boston and was first associated in business with his brother. Isaac R. Jones, in Ashfield, Mass. Charles moved to Northampton in 1868 and remained here until his death in 1897 at the age of 59. He continued his painting and interior decorating business here, but received encouragement to engage in the architectural practice. His first designs were in the Italianate and Second Empire styles. However, his best work was done in the Queen Anne style. This includes three houses still standing in Northampton: 75 Lyman Road, 152 South Street, and 28 Pomeroy Terrace. By 1889 he had designed over fifty residences, three churches, and many commercial buildings. Henry S. Gere, the owner and editor of the Hampshire Gazette, is first listed as living in this house in the 1888-89 Directory. Mr. Gere was born in Williamsburg in 1828 and began his career with local newspapers at the age of 17 working for the Hampshire Herald. In two years he became editor of the weekly, and in 1848 when the Herald merged with the Northampton Courier, he was named assistant editor. In 1849 at the age of 21 he became editor and proprietor. He revolutionized newspaper editing here by emphasizing local news. In 1858 this paper combined with the Hampshire Gazette, Northampton's first paper, founded in 1786 by William Butler. Gere served as co-editor with James R. Trumbull, the editor and proprietor of the Gazette who was later known as "Northampton’s historian." The weekly paper changed to the Daily Hampshire Gazette in 1890. At a banquet given in his honor on his 80th birthday by the editors of western Massachusetts, Mr. Gere was acclaimed as the editor of longest service in New England. Two years later, after 63 years as an editor, he was succeeded by his son Collins and Edward C. Gere. Henry Ger was also prominent in civic affairs. In 1858 he was chosen County Treasurer, a position he held for 18 years. He was chairman of the Republican County Committee for 25 years and served 6 years on the Northampton School Committee.” This house was sold in 1987 and again in 2008. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [75 LYMAN ROAD] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.1092 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 Ham pshire, 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. 389-p.167 Northampton Directory: 1887-88, 1888-89 Representative families of Northampton, vol. 1, C. Warner, 1917, page 55. Hampshire Gazette & Courier 1-15-89 The Northampton Book, ed. By Tercentenary History Committee, 1954, pp 377-8.