10 Main 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): February 2011
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
23A-115-001 Easthampton NTH.184
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence
Address: 10 Main Street
Historic Name: Wells and Company Machine Shop
Uses: Present: Office building
Original: Factory
Date of Construction: 1860
Source: 1860 map
Style/Form: Italianate
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick/granite
Roof: asphalt
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Windows replaced, ca. 2005
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.485 acres
Setting: This building faces west on to Chestnut Street in a
mixed commercial/residential neighborhood.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [10 Main Street]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.184
___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
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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 Wells & Co. Machine Shop Building was constructed in a design that was common for factories during the second half of the
19th century as it is in brick construction, rectangular in plan beneath a side-gable roof and has a stair tower centered on its
façade. The building is three-and-a-half stories in height, 15 bays long, four bays deep, and its center stair tower is four stories
tall. The brick building has granite sills and lintels on its straight-head windows with 12/12 reproduction wood sash. The
brickwork of the center tower creates recessed panels on each of the tower elevations and creates a corbelled cornice at the
eaves line. First story of the tower has a full-height, three-part composition window on its west façade with entries on its north
and south elevations. The entries are sheltered by hoods that are supported on cast iron scrolled consoles.
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 the Form B of 1975: “ Sewing machines were developed during the 1840s by Elias Howe, I. J. Greenough, G. H. Corliss; in
1851 the first patent was obtained by Isaac Singer. The first “Florence Sewing Machine” was perfected and put on the market
by Leander Langdon in 1861 and at about this time the Sewing Machine Company opened in buildings of the former Wells &
Company Machine Shop. The Florence manufactory produced the entire machine and its wooden case as well.
The growth of the company in the post-Civil War period was rapid; in 1865 the company employed 150 men and three
years time doubled its capacity. In the 1870s the company diversified its operation, undertaking the production of oil stoves. By
the turn of the century, however, the concern was absorbed by a Connecticut concern, Central Oil and Gas
Stove. In its early years local manufacturers L. S. Hill D. G. Littlefield, and F. N. Look had controlled the company. “
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.
Smith College Studies in History, “A Chronicle of Industry on the Mill River,”, volume XXI, Nos. 1-4, p. 75-77.
Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884.
Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860.