108 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): March, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
32C-13 Easthampton NTH.2128
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center
Address: 108 Main Street
Historic Name: Isaac Damon Granite Store
Uses: Present: Commercial, residential
Original: Commercial
Date of Construction: 1826-1828
Source: David Oliver Merrill
Style/Form: trabeated form
Architect/Builder: Isaac Damon, architect,
Northampton Exterior Material:
Foundation: granite
Wall/Trim: granite/wood
Roof: not visible
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Wood cornice added, n.d., windows replaced and roof
lowered.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.04 acres
Setting: This building faces north in Northampton’s
downtown section.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [108 MAIN STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2128
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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 Isaac Damon granite store at 108 Main Street is a three-story granite building under a flat roof that has been lowered from
its original side-gable configuration with high, pointed brick end walls. It is four bays wide, its windows in the second and third
stories set in a granite façade. It has a wood paneled cornice that is 20th century in origin, replacing a simple cornice that
crossed both this building at 108 and its companion building at 110-112. On the first story there is a storefront with a recessed
entry to the upper stories, as well as to the storefront, adjacent to a glass display window. Granite piers, partially covered in a
pebbled surface, which support the granite lintel are visible at the outer walls of the building, though the lintel is not visible. On
the upper two stories the trabeated construction system is clearly visible in which granite piers separating the openings support
granite lintel blocks spanning each window opening. The lintel blocks meet above the pier, where their seams are visible. The
narrow granite sills project slightly. W indows on the second story are replacements that have 1 fixed light above a hopper, while
the third story windows have 1/1 replacement sash. Windows originally appear from old photographs to have had 8/8 sash.
The trabeated structural system in granite extends to the neighboring building at 110-112 Main Street, the second of the twin
buildings.
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 present Gare Jewelry Store is located in Isaac Damon’s ‘Granite Stores’ (1826-1828) [110-112 Main
Street]. It was first the site of the shop of Samuel Stiles, goldsmith, in 1785. Since that time, jewelers have continuously sold
their wares here, including General Benjamin Cook, from 1827-1900.
The quarry granite for the stores came from Dedham, and is the same granite as that used in the Dedham Courthouse
construction.” Old photographs from the 1950s indicate that Ann August women’s store occupied this building’s first story and
that it had an urban-renewal-inspired false façade that rose through the second story.
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.
Merrill, David Oliver. “Isaac Damon and the Architecture of the Federal Period in New England”, dissertation from Yale
University, p. 207-209, fig. 139.
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.