110-112 Main 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
32C-12 Easthampton NTH.2272
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center
Address: 110-112 Main Street
Historic Name: Isaac Damon Granite Store
Uses: Present: Commercial
Original: Commercial
Date of Construction: 1826-28
Source: David Oliver Merrill
Style/Form: trabeated construction form
Architect/Builder: Isaac Damon, architect, Northampton
Exterior Material:
Foundation: granite
Wall/Trim: granite/metal
Roof: not visible
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Storefront altered multiple times; windows replaced, n.d.,
roof lowered, cornice added.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.034 acres
Setting: The second of the granite stores faces north on
downtown Northampton’s major thoroughfare.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [110-112 Main Street]
ADDRESS]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2272
___ 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.
Two buildings make up the Isaac Damon Stores, the building at 108 Main Street, and this building with two doors giving it the
address 110-112 Main Street. The pair of buildings was identical in construction originally but each has been altered over time
at first story, roof, and at their cornices to appear rather different today. Like its neighbor at 108, the Isaac Damon granite store
at 110-112 Main Street is a three-story granite building under a flat roof that originally was a side gable roof with high, pointed
brick end walls. It is four bays wide, its windows in the second and third stories set within a granite post-and-beam, or trabeated,
façade. It has a pressed metal cornice that is late 19th century in origin. On the first story there is a single, centered storefront
flanked by a door on the west to the store, and on the east to the upper stories. Granite piers that support the granite lintel
above the first story are visible at the outer walls of the building, though the lintel itself 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. Narrow granite sills
project slightly. Windows on both stories are replacements with 1/1 sash with wide meeting and side rails that change the
traditional window appearance that from old photographs seems to have held 8/8 sash windows.
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). 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.”
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.