124-128 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-008 Easthampton NTH.2295
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center
Address: 124-128 Main Street
Historic Name: Northampton National Bank
Uses: Present: Commercial, residential
Original: Commercial
Date of Construction: ca. 1913-20
Source: Map of 1895 and photographs
Style/Form: Classical Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: not visible
Wall/Trim: limestone
Roof: not visible
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Windows replaced and storefront altered, 2000-2009
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.054 acres
Setting: This building is north-facing on downtown
Northampton’s major thoroughfare.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [124-128 Main Street]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2295
___ 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 three-story commercial building with a limestone façade that is three bays wide. It is a building with a reserved style in
its upper two stories. Square head windows with no sills or lintels are recessed slightly into the limestone surface of the building.
They are separated from the first floor storefront by a thin unadorned stringcourse. Beneath the cornice line of the building is a
frieze with a circle in low relief at each end and at the center. The cornice itself projects in a simple geometric form from the
plane of the façade. A concrete block connector attaches this building and the former bank on its west.
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.
Although this building has been given an 1880 date in the National Register nomination for Downtown Northampton, it would
appear from the map of 1895 that it replaces an earlier building on the lot or has had a new façade constructed since 1895. On
the map of 1895 the building on this site was identified as the Northampton National Bank, which previously had been located on
the north side of the street in the building at 131 Main Street. In fact, a photograph in the collection of Historic Northampton of
Main Street, 1880-1890, shows a three-story, brick building of four bays on this lot with a horse-drawn trolley in the street in front
of it. As the Northampton National Bank, the commercial building on the lot was part of what was known as Merchants Row
through much of the second half of the 19th century. When the new Northampton National Bank immediately on its west was
constructed replacing two commercial blocks, this building seems to have been made part of it with a new, narrower façade in
order to increase the size of the new bank’s north facade. For a number of ye ars of the mid-20th century, the building’s first story
was occupied by Todd’s clothing store.
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.