129 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
31B-286 Easthampton NTH.717
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center
Address: 129 Main Street
Historic Name: First Church of Christ Congregational
Church Uses: Present: Congregational Church
Original: Congregational Church
Date of Construction: 1877-1878
Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette
Style/Form: Romanesque Revival
Architect/Builder: Peabody & Stearns
Exterior Material:
Foundation: granite
Wall/Trim: brownstone
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.729 acres
Setting: This building occupies a corner lot in
downtown Northampton.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [129 MAIN STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.717
___ 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.
This is an architect-designed Gothic Revival style building based on the Early English Gothic style. The church design manages
to demonstrate monumental features of the style on a relatively narrow city lot. The building is built of randomly-coursed, quarry-
faced brownstone. It has a front-gabled nave with two cross-gable wings on the west, between which is a one-story side aisle.
On the east there is a single cross-gable that does not extend beyond the plane of the nave. The nave has at its southeast
corner a buttressed, square bell tower with a broached spire. That is, an octagonal spire set atop the square tower with half -
pyramids making the transition from square to octagon. What is particularly fine about this spire is that rather than being roofed
with slate or wood, it is brownstone sided. Further adding to the complexity and asymmetry of the building, on the southwest
side of the nave in an angle between the nave and a buttress is an engaged octagonal tower with a stone roof. The main entry
to the nave is a Gothic pointed arch with molded jambs. Two identical entries are located in the tower and the first wing on the
west. These entries are also Gothic pointed arches, smaller in size than the center entry, their arches filled with carved, stone
trefoil ornament. Above the center entry within a pointed arch surround is a rose window above a five-window arcade. A
stringcourse runs between the window arcade and the main entry and encircles the building at that level. The wings of the
building have high and sharply-pitched parapets that add verticality to the building. As an Early English Gothic Revival this
building merges the Norman Romanesque asymmetry and heavy stone forms with the Gothic pointed arches and increased
verticality. It is both an academic stylistic interpretation and a thoughtful response to the givens of its site.
Attached to the north elevation of the church is a veritable complex of additions. The first is a one-and-a-half story shed roof
addition across the north elevation about one-and-a-half stories in height. To its northwest corner, under a side-gable roof is a
wing that also is brownstone with a slate roof. In the angle created by the wing and the north elevation of the church is a two-
part, two-story stucco ell. One of its sections has a hipped roof; the second section has a front-gable roof. They are each the
equivalent of three bays in length and width.
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 First Church of Christ, Congregational, stands on the site of the third meeting house of 1737-1812.
The Victorian structure of 1877 was designed by the Boston firm of Peabody & Stearns, who also did a number of buildings at
the time for Smith College.”
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.