210 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
31D-163 Easthampton NTH.790
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center
Address: 210 Main Street
Historic Name: Northampton Town Hall
Uses: Present: City Hall
Original: Town Hall
Date of Construction: 1849-1850
Source: Hampshire Gazette, 3/19/1850
Style/Form: Gothic Revival
Architect/Builder: William Fenno Pratt
Exterior Material:
Foundation: granite
Wall/Trim: stucco/wood
Roof: not visible
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Windows replaced ca. 1990.
Condition: Good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage:
Setting: City Hall occupies a corner lot in a row of
four institutional buildings in downtown Northampton.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [210 MAIN STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.790
___ 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.
Northampton’s town hall is something of an architectural folly, which is to say that it was intended to be a picturesque building
drawing on the Gothic and Italianate styles for its inspiration, and its stylistic features were exaggerated for their romantic effect.
Had there been a large budget, according to the architectural precepts of the period the building preferably would have been
pure masonry, but it is stucco-covered as a second choice to convey the appearance of a Gothic fortress, and its trim re-created
in wood. At the time it was designed, architectural designers such as Andrew Jackson Downing were recommending Gothic and
Italianate models for rural country houses (and stucco was recommended) and the two styles were appearing in urban settings
for institutional buildings such as churches and schools. Town Hall is a tall, two-story building with a flat roof from whose eaves
are suspended scroll-cut wood barge boards carved in the same pattern as the cornices of many of the neighboring brick
commercial buildings – an Italianate arch and pendant design- -and backed up with paired brackets. Centered on the roof of the
north façade is a low pediment on paired brackets. The north façade is divided into four bays with square piers at the building’s
corners and octagonal towers setting off the center bay. The piers and towers rise above the roofline of the building as high as
tall chimneys and have been capped with crenellated wooden parapets. Without these crenellations, the building would be
largely Italianate in design. The center bay of the north façade is recessed. It has at first story level a main entry flanked by tall
narrow windows and at the second story leading on to a balcony is a centered pair of doors flanked by tall, narrow windows.
Doors and windows have label lintels in a contrasting, painted sandstone. The building is six bays deep, and as it is on a lot that
slopes steeply down to the south, the granite basement is increasingly exposed in that direction.
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 1976: “In 1846, the town voted to build a new town hall, either on the site of the existing hall (near the First
Church and the Courthouse) or on a new lot. In May of 1849, the lot adjoining the Unitarian Church was purchased and a month
later, William Pratt’s plan was adopted in spite of an offer by John Tappan, a Northamptonite, to secure an architect from
Boston, Theodore Voelchers (about whom nothing else is known), to design the building. By March of 1850, the building was
completed and dedicated. The Town Meeting Building Committee Report is in the archives of the Forbes Library; it includes
mention of Pratt’s fee and a list made by the architect of errors which the workmen made in construction. (Pratt did not get the
contract to build the Hall).
Until the construction of Memorial Hall in 1873, the Town Hall served as a lecture hall, this space on the second floor
now being offices. Many socials, dances, and lectures were held in the building. On several occasions, the more advanced
thinkers in town invited speakers like William Lloyd Garrison and found themselves locked out by the more conservative keeper-
of-the-keys.”
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.