213-215 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-135 Easthampton NTH.774
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center
Address: 213-215 Main Street
Historic Name: S. G. Dickinson Block
Uses: Present: commercial, residential
Original: commercial
Date of Construction: 1869
Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette, Aug. 24, 1869
Style/Form: Italianate
Architect/Builder: William Fenno Pratt
Exterior Material:
Foundation: not visible
Wall/Trim: brick, brownstone
Roof: not visible
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Several windows replaced, ca. 1970.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.03 acre
Setting: The Dickinson Block faces south in a row of
attached buildings that curves to follow the street line.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [213-227 MAIN STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.774
___ 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.
The Dickinson Block is a small building three stories tall and two bays wide that was built to fill in space in a row of commercial
buildings. Its builder repeated the decorative features of the adjacent building to the west with the same pattern of corbelled
brick cornice, the same window surrounds at second and third stories. The first story is devoted to a single commercial
storefront with recessed entry and two store windows at each side, in this case of unequal size. Its signage frieze has been
extended beyond the space provided for it. Second story windows are segmentally arched with brick lintels and brownstone
footed sills. The third story windows are arched and have arched brick lintels and again footed, brownstone sills. Sash on the
third floor is 2/1 and on the second floor it is 1/1. Largely unaltered, this building represents the standard or moderate Italianate
style commercial building of the 1860s and 70s as it was rendered in masonry.
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: “One of a series of Victorian commercial blocks lining the north side of Main Street. First known as the
Dickinson block, the block was built in 1869 for merchant S.G. Dickinson on part of the old Lyman estate. The adjoining Rust’s
Block was the first of four commercial blocks to be built on the former Lyman property in 1867.”
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.