229-233 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-250 Easthampton NTH.2425
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center
Address: 229-233 Main Street
Historic Name:
Uses: Present: Commercial, residential
Original: Commercial
Date of Construction: 1885
Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette
Style/Form: Queen Anne/Panel Brick
Architect/Builder: William Fenno Pratt
Exterior Material:
Foundation: not visible
Wall/Trim: brick/brownstone
Roof: not visible
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Storefronts altered multiple times, windows replaced ca.
1980
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.056 acres
Setting:
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [229-233 Main Street]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2425
___ 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 four story building whose upper three stories are identical to its neighboring building at 235-239 Main Street, although
this building has been painted. The two building’s upper three stories are divided by piers into three bays with three windows in
the outer bays and a single window in the center bay. The windows are arched at all three stories with arched brownstone lintels
and brownstone sills. Their sash is replacement 1/1 beneath a fixed-light, arched transom. The piers dividing the three bays
rise to a decorative cornice that is corbelled into panels of angled soldier bricks. Beneath the cornice is a decorative row of
yellow corbelled bricks. The yellow bricks appear again as stringcourses running beneath the transom lights of the windows
across the façade at all three upper stories. Stylistically this building may be seen as a modest Queen Anne, which in masonry
is referred to as Panel Brick as brickwork enriches its picturesque qualities.
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 covering 235-239 as well as 225-233 Main Street: “This four story brick block [235-239] on upper Main
Street was built in 1890 and replaced a wooden structure about twenty years old. The block is the first brick structure to be built
on the site. C.S. Crouch, a merchant, built the first substantial building, a four story wooden block, on the site in 1870. At that
time, the brick structures to the east [225-233] and west were constructed. Both the adjoining blocks were designed by William
F. Pratt; the name of the architect of the 1890 block has not been determined.”
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.