26 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
32A-145 Easthampton NTH.2269
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center
Address: 26 Main Street
Historic Name: Mathewson Building
Uses: Present: commercial space and 2 residences
Original: commercial
Date of Construction: 1868
Source: Hampshire Gazette
Style/Form: Italianate
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: not visible
Wall/Trim: brick/brownstone
Roof: not visible
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Windows replaced and storefront altered, 1970-2000.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.044 acres
Setting: This building faces north on to Northampton’s
main commercial street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [22 Main Street]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2269
___ 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 Mathewson Building is a four-story brick building like its neighbor at 22 Main Street, but its proportions are so much smaller
that it appears to be fewer stories in height. It is modestly Italianate in style with a nicely corbelled cornice laid in an arched
pattern. It is three bays wide and windows in the bays on the second through fourth stories have 1/1 sash except for the center
bays on the third and fourth stories where there is a pair of windows with 1/1 sash in each. Windows have straight brownstone
sills and lintels, and there is a brownstone lintel across the top of the first story above the single storefront. Entry to the upper
stories is in the easternmost bay of the first story. It has a simple architrave surround and is recessed below a two-light transom.
The commercial storefront of metal and glass is a late 20th century alteration, but its framing remains: painted brownstone piers
at each end.
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 brick blocks lining the main street of Northampton between Pleasant Street and Strong Avenue are
the earliest brick commercial structures in Northampton. In 1865, the block known as the Union Block was built at the corner of
Main and Pleasant Streets. (This block collapsed in 1914 and was replaced by the 1915 Sherwin Block.) The Dickinson Block
was erected in the summer of 1867; the small building one bay wide was erected between the Dickinson Block and the Lee &
Hussey (1865) block the same year. To the east of the Dickinson Block, the Mathewson Block was erected in 1868 and a
second modest block the same year.”
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.