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17 and 25 New South Street, (formerly Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. 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, 2011 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 31D-99 Easthampton NTH.762 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center Address: 17 and 25 New South Street, (formerly 290 Main Street) Historic Name: D. A. Sullivan School Uses: Present: commercial/residential Original: high school Date of Construction: 1895 Source: Hampshire Gazette, 3/20/1895 and integral date block Style/Form: Classical Revival Architect/Builder: Gardner, Pyne & Gardner Exterior Material: Foundation: granite Wall/Trim: brick, terra cotta, brownstone, granite Roof: not visible Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): South addition, 1913. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 2.902 acres Setting: This building occupies a corner lot in Northampton Center. It shares the lot with 35 New South Street. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [290 MAIN STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.762 ___ 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 Classical Revival building is in three large sections, a north section, a north ell, a connector and a south section. The north section, the main block of the former high school is two stories in height under a flat roof. It is yellow brick with trim in granite and terra cotta. The north façade of the building is eleven bays long with four arched windows and a secondary arched entry at each side of a main center entry. At the second floor level the center bay consists of a Palladian window composition with terra cotta spandrels carved in a floral design. The bays of the façade at both first and second stories are divided by classical brick pilasters with contrasting terra cotta bases and Corinthian capitals. A granite watertable and stringcourse between the first and second stories encircle the building. Windows on the first story have paired 1/1 sash in their arched openings below fanlights. They are paired beneath connecting archivolts of yellow brick with terra cotta moldings that spring from terra cotta putti. Where the windows are single, they have individual archivolts with terra cotta molding again outlining the yellow brick. The east and west elevations of the building are mirror images of each other with three arched windows followed by a bay with a ground level fan-lit doorway below a story-and-a-half high stair window, and two addition arched window bays. The roof has a projecting cornice above a classical yellow brick entablature made up of a frieze and an architrave. Next south is the north ell, a two story yellow brick ell that is four bays long and has segmentally arched windows, the continuous watertable, granite and terra cotta stringcourse and roof cornice with full entablature. It is six bays deep. Between the ell and the annex is the connector, which is two stories in height and also made up of yellow brick with granite and terra cotta trim. The watertable that encircles the building is carved with important dates in history and continues across the connector and around the annex, the second section of the building that is on the south. Windows in the ell, the connector and in the annex are segmentally arched and without archivolt surrounds yet they continue to be in a simplified Classical Revival style. The annex is two stories in height above a high basement that is revealed almost as a full story due to the slope of the land, and accords architecturally with the main north building in materials, trim, and modified Classical Revival style. The Sullivan School building is one of the finest in Northampton Center and together with the Academy Building to its east, the former Baptist Church and Smith College’s campus to the west, makes up much of the fine architectural character of the City. 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: “This high school building was constructed in 1896 from plans by Gardner, Pyne & Gardner of Springfield. The design of Forbush & Hathaway, specialists in school design, was first selected, but as a result of many delays, the school, when built in 1896, followed the plans of the Springfield firm. Gardner, Pyne & Gardner, a Springfield firm consisting of Eugene C. Gardner, his son George, and George Pyne, was formed in 1889. The elder Gardner began his practice in Springfield in 1868 after having designed a number of buildings in Northampton. Other Gardner designs in Northampton include a house on Elm Street (1880) and the Dimock House (1880) and Silk factory (1880) in Leeds. The previous high school building was designed by W. F. Pratt and was the first substantial monument to education in Northampton, where monies has first been appropriated for a high school in 1842. Prior to that time, several private schools had served as the educators of valley youth: George Bancroft’s Round Hill School (1823-1833) and Miss Margaret Dwight’s Gothic Seminary (1834-1853) educated young men and women and gained for themselves national reputations. Several other private schools had a brief flowering in Northampton in the 19th century; women’s preparatory schools in Northampton met with considerable success following the establishment of Smith College in the city in the 1870’s. The public high school was the only course open to many, however, and by the 1890’s, the old school in the Gothic style was no longer adequate. Half a century later, the present high school on upper Elm Street was built and the 1895 building was converted to use as an elementary school.” INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [290 MAIN STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.762 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.