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298 Main Street 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-098-001 Easthampton NTH. Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Downtown Northampton Address: 298 Main Street Historic Name: First Baptist Church Uses: Present: vacant/under rehabilitation Original: church Date of Construction: 1903 Source: integral date block Style/Form: Tudor Revival Architect/Builder: M. H. Hubbard, Architect & Builder, Utica, New York Exterior Material: Foundation: brick, concrete Wall/Trim: brick, brownstone, wood Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Ell added on south, ca. 2008 Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.334 acres Setting: This building occupies a lot in a curve in the street and is set on a rise in the landscape. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [298 Main Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH. ___ 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 First Baptist Church built in 1903 is eclectic, but the main stylistic strand that it presents is the Tudor Revival. The building is two stories in height and is constructed of red brick above a dressed stone base. Contrasting stone is also used on the arched lintels above doors and windows. The church’s massing is complex. The building has a steeply pitched hipped roof at its center and radiating from the center section are three towers. The largest tower is on the north façade - a polygonal tower three stories high that projects at an angle. It has a tall spire above its Tudor Revival half-timbered third story. The main entry to the church is located in this tower through a Romanesque Revival arched opening. A square tower at the building’s southeast corner has a pyramidal hipped roof and projecting from it a Romanesque Revival rounded bay window. The third tower is on the northwest corner of the building and it is a square tower under a pyramidal spire. A secondary arched entry is located in this tower. Between the towers on the east and west elevations the hipped roof slopes down to first story level on two small wings of one-and-a-half stories. Maximum spatial complexity has been achieved in minimal space, for the lot on which the church stands is a relatively small one. A two-story ell extension has been added to the south elevation as part of a recent conversion of the building to housing units. 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. The history of the First Baptist church in Northampton began in August, 1822 when the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society sent Benjamin Willard (1783-1862), one of their traveling missionaries, to Northampton, Massachusetts. Willard called on Northampton families and distributed copies of material on the precepts of the Baptist Church in the Baptist Magazine, and stirred enough interest to remain in town. Baptists were not unknown in Northampton in the 1820s as a number of Baptist families were in the West Farms village of Northampton. These families came to Willard’s services, which he held on South Street with the help of Rev. Thomas Rand of West Springfield. By the end of 1823 there were sufficient numbers of families to form the First Baptist Church of Northampton and Benjamin Willard was ordained as its first minister. Within a few months the first baptisms took place. As a winter ceremony, Rev. Willard had to chop through ice to baptize two new members in January of 1824 and the ceremony is recorded as having been watched by a large number (over 2000) of curious Northampton residents. The Church was formally recognized in July, 1826 by the Baptist Association Church Council and Rev. Willard remained its minister for the next 12 years. With Willard’s leadership, in the spring of 1828, the Church purchased property for a meetinghouse on West St. from a Capt. Marshall and contracted with noted Northampton architect and bridge-builder Captain Isaac Damon a few months later to build it. Damon’s meetinghouse was completed between November, 1828 and July, 1829. After Willard’s departure in 1838, subsequent ministers built the church’s mission in varying directions. Rev. Abel Brown was minister from 1840 to 1841, but in that short time organized the first Sabbath School with 25 children. He was followed by Rev. Horace Doolittle who established the church’s Abolitionist position between 1842 and 1845. From then on the Baptist Church was an institutional leader against slavery in Northampton. Doolittle was followed by Rev. Denzel M. Crane who was twice pastor of the church from 1846-1858 and from 1878-1879. Crane is known to have continued the Church’s Abolitionist joined the Free Soil Anti-Slavery political party. Rev. Crane was important in town history as its first Superintendent of Public Schools. It was Rev. Crane who began raising funds for improvements to the meetinghouse but it took a fire in 1863 for renovations to take place and $1,800 were needed to make repairs. In the meantime, Rev. Crane held his services in Town Hall for a year and a half. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [298 Main Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH. In July of 1902, church members decided to build a new church. Four architects submitted designs for the church: Northampton architect Roswell Putnam; Holyoke architect George Alderman; Springfield architect Eugene C. Gardner and Utica, New York architect M. H. Hubbard. Hubbard’s firm was selected as architect and as builder. Rev. John C. Breaker who was pastor from 1899 to 1912 oversaw the construction. After some controversy Baptist Church deacon Orrin E. Livermore was given the job as builder. M. H. Hubbard’s practice appears to have focused on church architecture in New York but also as far away as Florida. This new church was completed in May of 1904. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Hampshire Massachusetts, New York, 1873. Cochran., Eve Owen, Centenary history of the First Baptist Church of Northampton, Mass. 1926. 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. Russell, C. Allyn, History of The First Baptist Church of Northampton, Massachusetts, 1826-1947, 1947. Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884. Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860.