32-40 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-143, 32A-
144
Easthampton NTH.2268
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 32-40 Main Street
Historic Name: Dickinson Block
Uses: Present: Commercial/residential
Original: Commercial/residential
Date of Construction: 1867
Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette
Style/Form: Italianate
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: not visible
Wall/Trim: brick/brownstone/wood
Roof: not visible
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Entry surround added, ca. 2000; storefronts remodeled, ca.
2005.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.042 acres
Setting: This large building occupies the center of the
block, facing north.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [32-35 Main Street]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2268
___ 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 Italianate style Dickinson Building is a three-story, red brick building with brownstone trim. It has a flat roof with a centered
pediment rising above the roofline on the façade. The building is five bays wide with brick piers separating the outer two bays
and a center pavilion of one bay. The piers rise to an elaborate cornice of corbelled brick laid in a pattern of arches and
pendants, and continues across the center pediment as at it raking eaves. Ornamental stringcourses are also laid in patterns at
the window sill levels of the second and third stories. As at the neighboring building at 16 Main Street, the Crafts and Dawson
Block, windows on the second story have segmentally arched brownstone lintels and footed brownstone sills, while the third
story windows have arched brownstone lintels and footed brownstone sills. Sash at the second story is 2/2 and on the third
story it is 1/1. On the first story level rusticated brownstone piers supporting a brownstone lintel frame the two storefronts that
flank the center entrance to the upper floors. These storefronts follow the original intentions for the building even though their
wooden framework has been replaced. They have recessed entries between two glass display bays and rest on original
paneled wood bases. The center entry to the upper stories has a recently constructed wood, trabeated surround with an arched
opening and a pent roof.
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. W.F. Pratt was the architect of the now destroyed Union Block and of the Lee & Hussey
Block and possibly of Dickinson Block (Although Pratt is never mentioned in connection with the building, it is similar in some
features to the Rust’s Block of 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.