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89-93 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, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 17C-213 Easthampton NTH.110 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 89-93 Main Street Historic Name: Nelson Davis Block Uses: Present: Commercial Original: industrial Date of Construction: 1860 Source: 1884 Atlas of Northampton Style/Form: utilitarian Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick, concrete Wall/Trim: brick Roof: asphalt, slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Storefront added, pre-1975 and extended post-1975. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.379 acres Setting: This building faces south in the center of the commercial district of Florence. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [91 MAIN STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.110 __x_ 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 Davis Block is a three-and-a-half story brick building with a front-gable roof ornamented with an elaborate wooden cornice. It has a two-and-a-half-story wing, three bays wide behind an open porch on posts at its northwest corner. Changing brick and mortar quality indicate that the third story was an addition to the building prior to 1902 for use, according to the Sanborn Insurance maps, as a public meeting hall. The building is five bays wide and at the first story on the south façade, a one-story commercial space has been constructed and extended through the second half of the 19th and early 20th century as a storefront and a center entrance to the upper stories of the main block. The main block of the building has segmentally arched windows that have brownstone arched lintels on the first and second stories but brick lintels on the third story and round arched windows in the gable field with brick lintels. Sash in the building is 6/6. The wing has a fine corbelled lintel and its first story windows are almost full-length. 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: “In the mid-nineteenth century, the Nelson Davis Block served a vital function to the central commercial district of Florence. Its ground floor contained two specialty stores; a drugstore and a newspaper shop. It was here that local citizens would come for a soda or such and discuss pertinent affairs of the village. It still retains this distinctive capacity in the community: a feature becoming a thing of the past for many downtown districts. It was Nelson Davis, a druggist, who established the block and was a leading businessman/entrepreneur in nineteenth century Florence.” In 1902 there was a drug store in the left half of the building, and a printing company in the right and a dwelling in the wing. The third story was a hall. Uses changed with the building being used as a two-family residence by 1930. 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. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [91 MAIN STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.110 National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form Check all that apply: Individually eligible Eligible only in an historic district Contributing to a potential historic district Potential historic district Criteria: A B C D Criteria Considerations: A B C D E F G Statement of Significance by _____Bonnie Parsons___________________ The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here. This property would contribute to a Florence Center Historic District. The potential historic district of Florence Center is significant as the commercial, residential, institutional center of the village that developed from 1657 when it was set off as Northampton’s “Inner Commons” as agricultural land and 1681 when the first sawmill was erected at a falls on the Mill River. The agricultural and industrial village developed through the 18th and 19th centuries around industry on the Mill River, agriculture on the alluvial flood plain and the Strong Tavern and later Cottage Hotel at the intersection of Main and Maple Streets. It is significant for the silk industry that flourished through the Civil war as an alternative to slave-picked cotton and for the establishment of the Northampton Association for Education and Industry, a utopian community that existed 1843-1847. Association members after its close continued in Florence their principles of equality by running the Underground Railroad through the village and harboring fugitive slaves. It is significant as the home of Sojourner Truth. 19th century industry in the Center included the Florence Sewing Machine Company, which built its own housing. Architecturally the Center is significant for the range of Gothic Revival, Italianate, Stick Style, French Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival style homes, for its commercial blocks and library in the Revival styles of the late 19th century. Gothic Revival and Italianate style churches are architect-designed in high style versions. The potential district has integrity of workmanship, design, feeling, association, and materials.