99 Main Street (2)
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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): January, 2011
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
32A-134 Easthampton NTH.855
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center
Address: 99 Main Street
Historic Name: Hampshire County Courthouse
Uses: Present: Courthouse
Original: Courthouse
Date of Construction: 1884-1886
Source: Gazette: 3/23/1886. 5/4/1887, 12/20/1887
Style/Form: Romanesque Revival
Architect/Builder: Henry F. Kilburn, architect, New
York Exterior Material:
Foundation: granite
Wall/Trim: granite, brownstone
Roof: slate, tile, copper
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Ell added ca. 1980
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 1.021 acres
Setting: This large building occupies a corner lot in
downtown Northampton at its principal intersection. It is set
back on the lot and surrounded by a wrought iron fence.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [99 MAIN STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.855
___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
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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 Courthouse is a Romanesque Revival style building three and a half stories in height under a front-gabled roof that has
hipped roof cross-gable wings at all four corners of the building. Centered on the south façade is a five-story square tower under
a steeply pitched pyramidal roof with corner turrets. The tower is crossed at second story, or piano nobile level, by a porch with
Romanesque arched openings. The porch is reached by a broad granite stoop. The building is constructed of randomly
coursed, rough-faced granite with brownstone trim. The round-arched windows of the second and third stories have brownstone
archivolt surrounds that are keyed into the adjacent granite. There is a brownstone stringcourse between first and second
stories, a brownstone beltcourse between second and third stories and stringcourses at the level of sills and lintel springings at
second and third stories. Brownstone appears in the center tower at the upper level where arcaded openings extend between
the turret walls. On the south façade of the tower at third and fourth story levels is a staircase window arched in shape, with a
brownstone archivolt surround that is again keyed into the adjacent granite, similarly to the windows. Hipped roof and
pedimented dormers of copper punctuate the roof. This is one of the largest buildings in downtown Northampton and adds
significantly to its stylistic diversity.
The courthouse has on its north elevation a second-story level glass and metal enclosed bridge that connects the main building
to a large section of the building that fronts at 15 Gothic Street. A three-story, cement block tower connects to a Colonial Revival
style ell of two stories nine bays long, that, in turn, attaches to a second cement block ell of two stories.
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 first courthouse was built on this site in 1739. Court sessions were held here alternating every other
year with Springfield, then part of Hampshire County. The building was replaced in 1767 by a courthouse on the west portion of
the lot. In 1786, Shay’s Rebellion saw its first action here when armed countrymen prevented the court from convening and
passing further pay-or-jail judgments. A new house designed by Isaac Damon was erected on the site in 1822 and was leveled
by fire in 1886. (There was discussion of a new courthouse in 1876, at which time local architect W. F. Pratt drew plans for an
addition.) The Paul Revere bell was saved and transferred to the present courthouse and is now displayed on the second floor.”
Henry F. Kilburn, was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts in 1844. He served in the Civil War and then settled in Northampton to
study and to practice architecture. He remained only a few years, then moved to New York where he remained for the rest of his
life. He died there in 1905. Kilburn was in 1896 elected to the New York Chapter of the AIA, was a member of the Architectural
League of New York and was elected a Fellow of the AIA in 1889. Kilburn specialized in church architecture in New York but
was also active designing residences, stables, hotels and more.
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.