3 Maple 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
23A-287 Easthampton NTH.2521
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence
Address: 3 Maple Street
Historic Name: Williston Mill Boarding House
Uses: Present: multi-family house
Original: multi-family house
Date of Construction: ca. 1852
Source: Directories
Style/Form: Greek Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: granite
Wall/Trim: vinyl
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
garage
Major Alterations (with dates): vinyl siding and
replacement windows added, ca. 2005; window opened as
door, ca. 1980.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.728 acres
Setting: Building faces north towards a small green.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [3 MAPLE STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2521
_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.
One of several former boarding houses in Florence, this building has maintained much of its original form. It is a two-and-a-half
story hipped roof building five bays wide and three bays deep. It has one front hipped dormer on its north façade and two
interior chimneys. It has a two story porch on posts on the façade. The building has had vinyl siding applied and its windows
replaced with vinyl 1/1 sash, so has lost much of its original appearance but remaining is its wide Greek Revival style center
entry that is recessed, has sidelights, and a five-light transom.
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.
This boarding house was built ca. 1852 in Florence after the utopian community, the Northampton Association for Education and
Industry had folded and the Association’s mill had become the Williston Mill. When the Northampton Association was forced to
close there was a final effort to make it economically self-sufficient and that was in 1845 when two of the Association’s members,
Samuel Williston and George W. Benson, tried to make a stronger business by buying up the mill. This boarding house was
constructed to serve that mill. By 1860 it was identified on the atlas as a boarding house, but its affiliation with either of the two
remaining mills, the Nonotuck Silk Mill and the Parsons Silk Mill was not identified. By 1873 the boarding house has become
part of the Greenville Manufacturing Company that had taken over a portion of the Nonotuck Silk Mills and had begun producing
cotton. In 1884 A. L. Williston had bought up the Greenville Manufacturing Company properties, including the boarding house
and the houses along Nonotuck Street, and the Nonotuck Silk Company had taken over the Greenville mills. A. L. Williston still
owned the boardinghouse in 1895.
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] [3 MAPLE STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.2521
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 Nonotuck Mill Historic District for the industry that occupied the site on the Mill
River throughout much of the 19th century and included a dam, mills, housing and a boarding house for its workers.
Several properties not yet inventoried would contribute to the potential district as well. The association of many of
the mill owners and workers with the Northampton Associations for Education and Industry and the Abolition
Movement provide a secondary history context for the district.
Architecturally the buildings in this potential historic district represent the mid-to late 19th century revival styles and
the common forms constructed for boarding houses, superintendents’ houses, single-family workers’ house and a
textile mill.