Loading...
31-35 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): February, 2011 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 23A-55 Easthampton NTH.176 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 31-35 Maple Street Historic Name: Samuel L. Hill House Uses: Present: multi-family house Original: single-family house Date of Construction: 1840s Source: 1845 deed Style/Form: Gothic Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: slate and metal Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Carriage barn converted to housing Major Alterations (with dates): Conversion of carriage barn to housing, n.d. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.739 acres Setting: This house is set back from the street in alignment with its neighbors. It is on a tree-shaded lot. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [31 MAPLE STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.176 __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 Samuel Hill House is unique in Northampton. It is a Gothic Revival style house, probably architect-designed. It is two-and- a-half stories under a side-gable roof with two, shaped chimneys on its ridge. There are three steeply-pitched cross-gables on the west side of the roof asymmetrically placed. Beneath each cross gable is a two-story, angled, five-window bays, the upper bay being smaller in size than the lower bay. The bays have metal-covered roofs that are engaged, polygonal Gothic spires. Between the cross-gables on the roof are front-gabled dormers with pointed upper sash windows. The west façade is five bays wide and it has two entries of unequal size placed between the bay windows. The entries have porticoes that are supported on square posts with shaped brackets at the eaves. On the north elevation is a full-width porch under a hipped roof that extends across the two bays of the main block and extends to the two-story ell on the east side of the building. This is a highly elaborate porch with clustered posts connected by arches and ornamented with spindles and quatrefoils in its frieze above turned baluster railings. Window sash in the house is 2/2 and 4/4. On the east side of the house is a two-story Gothic Revival carriage barn that has been converted to housing. 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 1976: “’On the list of the founders and builders of Florence, the name of Samuel L. Hill must, by general consent, stand highest,’ so begins the preface of the biographical section of the History of Florence. S. L. Hill moved to Florence in 1841 at the age of 35, and remained here until his death in 1882. Originally from Rhode Island, and by trade a carpenter, he had moved c. 1830 to Willimantic, Connecticut, where he worked as an overseer in a cotton factory. He rose to superintendent and then to manager. It was in Willimantic that be ‘became prominent in church and village work and did much to encourage his associates and workmen to lead better and purer lives.’ After moving to Florence, he helped organize the Northampton Association of Education and Industry (NAEI), also known as the Florence Community. The NAEI ‘was a co-operative colony emphasizing tolerance in religious attitudes and equitable economic and social relationships.’ This utopian experiment was similar to the more well-known Hopedale and Brook Farm. NAEI purchased the estate of the defunct Northampton Silk Co. in September of 1841. These 300 acres contained the water privilege and surrounding intervale that had supported a silk manufactory, which was powered through its dam and canal, 100 acres of mulberry trees, and a boarding house. The Community continued in the silk business and built another boarding house. S. L. Hill served as treasurer of the Community from its organization in April 1842 until its dissolution in November 1846. At the demise of the Community, S. L. Hill and his brother-in-law, Edwin Eaton, purchased most of the flat table-land that forms the center of Florence south of Main Street. This land was sold off as lots to persons willing to establish homesteads. Park, Pine, Maple and West Center Streets were settled in this manner. Hill also continued the silk business, which after some initial financial problems, was incorporated as the Nonotuck Silk Company in 1866. Samuel Hinckley, a wealthy resident of Northampton and Hill’s financial backer, was president of the company and Hill served as manager and treasurer. The business steadily increased and new buildings were erected in Florence and Leeds in Northampton, and in the Haydenville section of Williamsburg. Their trade name was ‘Corticelli’ and the company became known throughout the U.S. for ‘spool silk, machine twist, crochet, knitting, lace and filo silk, buttonhole twist, etc.’ Hill joined in with other local businessmen in organizing and investing in several other local industries. These include: Florence Manufacturing Co. (later known as Pro Brush), Florence Sewing Machine Co., Northampton Emery Wheel Co, and the Florence Furniture Co. S. L. Hill continued his community involvement in the post-NAEI period in Florence. He continued the Community store, running it alone until 1850 when Isaac Parsons was brought in as a partner; financed the building of a new school house for the area; kept a station on the underground railroad; contributed greatly to the building of Cosmian Hall, Florence’s main public building; and established, as well as endowed, the Florence Kindergarten (also known as the Hill Institute). The kindergarten, INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [31 MAPLE STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.176 built in 1876, was one of the pioneer institutions of its kind in the country, and was probably the only endowed kindergarten in the country until Mrs. Leland Stanford endowed six kindergartens in San Francisco in 1891. Arthur G. Hill, S. L. Hill’s son, followed his father’s footsteps as one of Florence’s leading citizens and lived at this address until the 1920’s. A. G. Hill helped found the Florence Tack Company in 1874, served as president of the Florence Furniture Company in the 1890’s, was co-founder of the Martin and Cash Carrier Co., and served as Northampton’s second mayor in 1887-1888. The S. L. Hill House was probably built in the early 1840’s. Hill’s ‘house on Maple Street’ is mentioned in an 1845 deed.” From the Form B of 83 Pine Street of 1976, “He is also noted for the operation of an Underground Railroad station, aiding and abetting the safe transport of slaves from one destination to another.” As Eugene C. Gardner, Springfield architect, designed the Nonotuck Silk Mill building in Leeds, it is possible that he also designed this house, which might be further researched. 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. Registry of Deeds: Bk. 116-P. 360, 114-377, 92-270 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [31 MAPLE STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 NTH.176 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. The Samuel Hill House would contribute to a potential Florence Center Historic District and would be eligible as an individual listing for the work of Samuel Hill in founding the Northampton Association for Education and Industry, a utopian community. He was also a significant member of the Florence community working to establish the Hill Institute, taking part in government, organizing and funding businesses and developing its streets. This house would also qualify for the National Register as part of a multiple resource listing for the Underground Railroad as Mr. Hill was a conductor carrying fugitive slaves through Florence on their way to Canada. This house is architecturally significant as a fine example of the late Gothic Revival style.