63 Maple 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
23A-61 Easthampton NTH.180
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence
Address: 63 Maple Street
Historic Name: Joel Abercrombie House
Uses: Present: Two-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1864-1866
Source: Registry of Deeds
Style/Form: gable-and-wing form
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.286 acres
Setting: This house faces west and has on its east a
medical building.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [63 MAPLE STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.180
___ 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.
This is a one-and-a-half story house with a front-gable roof, and a wing on its south that is also one-and-a-half stories in height
under a side-gable roof. Roof eaves are widely overhanging. The building has apparently lost some of its stylistic trim but it
does retain full length first floor windows in the gable section. Likely, it was Italianate in style when it was first constructed. The
wing has a shed roof dormer on its roof. It is four bays wide and one bay deep and it has an ell on its east elevation of one
story. Both the doors of the gable and wing sections have metal hoods that were popular at the mid-20th century. Sash in the
first floor windows is 6/9 and elsewhere it is 6/1.
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 1980: “In 1864, Joel Abercrombie bought a lot of land for $250 from Hiram Stebbins. Two years later, he sold
this lot ‘with building’ for $2000 and a $700 mortgage. Mr. Abercrombie founded the Florence Hotel in the late 1850’s and
managed it for a number of years.”
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. 407- P. 251, 374-351, 236-87, 220-177