81-83 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-67 Easthampton NTH.181
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence
Address: 81-83 Maple Street
Historic Name:
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: ca. 1900
Source: 1902 Sanborn Insurance Map
Style/Form: Late Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: shingles, clapboard
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: fair
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.132 acres
Setting: This is the last house on the east side of
Maple Street near North Main.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [81-83 MAPLE STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.181
___ 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 two-and-a-half story, front-gabled house that is Queen Anne in style. It is three bays wide with a center entry flanked
by two large, fixed-light windows. A full-width porch crosses the west façade. It is supported on heavy turned posts and has
elaborate brackets at the eaves in an arrow pattern. Its railing has square balusters. The porch is stacked with a single-bay
wide second story porch that has solid railings, shortened posts and brackets with scrolled heart pattern. It leads to a center
door at each side of which is a paired window with 1/1 sash. Above the second story porch in the gable field is a paired window
with 16/16 sash in each of its windows. The building is three bays deep and has a shed roof ell on the rear with its own entry on
the south elevation reached by a small porch on posts. The siding of the house is pure Queen Anne. It is clapboard-sided on
the first and second stories with belt courses dividing the stories. In the gable field are patterned shingles, diamond above
scalloped, followed by a row of vertical siding. The shingles, beltcourses and vertical siding were often used in the Stick Style,
which preceded the Queen Anne, so this house does give differing evidence of its construction date.
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: “This large house first appears on the 1895 Atlas as part of the Florence Hotel property. By the early
1920’s, it had become a double residence.” It is possible that what was recorded in 1980 is correct, but a comparison between
the 1895 atlas and the 1902 Sanborn Insurance map shows that the façade of this house was parallel to the street and the
earlier building was not. More likely, this was a new building ca. 1902 purpose-built as a two-family. The style of the house with
its stacked porch and two first floor large fixed light windows – “picture windows” – lend weight to the later date of the house.
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.