63-65 Market 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, 2011
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
32A-48 Easthampton NTH.2020
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 63-65 Market Street
Historic Name: Asa Wright House
Uses: Present: Six-family house
Original: Single-family house
Date of Construction: ca. 1760
Source: Registry of Deeds
Style/Form: Georgian
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Stacked porch added, rear ell and side porch added, n.d.
Condition: fair
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.469 acres
Setting: This building faces west in a mixed
commercial/residential neighborhood.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [65 MARKET STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2020
___ 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 Wright House is a fine Georgian style house that has been altered but retains the evidence of its early date in its visible
structure. It is a two-and-a-half story house under a steeply-pitched side-gable roof that has lost its center chimney. In each
gable end are jetties or overhangs that mark its 18th century construction date along with the roof pitch. The house is five bays
wide and its second story windows are set close to the eaves in Georgian fashion. The eaves are clipped on all elevations.
Windows are narrow and tall and contain 6/6 wood sash. After its conversion to a multi-family house a two-story stacked porch
was added to the west façade along with a second story door in the center bay. The house has a two, two-story ells on its
eastern elevation, and in the angle between the main block and the first ell is a side porch on Colonial Revival style Doric
columns suggesting it was added at the same time as the Colonial Revival style stacked porch that is also supported on Doric
columns. One bay of the side porch has been filled in.
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 1976/1980: “This is a Colonial period house which appears to have been built for the Wright family. A deed of
1805 describes this as the homestead of Asa Wright, who had died in 1787. His eldest son, Asa, had taken over the homestead
in the late 1780’s and maintained it until 1808. The house would seem to have been built for either father or the son.
The next owner and occupant was Seth Parsons, who lived here until his death in the early 1830’s. The property,
including two acres of land extending easterly from Market Street to the cemetery, was bought by Silas M. Smith in 1834. Mr.
Smith had come to Northampton in 1828 and engaged in the furniture business, which he continued until his retirement in 1877.
As this area was developed, Mr. Smith sold off over half his homestead for residential lots. By 1861, when he sold the
homestead to David W. Crafts, there was only ¾ of an acre with this property. Mr. Crafts was the superintendent of the local
gasworks, later called the Northampton Gaslight Co. He lived here until about 1870, when he moved to a house in the rear of
the gasworks, on a short street later named Crafts Avenue. Mr. Crafts continued to own the Market Street property, at least until
the end of the 19th century, and it was during this period that the house was subdivided into four tenements.”
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. 200-P. 198, 71-659, 50-103, 27-527, 25-136