32 Masonic 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, 2011
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
31D-120 Easthampton NTH.768
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 32 Masonic Street
Historic Name: E. N. Foote Button Shop
Uses: Present: Commercial
Original: Factory
Date of Construction: ca. 1880
Source: Quarter-Centennial County Journal, 1887
Style/Form: utilitarian
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick
Roof: asphalt
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Entries added on south elevation, ca. 1990.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.293 acres
Setting: This building is located in a commercial center of
Northampton. It faces east.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [32 MASONIC STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.768
___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
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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 Foote Button shop is representative of industrial architecture of the late 19th century. It is brick in construction beneath a
shallow, front-gabled roof. The building is three stories in height above a high basement whose windows let light into that space
as well as the upper floors to increase manufacturing space. The building is four bays wide on the east façade and sixteen bays
long and windows are segmentally arched with 6/6 wood sash. Entries have been added to the south elevation but the building
has been minimally altered.
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 1975: “The Foote Button concern began the manufacture of buttons in 1878 on Pleasant Street in Northampton.
In 1884, the building on Masonic Street was built near the town fire department. A variety of high quality buttons were produced
by the Foote Button Company; two concerns in Providence, Rhode Island, were the company’s only competitors in the 1880’s.
The upper floors of the building were leased to the Boston Cash Register Company in 1891, when the button concern
folded. A bicycle factory later took possession of the building.”
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.