11 Massasoit 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
31A-005-001 Easthampton NTH.450
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 11 Massasoit Street
Historic Name: Catherine Brown House
Uses: Present: Two-family house
Original: Single-family house
Date of Construction: 1888-1891
Source: Registry of Deeds
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good-fair
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.138 acres
Setting: This is a west-facing house on a built-up
residential street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [11 Massasoit Street]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.450
__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.
This is the least altered of four identical Queen Anne style houses on Massasoit Street. It is two-and-a-half stories in height with
a front-gable roof and cross-gable wings on both north and south as well as a two-and-a-half story ell on the east. The slate-
covered roof is steeply pitched and on it is a shaped chimney. In the angle between the main block of the house and the sout h
wing is an angled porch on turned posts. It has a spindle frieze and a turned baluster railing and it is through the porch that one
enters the house. To add interior volume to the main block of the house there is a one-story bay window on the west façade.
The bay window has a hipped roof supported on brackets and a pediment centered on its roof. It has a large fixed-light window
on the west side with multi-light Queen Anne style transoms. Sash elsewhere is 1/1 excepting the first floor window of the north
wing, which is a large, fixed-light window that is found on its identical neighboring house at #9 Massasoit, suggesting that it is
original. The first story of the house is clapboard sided and the second story is wood shingle sided. There is a jetty between
stories and beneath the jetty is a band of incised floral ornament in the Eastlake style. This very distinctive band identifies the
other identical buildings as well. Windows on the second story have shallow, shingled hoods above lintels with Eastlake
pendant ornaments.
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 the Form B of 1980, “In 1888 Oren Smith bought the rear part of the Wood homestead on Elm Street. This homestead
was bounded westerly by Massasoit Street, which had been opened in 1869, and northerly by Arlington Street. By 1895 six
houses had been built, all two stories in height and L-shaped. Variety is provided through different projections and trim detailing.
In 1891 Mr. Smith sold this house and lot to Catherine Brown.”
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.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [11 Massasoit Street]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.450
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 Brown House would contribute to a potential historic district that extends north of Northampton’s primary
corridor, Elm Street, encircling and encompassing the primary feature of that landscape, Round Hill. The potential
historic district is significant for its 19th century development from a few gentlemen’s farms to a neighborhood dense
with the homes of its most prominent residents and educational institutions that shaped the character of Northampton
for several hundred years to the present.
Architecturally the potential historic district is significant for the mix of high style late Gothic Revival, Italianate, and
Queen Anne style houses, the Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival styles of the 20th century that were often architect-
designed by the region’s most well-known designers. The Brown House is a good example of the Queen Anne style
and would contribute to the historic district. This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling,
setting, design and materials.