60 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
24C-71 Easthampton NTH.286
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 60 Massasoit Street
Historic Name: Walter and Mary Cole House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1889-1895
Source: Registry of Deeds and Atlas
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates): Porch enclosed, chimney
added, n.d.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.364 acres
Setting: This house faces east on a late 19th early 20th
century residential street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [60 MASSASOIT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.286
_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 a two-and-a-half story Queen Anne style house that is gable and wing in form. The front-gabled section is one bay wide
with an angled bay window at its first floor level. The wing section formerly had a wrap around porch that has been enclosed and
the roof of the wing extends in one section to porch roof level, and on it is a triangular dormer with a pointed window in its field.
There are identical shaped chimneys on the gable and wing sections of the house. Typical of a Queen Anne style house, the
siding has been applied to gain maximum visual interest. Broad beltcourses divide the clapboards of the first and second stories
and there are shingles in the front gable field. The second story window is a replacement. The angled bay window has a
paneled base and two narrow stringcourses run above and below the windows. The enclosed porch has a clapboard-sided
chimney rising from its roof.
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: “Massasoit Street was opened in 1869 through a subdivision plan filed by Henry Maynard. Development
was slow and by 1884, only a dozen houses had been constructed. However, the next decade witnessed the bulk of
construction and by 1895 most of the present residences had been built.
In 1889, Mary and Walter Cole purchased this lot for $400 and by 1895, this house had been built.”
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. 445-P. 73, 274-7
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [60 MASSASOIT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.286
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 Cole 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 Cole House is a fair 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.