123 Meadow 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
22B-66 Easthampton NTH.153
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence
Address: 123 Meadow Street
Historic Name: Ross Farm
Uses: Present: Three-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: ca. 1800
Source: National Register nomination
Style/Form: Federal
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: stone
Wall/Trim: clapboard
Roof: slate, asphalt
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Three barns
Major Alterations (with dates): Porch added, ca. 1910.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 2.25 acres
Setting: This house faces south at the edge of a
large field.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [123 MEADOW STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.153
___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. This property is already on 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 substantial Federal style house that is a two-and-a-half story house with a side–gable roof and a center chimney. It is
only three bays wide and has its entry in the easternmost bay while the two adjacent windows are not evenly spaced from the
entry, but have been slightly paired, a practice that was generally limited to the late 18th-early 19th century. The entry is tall and
narrow and has slender pilasters supporting a full entablature that is topped by a pediment. The pediment has a recessed
tympanum. Sash in the windows is 6/6 but in the western gable at the attic level the sash is 12/12. The main block of the house
is the equivalent of four bays deep and attached to it is a two-story ell on the north, a one-story enclosed porch on the west, a
one-story wing on the east and connecting the main block and the east wing is an open porch on posts. This is the only house
of its kind remaining in Northampton and as a farmstead it has considerable architectural significance. East of the house are
three barns, a large New England style barn and a slightly smaller eaves-front barn that appears from its fenestration to have at
one time served as a poultry barn, and a second New England style barn north of the house.
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 1974: “This property is interwoven with the early history of Florence and has been of importance in later years.
The farm includes the first tract of land granted to one of the original proprietors of Northampton within the territory now known
as Florence. In 1657, John Broughton received the grant of a tract of this meadowland. Although it remained in Broughton’s
possession only 18 years, the name persisted and it was known as Broughton’s Meadow for nearly 200 years.
In 1675, Broughton sold his grant to Joseph Parsons, probably Cornet Joseph Parsons, who built he house on Bridge
Street, not the Northampton Historical Society, for Cornet Parson’s son, Samuel Parsons, was one of four men granted a permit
in 1861 to erect a saw mill near Broughton Meadow, and the site chosen was near the silk mill dam.
In 1798, Gaius Burt of Northampton moved to Broughton’s Meadow and bought 30 acres. He built a house a few rods
east of the present homestead which was built about 1830 by his son, Theodore Burt.
In 1835, the property was purchased by Samuel Whitmarsh, pioneer in the silk culture here. He planted 15 acres of this
meadow land to choice cutting of mulberry trees. The collapse of the mulberry craze in the late 30’s threw the property on the
market. The property was bought by Samuel Hill, Joseph Conant, William Coe, and George Benson, the projected Northampton
Association of Education and Industry. After this had been given up, the land was bought by Austin Ross and operated by
different tenants when it was purchased by Henry W. Marsh of Hatfield. It was purchased by the Blauvelts in 1927.”
This history has misconstrued the date of the house’s construction. Further research has determined it has a ca. 1800 date.
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.