48 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
Please see attached continuation sheet.
Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons
Organization: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
Date (month / year): March, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
22B-014-001 Easthampton NTH.2527
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence
Address: 48 Meadow Street
Historic Name: Austin and Sarah Shearn House
Uses: Present: two-family house
Original: single-family house
Date of Construction: 1860-1870
Source: atlases of 1860 and 1870.
Style/Form: side-hall entry form
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: parged
Wall/Trim: wood shingles
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: carriage barn
Major Alterations (with dates):
Windows replaced, ca. 2000.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.67 acres
Setting: Set on a small rise above the Mill River, this is a
north-facing house shaded by large maple trees.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON [48 MEADOW STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2527
___ 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 one-and-a-half story house under a front-gabled roof. The main block of the house is three bays wide and three bays
deep and there is a transverse gable bay on the east and a one-story ell on the south. On the west elevation are two, through-
cornice dormers, one of which had been opened as a door leading to an exterior circular metal staircase. Beneath the second
dormer at the first floor is a three-sided bay window. The house has 1/1 replacement sash, wood shingle exterior and interior
chimney with a decorative pot. South of the house is a large carriage barn. This house is typical of the size and modest detail of
many of the houses in Florence.
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.
This house first appears on the map of 1873 occupied by Austin and Sarah Shearn, English immigrants who were farming in
Florence. They had a young son Charles. By 1884 the Shearns had moved on and the house was owned by Kate and Edward
T. Barrett and their son Edward Jr., Edward Sr.’s father John Barrett, and two boarders who worked in the silk mill, one from
Ireland and one from Hadley. Edward was a sewing machine dealer. The shift from the Shearns who were farming to the
Barretts and their boarders who worked in local Florence industry is typical of the period between the 1870s and 80s when
industry grew and Florence became a more suburban than rural village. By 1895 Edward T. Barrett had left the sewing machine
business and he and James O’Brien had formed a company to sell real estate and insurance. Edward was a justice of the
peace for Florence at that time. By 1902 the Barretts had moved to Forbes Avenue. One of the next occupants of the house
was a daughter of nearby farmer and landowner Austin Ross. Street numbers changed between 1902 and 1926 and it would
appear that by 1930 two families were living in the house: Edward J. and Theresa Anderson and George and Grace Grant.
Edward worked as a painter at the Veterans Administration Hospital and George worked at Propper McCallum Hosiery
Company. George and Grace had moved to 61 Meadow Street by 1940 and in 1950 there were three families living here W. E.
and Norma Wagner, Jr.; Anthony and Elizabeth Ferrante, and J. Al and Hazel Doppman. Wagner worked as a machine
operator at the International Silver Company; Ferrante worked as a carpenter; and Doppman worked as foreman of maintenance
at Prophylactic Brush. The Ferrantes shared the house in 1960 with Edward J. and Anita Foley. Edward was a custodian.
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.
Sheffeld, Charles. The History of Florence, Florence, 1895.
U.S. Federal censuses and Massachusetts Directories 1860-1900.
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 [48 MEADOW STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.2527