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61 Meadow 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, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 22B-012-001 Easthampton NTH.2528 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 61 Meadow Street Historic Name: Abel and Roxanna Ross House Uses: Present: single-family residence Original: single-family residence Date of Construction: ca. 1840-45 Source: maps of 1830 and 1860 Style/Form: Cape Cod form Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Attached garage Major Alterations (with dates): Bay window inserted ca. 1980; vinyl replacement windows, ca. 2000; garage wing added ca. 1970. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.551 acres Setting: This is a south-facing house on a large wooded lot. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [61 MEADOW STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.2528 ___ 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. Before its many alterations, this was a one-and-a-half story Greek Revival style house, with a center chimney on its side-gable roof. It is a raised Cape in form, a house form that was rather common in Florence as a modest house with additional space at its attic level. The house was five bays wide and two bays deep, but two of the south bays were replaced in the 20th century by a stock bay window and two through-cornice dormers were also added to the south façade. Remaining from its original appearance is a wide Greek Revival frieze beneath its eaves and the fairly wide corner boards. The house has a wing on the east of one-story, followed by a two-bay garage. The wing has flushboard siding that was often used in the Greek Revival style to imitate stone, suggesting it was part of the original construction of the house, possibly as a kitchen wing. It has an entry beneath a porch on posts with three-point arches. The wing is three bays wide with a center entry flanked by windows. The garage has the two vehicle openings, but also two windows and is also preceded by the porch on posts with three-point arches. The arcaded porch is a later Colonial Revival addition meant to unite the kitchen wing and added garage. 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. Meadow Street was in place and Burrs Bridge had been constructed to cross the Mill River by 1831, but this house had not yet been built. It was built between 1840 and 1845 by Abel and Roxanna Ross who had come to Florence to join their son Austin and his wife Fidelia. The latter couple had moved to Florence to become members of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, a utopian community. Abel and Roxanna are not listed as having become members of the community and in 1860, after the closing of the community, they were living here still and farming. Two houses west of the Mill River on Meadow Street were owned by Austin and Fidelia Ross. Abel and Roxanna Ross, Austin and Fidelia Ross first appear in the U.S. Census of 1850 in Northampton in two separate households on what appears to have been their farms on Meadow Street. Both generations were farming and all of the family members had been born in Connecticut. In 1860 Abel and Roxanna were in their 60s and owned their farm evaluated at $2000. Their son Austin Ross, his wife Fidelia, and their children Edson, Dwight, and Martha Jane lived on the more highly valued farm ($3500) west of the river. One of the two houses they owned became community housing for Association members. It was in their home that Austin and Fidelia hid an escaped slave named Wilson for about 18 months. By 1873 Abel and Roxanna were no longer listed in the census, while Austin and Fidelia owned both properties on Meadow Street and land on the south side of the street across from 61 Meadow Street. The utopian community had dissolved in 1846 but the Rosses remained in Florence. They were dairy farmers and milk dealers. The y continued to own several properties here through 1895, while the larger farm west of the river was taken over by 1895 by their son Dwight Ross and his wife Mary and their three children by 1880. In the meantime Austin and Fidelia had built the house at 48 Meadow Street. By 1926 this house had a different street number, #51, it would appear and it was occupied by Josef and Esther Figiela. Josef worked at the Belding Hemenway Silk mill. By 1930 William L and Madeline Adams owned the house and William worked at Prophylactic Brush Company. By 1940 the house had again changed hands and was then occupied by George and Grace Grant. George was a fireman for the Propper McCallum Hosiery Company. Robert and Ida Branch were in the house by 1950 and they continued to occupy it through 1960. Unlike the Adams and the Grants who worked in Florence’s industries, Robert Branch was a teacher in Williamsburg. 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. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [61 MEADOW STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.2528 Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884. Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860. Daily Hampshire Gazette. December 4, 1914; February 28, 1917. Sheffeld, Charles (ed.) History of Florence, Florence, 1895.