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129 Nonotuck 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 23A-231-001 Easthampton NTH.2531 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 129 Nonotuck Street Historic Name: Ezekiel and Louisa Cooper House Uses: Present: single-family residence Original: single-family residence Date of Construction: ca. 1850 Source: History of Florence Style/Form: gable and wing Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: stone, concrete Wall/Trim: vinyl Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Vinyl siding added ca. 2005; windows replaced ca. 2005; Shed roof structure added. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.372 acres Setting: This house is set on a rise on Nonotuck Street. It is among houses regularly spaced on the north side of the street. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [129 NONOTUCK STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.2531 __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 one-and-a-half story gable-and-wing form house. The house is sided in vinyl, rests on stone and parged concrete foundations and has a center chimney on its asphalt shingle roof. The gable-and-wing form is common on Nonotuck Street along with raised Capes. The wing is one-story in height and is, perhaps, the older section of the house, though this could only be verified with interior structural investigation. The main gable block of the house is two bays deep and it has two through- cornice dormers of different breadths on its façade. In the angle of the two sections of the house is a porch on turned posts. This is a modest house that is representative of many of the houses that were built in Florence mid-19th century to serve as workers’ housing for the local mills and factories. 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. Ezekiel Cooper (47) Louisa Cooper (37) Ezekiel (18) Benjamin (15), Martha (9), Elizabeth (4) and Momas Cooper (2) in 1850 were among the former slaves, many of whom were fugitives, who made up almost ten percent of Florence’s population that year. How they got to Northampton from Maryland where all were born is not known, but they formed a small community with seven other families – the Willsons, Bensons, the Randalls, the Frenches, Haskins, Freemans and others - in 1850 who lived in houses on Nonotuck Street, in what was called Bensonville Village, and nearby. The development of Bensonville was named after George W. Benson, brother in law of William Lloyd Garrison, who managed a cotton mill in Florence and was an Abolitionist who hired former slaves and gave them the stability of owning their own homes, which was the case with the Coopers and the Willsons, among others. The development of a utopian community in Florence, the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, in the 1840s had drawn members who subscribed to the fifth principle of the community: “The rights of all are equal without distinction of sex, color, or condition, sect or religion”. While the utopian community dissolved in 1847, many of its members remained in Flore nce and continued to practice their principles. The combination of a welcoming community and available work would have acted as a strong pull for former slaves to settle here. Passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 was a strong an incentive for them to leave. Of the families named above, none remained in Northampton in 1860 according to the census of that year. In 1915 William H. and Mary Burke lived in the house. William worked at the nearby Nonotuck Silk Company but by 1926 he had shifted to the Clement Manufacturing Company in Bay State, though they still occupied this house. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES US Federal Census of 1850, and 1860. The Ruggles Center. African American Heritage Trail, Florence, Massachusetts, 1840-1860, n.d. 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] [129 NONOTUCK STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.2531 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 Ezekiel and Louisa Cooper House would contribute to a multiple resource listing on the National Register of Historic Places of properties associated with Abolition and the Underground Railroad in Northampton. In these Northampton locations, fugitive slaves lived while they were employed in Florence businesses and from which they fled after the Fugitive Slave Law was passed. Here lived the Cooper family fugitive slaves from Maryland. The house is modest but reflects the economic position of former slaves and free Blacks in Florence who were employed and thereby enabled to buy property.