191 Nonotuck 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
23A-250-001 Easthampton NTH.2439
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 191 Nonotuck Street
Historic Name: Basil Dorsey-Thomas H. Jones House
Uses: Present: Single-family house
Original: Single-family house
Date of Construction: 1849
Source: History of Florence and Registry of Deeds
Style/Form: late Greek Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: vinyl
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Siding added ca. 1990.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.273 acres
Setting:
This house faces south at the foot of a hillside on a raised
lot.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [191 NONOTUCK STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2439
___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. This house was listed as a contributing resource to the NR
historic district the Underground Railroad; it is also on the National Register as an individual listing.
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 with a front-gable roof. It is three bays wide and the equivalent of three bays deep. The
house has a one-story wing on the east for and L-shaped plan. The wing is preceded on the south by a recessed porch on
posts. A portion of it has been enclosed at its eastern end. The main block of the house, which sits on high brick foundations, is
very modest with narrow eaves, 6/6 sash, and a center chimney. Siding may cover additional details such as cornerboards.
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 was the home of two fugitive slaves, Basil Dorsey and Thomas H. Jones. Basil Dorsey born to a white Englishman
and a slave was legally a free man, but his status was not accepted in the South and he was enslaved in Maryland. When
promised freedom for $350 was rescinded by his master, Dorsey escaped from Maryland, and was arrested in Pennsylvania, but
then released on a technicality. After joining up with his wife, a free Black woman, and his two children, Charles Robert and
John, Basil Dorsey went to New York where he met up with David Ruggles, a free Black activist against slavery who helped the
Dorseys. Using the Underground Railroad piloted by several abolitionists from Florence, the Dorseys settled in Charlemont,
Massachusetts but then Basil and his two sons and a new-born daughter returned to Florence in 1844. Dorsey’s wife, whose
name may have been Louisa, died after giving birth to the daughter. Once in Florence, Basil Dorsey was given work as a
teamster for the Greenville Manufacturing Company, a cotton mill, and in order to keep him safe when he traveled out of town,
townspeople bought his freedom. Basil Dorsey remarried to Cynthia Jones from Pittsfield and had eleven more children. They
built this house in 1849. In 1850 on the federal census of that year Basil and Cynthia Dorsey, John and Charles Robert were
living in the house sharing it with a second Black family, Jacob and Eliza Benson and their daughter Anna. Jacob also came
from slavery in Maryland. In 1852 the Dorseys sold this house. It was re-sold in 1854 to Thomas H. Jones, a fugitive slave who
had written an account of slavery that had become well-known. He lived here until 1859 then moved to Worcester, finally
settling in New Bedford.
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.