130 North Main 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, 2011
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
16D-24 Easthampton NTH.69
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence
Address: 130 North Main Street
Historic Name: Emory C. and Isabel G. Davis House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1865-1873
Source: Registry of Deeds and Atlas
Style/Form: Stick Style
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: shingles
Roof: asphalt
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.663 acres
Setting: This is a north-facing house with the Mill
River on its south boundary.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [130 NORTH MAIN STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.69
___ 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 house is idiosyncratic and somewhat difficult to place stylistically, but in essence it is a Stick Style house that is transitional
to Queen Anne. The house is a common, gable-and-wing form, one-and-a-half stories in height and sided in wood shingles that
have long been painted dark in color. The steeply-pitched front-gabled roof has eaves that are stepped forward at the gable
peak, and supported on braces. This roof form is seen on two houses on Massasoit Street, both of which are Queen Anne in
style. The gable then is trussed in Stick Style fashion, and the truss is ornamented with jigsaw-cut lattice work. The gable truss
treatment is repeated in a cross-gable on the west side of the roof of the main block of the house and again in the west gable of
the one-and-a-half story wing of the house. The north façade of the main block is three bays wide. Door and window surrounds
are bracketed hoods, typical of the Stick Style and centered between first and second stories is a balcony on braces with
elaborate tracery ornament. Sash in the house is vertical 4/1 and there is a breezeway connector between the wing of the
house and a garage. The wing that is two bays wide has shed roof dormers on its north and south roof elevations.
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 1980: “In 1865, Isabel and Emory Davis bought half an acre of land fronting on North Main Street in Florence for
$140. The street was the old ‘road to Williamsburg’ of the 18th century, but wasn’t developed residentially until the mid 1860’s.
Mr. Davis worked for the Florence Sewing Company, but soon went into business for himself as a surveyor and civil engineer.
He became the city engineer, and formed a partnership with his son Eugene, who was also a surveyor and civil engineer. They
were located in downtown Northampton and maintained the business until the elder Davis’s death about 1910.”
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.
Registry of Deeds: Bk. 299-P. 163, 231-398