165 North Main 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
16D-19 Easthampton NTH.67
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence
Address: 165 North Main Street
Historic Name: Bennett Allen House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1870-1873
Source: Registry of Deeds and Atlas
Style/Form: Queen Anne/Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Carriage barn
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.496 acres
Setting: This is a south-facing house on a
residential section of Route 9.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [165 NORTH MAIN STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.67
___ 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 two-and-a-half story house with a front-gable roof and a two-and-a-half story cross-gable bay on the west that holds the
main entry to the house. The Queen Anne style house is one bay wide with the bay consisting of a pair of windows with 1/1
sash. At second story level is a single window and at the attic level on this façade is an arched window. The finest feature of
the house is the porch that begins on the west elevation of the main block of the building and continues down the west elevation
beyond the bay. It is supported on half-length Colonial Revival style columns above a solid railing that is shingle-covered. At its
southwest corner the porch projects as a round gazebo beneath a low-pitched conical roof. In typical Queen Anne fashion, the
house exterior is sided in varying materials to be visually active. A band of wood shingles separates first and second floors and
appears also in the gable fields of the house.
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 1871, Bennett Allen, a carpenter, bought about a half acre of land on the eastern side of North Main
Street in Florence for $100. Mr. Allen probably built this house himself, and it first appears on the 1873 atlas.”
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