171 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-18 Easthampton NTH.66
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence
Address: 171 North Main Street
Historic Name: R. Lynn Porter House
Uses: Present: Two-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1887-1893
Source: Registry of Deeds
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder: Bennett Allen, Builder, attributed
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick, fieldstone
Wall/Trim: vinyl
Roof: asphalt, metal
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Shed
Major Alterations (with dates):
Siding applied and windows replaced, ca. 2005
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.471 acres
Setting: This is a south-facing house in a
residential section of Route 9.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [171 NORTH MAIN STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.66
___ 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.
The Porter House is Queen Anne in style and in proportions. It is a tall, two-and-a-half stories in height under a front-gable roof
that has a cross-gable on the east and a wing on the west. There is also a one-and-a-half story ell on the north giving the house
a rather complex floor plan that was a feature of the Queen Anne style. An enclosed side porch was added to the ell and built on
fieldstone foundations. Queen Anne ornament, however, is minimal due in part to the vinyl siding but also perhaps to more
modest origins than grander versions of the style further east on Elm Street in Northampton center. Windows are paired with 1/1
sash and there is a two-story bay window on the east with a metal, half-conical roof. This metal, half-conical roof used on a bay
window is an element that appears on several houses here on North Main Street. In the angle between the main block of the
house and the west wing is an entry porch on turned posts.
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: “This house appears to have been built in the late 1880’s. Bennett Allen, a carpenter who lived next
south of this house, acquired this lot (lot no. 1 on Charles Warren’s 1869 subdivision plan for the ‘north side of Main Street’—
now North Main Street) in 1885. Mr. Allen possibly built this house himself, and it’s known to have been on this site by 1893
when the lot ’with buildings’ was sold to R. Lynn Porter, an employee of the Nonotuck Silk Co.”
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