172-174 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-12 Easthampton NTH.60
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence
Address: 172-174 North Main Street
Historic Name: Martha Pease House
Uses: Present: Two-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1892-1895
Source: Registry of Deeds & Atlas
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: asphalt
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.175 acres
Setting: This is a north-facing house in an area of
residential buildings on Route 9. The Mill River passes on
the southwest.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [172-174 NORTH MAIN STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.60
___ 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 the best-preserved Queen Anne style house on North Main Street, as it retains its original clapboard and shingle siding
and its Queen Anne decorative trim. It is a two-and-a-half story house with a front-gable roof. This form is common on North
Elm Street to accommodate the long narrow lots and yet have sizeable houses. To achieve the complex interior volumes
preferred by the style, the house has a cross-gable bay on the east and an ell on the south. A wraparound porch crosses the
north façade on to the east elevation where it ends at the bay. It is a stacked porch with a second story, one-bay wide screened-
in porch on the north façade. The porch is ornamented in lively Queen Anne fashion with a spindled frieze, turned posts and
scroll-cut eaves brackets. The porch features are repeated on the east elevation of the ell. Equally lively is the use of both
shingles and clapboards as siding on the body of the house. Shingles separate first and second stories and are used again in
the gable fields.
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 two-and-a-half story house was built during the early 1890’s on lot no. 3 of Bela Gardner’s
subdivision plan for the western side of North Main Street in Florence. Miss Martha Pease had bought this lot for $200 in 1892,
and by 1895, the house was built and a number of members of the Pease family were listed as living here.”
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. 449-P. 171, 340-10