59 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, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
17C-249 Easthampton NTH.118
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence
Address: 59 North Main Street
Historic Name:
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: post-1915
Source: Registry of Deeds and Atlas
Style/Form: Front-gable
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: parged brick
Wall/Trim: concrete
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.5 acres
Setting: This is one of three houses on the lot and is set
back from the street to the rear lot line.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [59 NORTH MAIN STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.118
___ 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 small concrete house is one-and-a-half stories in height. It is three bays wide at the first story and one bay wide at the
second story. It has a front-gable roof with no chimney on the roof ridge but with two exterior chimneys on a west wing that is
one-story in height. The house is spare in stylistic features with a single diamond pane window on the east elevation and a
porch across the south façade on fieldstone piers. The roof has fairly wide eaves that are thinly boxed. This building was
probably built as worker’s housing in the Craftsman style. Concrete as a building material for workers’s housing in Northampton
and in Florence specifically has a history that goes back to the 19th century, so this house is part of that history.
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 1869, Jehiel Davis bought lots no. 6 and 7 of the Littlefield and Graves subdivision plan for the area
bound by Graves Street (later Myrtle Street, now Bardwell Street), North Main Street and North Maple Street in Florence. The
house was built by 1873 as it is shown on the atlas of that year. Mr. Davis became superintendent of the Florence Furniture Co.
when it was founded in 1873.” This history refers to one of the three houses on this lot, 61 North Main Street. It does not refer
to the house at 59 North Main Street. On the Sanborn Insurance Maps for Northampton 61 North Main Street is the last building
to be identified and only in a sketchy manner. Neither this building nor the one at 61A appears on that map, which is not
conclusive but suggestive that they date after 1915.
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.
Sanborn Insurance Maps, Northampton, 1915.
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