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12 North Maple 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, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 17C-226 Easthampton NTH.115 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 12 North Maple Street Historic Name: Orcutt Hussey and Company Uses: Present: hardware store Original: hardware store Date of Construction: 1872 Source: History of Florence Style/Form: Italianate Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboard, flushboard Roof: asphalt Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Lean-to added on south, n.d. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.083 acres Setting: This building is set close to the street and faces east. It is at the commercial center of Florence. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [12 NORTH MAPLE STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.115 __x_ 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 Orcutt Hussey Company store is one of the few stores dating from the 1870s remaining in Northampton that is still in the same business for which it was constructed. It is also a particularly well-preserved example of a frame commercial building of the third quarter of the 19th century. It is a one-story building with a front-gable roof that is screened by a tall parapet that has historically served as a signboard for the store and contains today traces of an earlier painted sign. The east façade is crossed by a full-width, flat-roofed porch resting on Italianate posts with carved brackets at the eaves. It is a double-ramp porch with a lattice apron. The faced is three bays wide with a center entry between large windows with four fixed lights. The entry with a simple surround has double-leaf doors of glass and paneling. The first story of the façade is clapboard sided while the upper parapet is flushboard. The building has a one-story ell on the rear and a small lean-to on its south elevation. The long rectangular plan building has its north and south fenestration closed and these elevations also have been sided in a painted plywood. 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: “North Maple Street began to be developed as a commercial district of Florence in the late 1860’s. In 1867, the Williamsburg line of the New Haven and Northampton Railroad opened, connecting the mill villages of Williamsburg and Northampton, including Florence, to the main north-south line in the center of Northampton. In Florence, the tracks ran parallel to and just north of Main and North Main Streets, while a depot was established on North Maple Street. Thomas Orcutt started in the hardware business in 1870. Two years later, Nathan Hussey became his partner and this store was erected. The store continued in the hardware and plumbing business until the mid 1890’s. For four years, there was a Chinese laundry here, then, in 1897, George Churchill and George Busch, painters and decorators, settled in and stayed until 1937. In that year, Francis La Montagne took over the business and ran it until 1976, when he sold it to the current owner, who continued the business.” 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. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [12 NORTH MAPLE STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.115 National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form Check all that apply: Individually eligible Eligible only in an historic district Contributing to a potential historic district Potential historic district Criteria: A B C D Criteria Considerations: A B C D E F G Statement of Significance by _____Bonnie Parsons___________________ The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here. This property would contribute to a Florence Center Historic District. The potential historic district of Florence Center is significant as the commercial, residential, institutional center of the village that developed from 1657 when it was set off as Northampton’s “Inner Commons” as agricultural land and 1681 when the first sawmill was erected at a falls on the Mill River. The agricultural and industrial village developed through the 18th and 19th centuries around industry on the Mill River, agriculture on the alluvial flood plain and the Strong Tavern and later Cottage Hotel at the intersection of Main and Maple Streets. It is significant for the silk industry that flourished through the Civil war as an alternative to slave-picked cotton and for the establishment of the Northampton Association for Education and Industry, a utopian community that existed 1843-1847. Association members after its close continued in Florence their principles of equality by running the Underground Railroad through the village and harboring fugitive slaves. It is significant as the home of Sojourner Truth. 19th century industry in the Center included the Florence Sewing Machine Company, which built its own housing. Architecturally the Center is significant for the range of Gothic Revival, Italianate, Stick Style, French Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival style homes, for its commercial blocks and library in the Revival styles of the late 19th century. Gothic Revival and Italianate style churches are architect-designed in high style versions. The potential district has integrity of workmanship, design, feeling, association, and materials.