124 North 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
25C-4 Easthampton NTH.381
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 124 North Street
Historic Name: Edward H. Spofford House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family house
Date of Construction: 1891-1893
Source: Registry of Deeds and Directory
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.642 acres
Setting: This house occupies a long lot that is shaded on
each side by rows of fir trees.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [124 NORTH STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.381
___ 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 Edward Spofford House is not as elaborate as its neighbor at 118-120, but it is also a good example of the late Queen Anne
style now beginning to become more simplified and geometric rather than elaborated and complex as its neighbor. It is a two-
and-a-half story house under a pyramidal hipped roof with cross-gable bays on the south and west. There is an off-center
hipped roof dormer on the south side of the roof. The house is a greatly simplified two bays wide with an entry and a large,
fixed-light window with a decorative transom light at the first floor on the south façade. A full-width porch crosses the south
façade and it has a projecting pediment over its stairs. The porch’s hipped roof rests on widely spaced turned posts and has
connected solid brackets at its eaves. The railings have turned balusters and an arcade pattern in an Eastlake design that
derives from Eastlake furniture. The west cross-gable bay is chamfered at the first story and its angled corners ornamented with
scroll-cut braces. The house is clapboard-sided and has scalloped shingles in its gables.
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 is one of five houses built between 1887 and 1895 on the north side of North Street. Edward
Strong, the owner of a large homestead on the street, began selling North Street frontage for residential development in 1887.
In 1891, Edward Spofford, an engineer for Boston and Maine Railroad, bought this lot.”
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. 444-P. 332