57 Norwood Avenue
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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
30B-5 Easthampton NTH.430
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Bay State
Address: 57 Norwood Avenue
Historic Name: Willis Blakesley House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: ca. 1890
Source: Atlas and Directory
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: concrete and brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: slate, asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Shed
Major Alterations (with dates):
Garage added ca. 1950
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.397 acres
Setting: This house occupies a corner lot that
slopes down and away to the south and west.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [57 NORWOOD AVENUE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.430
___ 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 a one-and-a-half story house under a front-gable roof with a kitchen wing of one story on the south followed by a one-
story garage. As the land slopes down and away to the south, the garage of one-and-a-half stories is below the level of the main
block of the house. The house is three bays wide and has a full-width porch across its west façade. The hipped roof of the
porch is supported on posts and there are small brackets at the eaves. Siding on the house is clapboard at the first floor and
shingles in the gable fields for a modest Queen Anne style. It rests on brick foundations. The one-story wing on the south is
four bays wide and is not set back from the plane of the façade, rather, its extends directly from the main façade. There is also a
one-story shed roofed ell on the east.
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: “Norwood Avenue was laid out in two sections. The first, in 1872, was from Main Street (now Riverside
Drive) northerly to a ‘proposed street’ (a paper extension of the present Wood Avenue). The second section, in 1883, was from
the proposed street northerly to Warner Street.
This house was built at the southeast corner of Norwood Avenue and Warner Street between 1884 and 1895. The first
known owner was Willis Blakesley, an employee of the Northampton Cutlery Company, who was first listed here in 1892.”
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.