67-69 Old South 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: Jayne Bernhard-Armington
Organization: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
Date (month / year): June, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
31D-224 Easthampton NTH.2007
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 67-69 Old South Street
Historic Name: Kingsley House
Uses: Present: Two-family residence
Original: Single family residence
Date of Construction: c. 1840
Source: visual evidence
Style/Form: Greek Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: Stone & Brick
Wall/Trim: Clapboard
Roof: Slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Front porch (19th century)
Condition: Good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.354 acres
Setting: Property faces south onto a busy street. Street
comprised of former single family homes that have been
converted into apartments or commercial use. Shrubbery
lines the front of this lot.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [67-69 OLD SOUTH STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2007
___ 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 Greek Revival style home is two-and-a-half stories in height with side gabled slate roof. It is five bays wide and two bays
deep. The five-bay facade is set off by corner pilasters and a wide frieze board. The front façade is dominated by a porch with a
low pitched roof, projecting boxed cornice, and large square pillars with pronounced capitals. The center entrance is very much
in the Greek Revival style with its wide trabeated surround that encloses three-quarter length sidelights. Windows on the home
are six over six sash and have corner block surrounds. The house has two interior chimneys that are of slightly different size
and placement. There have been three two-story rear extensions of this home.
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 property was part of the Kingsley homestead, established on South Street in 1739 by Samuel
Kingsley Jr. The homestead originally was bounded on the north and west by the Mill River and on the south and east by South
Street. This large house appears to have been built early in the second third of the 19th century.”
Subsequent research by Steve Strimer of the David Ruggles Center, Florence has determined that in the 1850s this house was
occupied by Ebenezer Kingsley who was the father-in-law of Moses Breck, abolitionist and temperance advocate. After Moses
and Judith Breck’s house on Elm Street was burned ca. 1850 by anti-temperance arsonists, the Brecks moved in with Judith’s
father and appear here on the federal censuses of 1850-1870. Breck was a conductor on the Underground Railroad in
Northampton, and this role may also have contributed to the arson. According to Strimer, “He [Breck] would have been
neighbors with Seth Hunt another white UGRR agent on Conz Street (house extant) and several families of African Americans.
1880 census shows him living with his nephew Aaron Breck, Jr. His obituary says he died in the house of his brother-in-law
Elijah Kingsley who was in the South Street house.”
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.
Antiquities, Historicals, and Graduates of Northampton, 1882, pages 137-139