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70 Paradise Road 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): April, 2011 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 31C-13 Easthampton NTH.721 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 70 Paradise Road Historic Name: J.H. Pillsbury House Uses: Present: school Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1886-1887 Source: Springfield Daily Republican Style/Form: Queen Anne Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles Roof: asphalt Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Windows replaced with 1/1 metal sash. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 7.072 acres Setting: This building faces west and is on the western side of Paradise Pond. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [70 PARADISE ROAD] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.721 _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. This is a two-and-a-half story, Queen Anne style house under a side-gable roof. Centered on the roof on its west façade is a large cross-gable whose front-gabled roof is supported on ornamented braces and in whose gable field is a band of three windows. Adjacent to it on the south is a shed roof dormer bringing a strong note of asymmetry to the roof. Beneath the cross- gable is a stacked porch. At the first story level the shed roofed porch is three bays wide, rests on turned posts and has solid arched braces at the eaves level. It has a pediment centered over the stair entry. At the second story level the porch is one bay wide, repeats the turned posts and arched brackets, but has a flat roof. The house has a jetty between the clapboard-sided first story and the shingled upper stories. In the south elevation this jetty is supported by consoles and is repeated between the attic and second story levels. 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: “Paradise Road was laid out during the late 1860’s for residential development but only had five houses constructed thereon by 1884. During the late 1880’s though, the entire ‘Paradise’ area underwent development. Over the next 25 years, most of the present day houses were built. In 1886-1887, this house was built for J. H. Pillsbury, a professor of Biology at Smith College, at a cost of about $4000. Prof. Pillsbury soon left the area and the house became property of Smith College. For most of the 20th century, this has been known as ‘Sunnyside,’ and has served as the nurses home, with the infirmary located just across the street.” In 1892 the house was purchased by John Storrer Cobb, a Boston lawyer. His wife gave it to Smith College after his death. 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] [70 PARADISE ROAD] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.721 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 potential historic district that would encompass the residential/institutional side streets laid out on the south side of Elm Street in Northampton Center between Main Street on the east and the west boundary of Childs Park on the west. This potential historic district is significant according to criteria A and C and would have local significance. These residential streets are significant according to criterion A for their reflection of the development of Northampton from the mid-19th century as a relatively affluent community that supported several private schools for young women, which prepared them after 1875 for attendance at Smith College, and the Clarke School where deaf students were given an education that thoroughly prepared them for the hearing world. The residences in this area made a shift from gentlemen’s estates to accommodation of the growing middle class in Northampton during the 19th century with businessmen, scholars, teachers, doctors, and retired farmers. According to criterion C this district would be significant for the range of historical styles that it includes. Gothic Revival, Italianate, French Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles are all well-represented within a landscape of individual large lots, and streetscapes that were laid out and developed at one time.