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32 Park 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): June, 2011 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 23A-010-001 Easthampton NTH.2551 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 32 Park Street Historic Name: Isaac Parsons Rental House Uses: Present: Single-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1854-1860 Source: Atlas of 1860 Style/Form: utilitarian Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: parged brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Porch added, ca. 1880; windows replaced, ca. 1900. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.419 acres Setting: This is an east-facing house set in alignment with its neighbors. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [32 Park Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH. 2551 _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 Isaac Parsons Rental House is a simple house architecturally and has been so well-preserved that it stands as a model of the type of mid-19th century housing erected for single-family rental use. It is one-and-a-half stories in height under a front- gabled roof. There is a single chimney rising from the roof ridge and given its narrow and tall dimensions, it accommodated an early wood-burning furnace. The house is three bays wide and has a centered main entry. It is the equivalent of four bays deep for a rectangular plan and sits on parged brick foundations. A small enclosed entry on the southwest corner is one story in height and has a shed roof attachment on the west. The house has a later porch that was added to it during the Colonial Revival period, ca. 1880. The porch has a shallow hipped roof and solid railing on which rest ¾-length Doric columns. Windows in the house have 1/1 sash and their surrounds as well as that of the main entry are unembellished flat stock. The house has narrow cornerboards and thin boxed eaves. 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. Park Street began to be developed in 1854 when Isaac Parsons filed a subdivision plan for Park, Meadow and Prospect Streets. Within six years there were five new houses on the street’s west side with Parsons owning three and Adeline Bowers owning two. Parsons was a store owner who became a partner with Samuel L. Hill in 1850 in the first store established in Florence, which was located at 296 Nonotuck Street. Although his partners changed several times between 1850 and 1880, I. S. Parsons retained his ownership or the general store through 1880. He also, as was common at the time when entrepreneurs were developing multiple businesses, invested with A. P. Critchlow and Company manufacturing paper mache buttons, and union cases for daguerreotypes and ambrotypes. Critchlow hired and harbored fugitive slaves at the company headquarters and Parsons may have been associated with the abolitionist activities as well. The Critchlow firm continued and developed into the Florence Manufacturing Company in 1866 manufacturing toilet brushes. At about the same time, 1861, Parsons was among the early investors in the Florence Sewing Machine Company making the newly-invented machine. He also invested in real estate in Florence, owning and living at 4 Park Street and owning a fourth rental house on Corticelli Street. An active citizen, he was among the founders of the Congregational Society and contributed to the fund to build the Congregational Church on Pine Street and became the first Postmaster in Florence when he took part in the naming of the village. 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 ] [32 Park Street] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH. 2551 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 1842-1846. 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.