121 Pine 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): May, 2011
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
23A-144 Easthampton NTH.204
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 121 Pine Street
Historic Name: Dr. G. A. Willey House
Uses: Present: Three-family residence
Original:
Date of Construction: 1873-1884
Source: Atlases
Style/Form: Italianate
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: asbestos
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Carriage Barn
Major Alterations (with dates):
Windows replaced, ca. 2000.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.473 acres
Setting: This house faces south on a tree-shaded
lot.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [121 PINE STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.204
_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 large Italianate style house that is two-and-a-half stories under a front-gable roof with wide, bracketed eaves. It is three
bays wide and there is a full-width porch on the south façade that rests on highly unusual posts that have two pedestals rather
than the usual single pedestal. Elaborate scroll-cut brackets ornament the porch eaves. The house has a cross-gabled bay on
the east elevation and a one-and-a-half story ell followed by a one-story ell for a long, rectangular plan. The cross-gabled bay
has bracketed eaves between the two stories and at its roofline. The first north ell has a side porch that has been glass
enclosed and on the ell roof is a shed roof, through-cornice dormer. The house has a carriage barn in its rear yard.
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.
On the map of 1873 this lot was owned by Henry F. Manchester. According to the census of 1870 Manchester worked in a
screw factory in Northampton and lived in a household with his wife Emmeline, their small children Eva and Frank. The
Manchesters owned their own house at that point elsewhere in Florence. Between 1873 and 1884 this house was built and in
1884 it was occupied by Dr. G. A. Willey. Dr. Willey does not appear in the federal censuses for Northampton in 1880 and 1900
but in 1900 Robie Willey, the ten year old grandson of Octavia Atkins does. Olivia Atkins owned the house next door on Pine
Street and it appears that Robie’s parents were not part of the household. In 1895 the house was in the ownership of P. Atkins
who also does not appear in the censuses of 1880 and 1900, nor in the directories after 1893. But there appears to be a family
relationship between the Willeys and the Atkins that carried over several decades with this 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.
Registry of Deeds: Bk. 393-P. 292, 304-72
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [121 PINE STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.204
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 1843-1847. 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.