23 Pomeroy Terrace
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
32A-187 Easthampton NTH.2077
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 23 Pomeroy Terrace
Historic Name: Louis Sherman House
Uses: Present: Four-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1895-1900
Source: Atlas and Directory
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.298 acres
Setting: This house faces east on a tree-shaded
residential street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [23 POMEROY TERRACE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2077
_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 house under a pyramidal hipped roof with a front-gabled pavilion on the east façade, cross-gables
on the north and south. The three gabled sections of the house all have openwork barge boards at their eaves – a Gothic
Revival architectural feature that had been current in the 1840s and 50s but here was revived to ornament a Queen Anne style
house. The Queen Anne style took motifs from the past and combined them in new ways to provide a picturesque elevation and
when the elements were borrowed from the past the building has been called the “Free Classical” version of the Queen Anne.
The house is three bays wide and at the first story an off-center main entry is flanked by a leaded glass stair window on the
south and a large fixed light window on the north. A full width porch on turned posts with King Post shaped braces at the eaves
crosses the east façade. It is stacked and has at the second story a single bay of porch with the same turned posts and eaves
braces. A row of modillion blocks ornament the eaves at both porch levels. A two-story ell extends from the west elevation. It
is three bays long. Windows at the second story level are paired.
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 house was built shortly before 1900 for Louis Sherman, a member of the firm of A. Sherwin & Sons,
Main Street clothiers, hatters and shoes. It was one of the last houses to be built on Pomeroy Terrace, which had been opened
about 1850, and, along with Phillips Place, had served an elite clientele. During the latter part of the 19th century Harrison
Avenue, Dryads Green, and Crescent Street were the new areas for up-and-coming, but good houses were still built on
Pomeroy Terrace.”
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] [23 POMEROY TERRACE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.2077
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.
The Sherman House would contribute to a potential Pomeroy Terrace historic district that developed south and east of
the Bridge Street Cemetery from the second third of the 19th century as Northampton’s finest residential district.
Original residents here were merchants, retired farmers, lawyers, and other professions. As the century progressed the
adjacent streets were laid out for the growing middle class with railroad personnel joining clerks, teachers, and others.
Architecturally the potential historic district is significant for the fine examples of the 19th century architectural styles
from the Greek and Gothic Revivals, Italianate, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles. The district includes
significant examples of the work of Northampton architect William Fenno Pratt. This potential historic district has
integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.