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44 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-231 Easthampton NTH.2109 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 44 Pomeroy Terrace Historic Name: M.M. French residence Uses: Present: Two-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1848; additions June 1870 Source: Registry of Deeds & Daily Hampshire Gazette Style/Form: Italianate Architect/Builder: William Fenno Pratt, Architect of additions, 1870 Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: flushboard Roof: asphalt Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Garage Major Alterations (with dates): One story addition on south, ca. 1980 Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.563 acres Setting: This house faces west on a tree-shaded lot. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [44 POMEROY TERRACE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.2109 _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 French House may have begun its life as a fairly ordinary Italianate style house two-and-a-half stories in height under a front-gable roof, but after its 1870 additions it became a highly individual building. The flushboard-sided house has cross-gable bays on the north and the south and a rear ell of two stories from which a one-story wing extends to the south for a complex plan. The main block is three bays wide on its west façade. At first story level the three bays have become just two with a glassed-in, pedimented portico adjacent to a pedimented angled bay window. Both portico and bay window have corner posts and pilasters with arched panels supporting longitudinal arches and they rest on paneled bases. Windows in the angled bay have 25/2 sash. At the second story level three windows have bracket-supported lintels of crown molding and 6/6 sash above footed sills. In the attic field of the west façade is a single arched window with a pedimented lintel and footed sill. In the angle between the main block and the south cross-gabled bay is a two-story porch that projects beyond the plane of the walls on the southwest. The porch is supported by clusters of three arch-paneled posts connected by longitudinal arches. They rest on high pedestals and between them are railings with Italianate arched openings. At the second floor of the porch the hipped roof is supported by braced posts and on the west façade of the porch is a lattice screen with a centered, framed, oval opening. Latticework also forms the porch apron at first and second floors. The south cross-gable bay is pedimented and has at its first story level on the south elevation an angled bay window with a bracket-supported roof and arched windows with 1/1 sash. The two-story ell has a through-cornice front gable and one-story wing extension, one section of which may have been a side porch that was enclosed. In the angle between the main block on its north elevation and the north cross-gabled bay is a one-story porch with arched, paneled posts supporting a low-pitched hipped roof. The cross-gabled bay is pedimented with full returns of its eaves as on the south. It ends with an angled, two-story bay window and a through-cornice exterior wall chimney, a most unusual feature for the 1870s. 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 1975: “M. M. French was one of the first individuals to purchase a lot of land in Phillips Place in 1847. He paid $500 to Abigail Clarke for ‘lots #9 and 10 as marked on a plan drawn by William F. Pratt, Architect and recorded 119.201. It is uncertain whether Pratt designed the original core of the present structure. Pratt designed the original core of the house in 1870: ‘M.M. French proposes to enlarge his already elegant residence, Phillips Place (Pomeroy Terrace), by an addition of several feet to the front and two bay windows, after designs drawn by W. F. Pratt.” 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, Hampshire County, 1801.303, 900.179, 850.452, 747.484, 119.218 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [44 POMEROY TERRACE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.2109 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 French 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.