17 Prospect 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): March, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
31B-222 Easthampton NTH.686
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 17 Prospect Street
Historic Name: Lamont House
Uses: Present: Dormitory
Original: Dormitory
Date of Construction: 1955
Source: Smith College Archives
Style/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder: William and Geoffrey Platt,
architects Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick, limestone
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Addition on north east, n.d.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 2.01 acres
Setting: Lamont House occupies a large lot that
slopes down to the east.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [17 PROSPECT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.686
___ 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.
Lamont House is a four-story, brick building with limestone trim beneath a slate hipped roof. A large dormitory, it is 11 bays long
and five bays deep and has a center entry on its west façade that is a flat-roofed portico on large piers with composite capitals.
The portico has respondent pilasters. The west façade has shallow pavilions at each end breaking up the long plane of the
façade. A limestone stringcourse separates first and second stories. First story windows are 8/12 and the upper story windows
have 8/8 sash. Lamont House is a Colonial Revival style building that is more precisely viewed as Georgian Revival with its two
interior chimneys on the roof and a broad frieze beneath the 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.
From Form B of 1977/1979: “Both this house and Lamont Bridge were named for Florence Corliss Lamont of the class of 1893.
She received her M.A. from Columbia in 1898 and an honorary Doctor of Laws from Smith in 1952. She served as honorary
chairwoman of the Smith College Counselors in 1951 and 1952. At her death in December 1952, she bequeathed $1,200,000 to
Smith College.
Lamont was built on property originally owned by the Jonathan Hunt family who owned the site of 45 Elm and thence to
Prospect Street. The Edwards House which stood back from both Elm and Prospect was razed.”
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] [17 PROSPECT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.686
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 Round Hill Historic District. This potential historic district is significant according to criteria A
and C and would have local significance.
The residential streets that cross Round Hill are significant according to criterion A for their reflection of development in Northampton from
the early 19th century (1807) through the 1950s. Residential development began on Round Hill with the establishment of gentleman’s estates
but grew with schools and a resort hotel until the 1890s when residential development increased significantly. From the 1890s through the
1950s (1959 McAlister Infirmary) Round Hill became home to Northampton’s wealthy and to the Clarke School for the Deaf.
Architecturally this area of Northampton is significant for the range of residential architectural styles including the Queen Anne and Colonial
Revival, and for its institutional buildings in the French Second Empire, through High Victorian Gothic and Colonial Revival styles ending
with the American International style. The potential district has integrity of workmanship, design, feeling, association, and materials.