183-185 Prospect Street
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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): April, 2011
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
24D-041-001 Easthampton NTH.
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 183-185 Prospect Street
Historic Name: M. Finnessey House
Uses: Present: Three-family house
Original: Single-family house
Date of Construction: ca. 1850
Source: map of 1860
Style/Form: Italianate
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.13 acres
Setting: This house occupies a corner lot and is
shaded by a large tree and shrubbery.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [183 Prospect Street]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.
___ 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 fine example of the vernacular Italianate style in Northampton. It is a gable-and-wing form house. The gable section is
two-and-a-half stories in height under a front-gable roof and the wing section is one-and-a-half stories in height under a side-
gable roof. Roof eaves make deep returns. A Colonial Revival style porch connects the two sections of the house across the
west façade. It is supported by Doric columns and would have been a later addition or alteration to an original porch. The roof
eaves of the house are wide and thinly boxed and in the gable field is a rondel window that appears on a number of similarly
dated house on Prospect Street. Each section of the house is three bays wide and windows and doors have capped surrounds
whose cornices project from the plane of the façade. First floor windows are slightly elongated, but not the full length that would
have marked a high style version of the Italianate style. There is a side entry on the gable section and a secondary entry in the
wing. The wing has a shed roof dormer on its west façade.
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.
This house was in place by 1860 and appears on the map of that year. By 1873 it was in the ownership of D. Bachman or
Byckman (the name is illegible) and by 1884 it was owned by M. Finnessey. The house had changed hands again in 1895. By
1919 it was owned by Eugene Sullivan who was employed at the Northampton Engineering Company. Sullivan was replaced by
1930 by Patrick and Mary Brennan and their six children and one niece. The Brennan children had been born in Massachusetts
but Patrick, Mary and their niece were Irish immigrants. Patrick worked for the City of Northampton. The Brennans in 1940
were gone and Mrs. Sullivan, a widow, owned the 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.
Northampton Street Directories 1919-1940
U.S. Federal Censuses 1900-1930
Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884.
Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860.