215 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-023-001 Easthampton NTH.
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 215 Prospect Street
Historic Name: The Gordon House
Uses: Present: Single-family house
Original: Single-family house
Date of Construction: ca. 1870
Source: map of 1873
Style/Form: gable-and-wing form
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.191 acres
Setting: This house is set on a lot that has been
well-landscaped to provide privacy on its busy street.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [215 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 an uncommon form of the gable-and-wing house as the front-gable section is one-and-a-half stories and the wing is a full
two stories in height. It is usually the reverse. There is a two-story ell on the east. The clapboard-sided house has a hipped
roof porch in the angle of its two sections. The porch is screened in and its roof rests on Queen Anne style turned porch posts
with scroll cut brackets at the eaves. The front-gabled section is three bays wide and its side entry is sheltered by a pedimented
portico on braces, a later alteration. Window sash in the house is 2/2.
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 neighborhood from the 1870s through the 1910s was dominated by Irish and Scottish families. The occupants of this house
were no exception as the Gordon family was here in 1873, a Mrs. Kilfy in 1884 and by 1895 Patrick and Mary Dumphy were
living here with their three adult children. Patrick and Mary had retired and two of their daughters were working as a milliner and
as a dressmaker, contributing to the family, no doubt. By 1910 Mary Guilfoile lived here. She was a widow and with her
daughter Johanna and two sons, the Guilfoiles were in the house through 1940. Mary had the three children living with her in
1900 and she worked as a washer woman, while the two sons worked as laborers.
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.