291 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): 11/2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
24C-003-001
NTH.272
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 291 Prospect Street
Historic Name: Fred and Mary Stockwell House
Uses: Present: Three-family House
Original: Single-family House
Date of Construction: Circa 1840-1850
Source: map of 1860
Style/Form: Greek Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: stone
Wall/Trim: brick/limestone; clapboard
Roof: asphalt
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Dormer and wings added ca. 1980.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.45 acres
Setting: This house occupies a corner lot and is screened
from the street by a hedge row and a maple tree.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [291 Prospect Street]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.272
___ 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 in the gable-and-wing form. The front-gable section is two-and-a-half stories and the wing
on the east elevation is one-and-a-half stories; each is three bays wide. The red brick house has ornamental brickwork in the
form of dentils at the raking eaves and across the façade to create a pediment. The dentils extend as well across the wing at the
cornice level. In the field of the pediment is a centered window with 6/1 sash. The façade of the gable section has 6/6 window
sash and the windows have limestone sills and lintels. A porch across the wing is supported on fretwork posts with diamond-
shaped ornament, an unusual design in Northampton. It has a standing seam metal roof with kick eaves that date it to the
1920s. Later additions of shed roof dormers, a wing and ell extension are clapboard-sided.
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 appears on the map of 1860 but is unnamed. In 1873 it is the F. A. Stockwell house. Fred A. and Mary Stockwell
had three daughters and one son. Fred was a retired merchant in 1870 and their house was worth $20,000, a not
inconsiderable sum. By 1880 Fred had gone back to work as a grocer, had a second son and the family took in as a boarder
their store clerk.
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.
U.S. Federal Censuses, 1870-1900.
Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884.
Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860.