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37 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: PVPC Date (month / year): 1/2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 31B-203-001 Easthampton NTH.2460 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 37 Prospect Street Historic Name: Uses: Present: Smith College Department of Education offices-Morgan Hall Original: Two-family residence Date of Construction: pre-1910 Source: 1910 Northampton Directory Style/Form: Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: asphalt and metal Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.395 acres Setting: This building is located on a hillside that slopes down and away to the east. It is in a mixed neighborhood of college-properties and privately-owned residences. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [37 Prospect Ave.] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.2460 _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 west-facing Morgan House is a two-and-a-half story, Colonial Revival style building under a side-gable roof whose eaves make full returns in the gable ends. It is only three bays wide and one bay deep, but proportions are large, as was often the case with the late Colonial Revival style. The building rests on brick foundations, is clapboard-sided and has an asphalt shingle main roof with two interior chimneys, and a metal roof on an entry portico. Pilasters frame the west façade and support a full entablature consisting of an architrave and frieze beneath the roof cornice, in Colonial Revival fashion. Adding to the Colonial Revival stylistic features is a pedimented entry portico that is supported by Doric columns. The entry door is flanked by three- quarter length sidelights. Above the portico at the second story is a window composition derived from the Palladian window. In three parts, it consists of a window with 6/6 sash between two windows with narrower, 4/4 sash. On the north side of the portico is an unusual stair hall window between first and second stories. On the south elevation is a one-story bay window and on the north elevation is a narrow two-and-a-half story wing preceded by an open porch on Doric columns. There is an exterior fire escape on the south elevation. Windows in the remainder of the house have wide, 8/8 sash. 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. In 1912 Mrs. Elizabeth P. Cooper lived here at 37 Prospect Street with Esther Cooper, presumably a daughter, who was a nurse at Cooley Dickinson Hospital. Just two years earlier she was boarding in a house on Bridge Street with Anna Cooper, another daughter, and neither was employed. By 1929 this was a two-family house whose two apartments were occupied by Ruth W. Cooper and John W. Reid and his wife Harriet Reid. Ruth Cooper worked as an assistant Professor of Spoken English at Smith College. In 1920 she had been living with her mother Elizabeth in Northampton, but was not yet working for Smith College. John W. Reid was a treasurer in Springfield. By 1934 the occupant was Mrs. D. W. Douglas who was assistant professor of Economics and Sociology at Smith. At her death in 1936 Elizabeth Morrow Morgan, daughter of Elizabeth Cutter Morrow who had been acting president of Smith, donated funds to establish a nursery school at Smith. By 1950 this building was occupied by the Morrow Morgan Nursery School, and Dura Cocknell who was its director. Elizabeth Morrow Morgan was the older sister of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The nursery school operated in this building through 1960 when it was also occupied by Mary A. Wegner who was associate professor of Education and dean of Smith College and director of the nursery school. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, 1873. Massachusetts Historical Commission. Reconnaissance Reports, “Northampton”, 1982. Miller, D. L. Atlas of the City of Northampton and Town of Easthampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, 1895. Northampton Directories 1910-1960. Sanborn Insurance Maps, Northampton, 1915. U. S. Federal censuses 1890-1930. Walker, George H. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884. Massachusetts Historical Commission Community Property Address State Archives Facility 220 Morrissey Boulevard Northampton 37 Prospect Street Boston, Massachusetts 02125 Area(s) Form No. NTH.2460 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 historic district that would encompass the residential/institutional side streets laid out from Elm Street in Northampton Center between Main Street on the east and the west boundary of Childs Park on the west. This potential historic district is significant according to criteria A and C and would have local significance. These residential streets are significant according to criterion A for their reflection of the development of Northampton from the mid-19th century as a relatively affluent community that supported several private schools for young women, which prepared them after 1875 for attendance at Smith College, and the Clarke School where deaf students were given an education that thoroughly prepared them for the hearing world. The residences in this area made a shift from gentlemen’s estates to accommodation of the growing middle class in Northampton during the 19th century with businessmen, scholars, teachers, doctors, and retired farmers. According to criterion C this district would be significant for the range of historical styles that it includes. Gothic Revival, Italianate, French Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles are all well-represented within a landscape of individual large lots, and streetscapes that were laid out and developed at one time.