425 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): March, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
24A-102 Easthampton NTH.264
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 425 Prospect Street
Historic Name: Children’s Home
Uses: Present: Single-family residence and funeral home
Original: Children’s Home
Date of Construction: 1914-1915
Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette
Style/Form: Tudor Revival
Architect/Builder: Karl Scott Putnam, Architect,
Northampton Exterior Material:
Foundation: stone
Wall/Trim: stucco
Roof: slater
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Original entry replaced with glass storefront system, ca.
2000.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.402 acre
Setting: This house occupies a broad lot at the
intersection of several busy streets.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [425 PROSPECT STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.264
___ 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 Children’s Home designed by Karl Scott Putnam is a version of the Tudor Revival style that was rather uncommon as it is
stucco-sided and does not have the half timbering or other decorative devices often used in the Tudor Revival. Rather, Karl
Scott Putnam was following the lead of English architect Edwin Lutyens who created modernistic buildings by simplifying the
geometry of the Tudor. The two-and-a-half story building has two cross-gables, one at either end of the center hipped roof
section of the building. Steeply-pitched, the cross gables are typical of the Tudor style. Typical as well, is the fieldstone-sided
chimney on the east elevation that rises through the eaves to become stucco-sided. The building’s fine original entry was
replaced by a glass storefront when the building was converted to funeral home use.
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 1980: “This large stuccoed building was originally constructed as the Hampshire County Children’s Home. This
Association had first opened a house for unfortunate children on Arlington Street in a converted residence in 1910. Three years
later, this land at the corner of Prospect and North Elm Streets was donated to the Association and the present building erected
during 1914 at a cost of $10,000.
The building was erected from designs of Karl Scott Putnam, Northampton’s most prominent architect of the first half of
the 20th century. Mr. Putnam was the son of Roswell F. Putnam, a well known architect of the turn-of-the-century period and
after interning at the office of Edward Tilton in New York, joined his father in practice about 1910. The elder Putnam died in
1911 and the son carried on the practice by himself. In the early 1920’s, Mr. Putnam became a professor of architecture at
Smith College, a position he held for over forty years.”
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.