87 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
31B-068-001 Easthampton NTH.
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 87 Prospect Street
Historic Name: Norman and Ellen Cornwell House
Uses: Present: Four-family house
Original: Single-family house
Date of Construction: ca. 1870
Source: street directories
Style/Form: Italianate
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: vinyl
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Siding added ca. 2000; wing added ca. 1970
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.211 acres
Setting: This house occupies a corner lot that slopes down
to the east.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [87 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 two-story house that is gable and wing in form. It has a slate roof and has been sided in vinyl. The front gable section
of the house has an Italianate three-sided bay window at its first story and in the angle between the gable and the wing is an
entry that has been enclosed. It has a cross gable and an added shed-roofed wing on the south elevation. There is a diamond
pane stair window on the south and the wide eaves overhangs or the Italianate style but little other remaining ornament.
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 is the Ellen and Norman Cornwell House. The Cornwells were here as early as 1870 when Norman was a bookbinder. By
1900 he had died, and after that date Ellen lived here with one of their several children, Edna, and neither of them worked
outside the house. They were in the house through 1919 but were replaced by two families in 1930: Arthur Roberts, a
watchman at Smith College and a widow Carrie Shearn. The house had changed hands again by 1940 when Aldrich and Ann
Dragon shared it with Jules and Nora Vacchelle. Aldrich was a collector and Vacchelle was a dyer at the local hosiery factory.
The history of the house’s occupation is reflective of many on Prospect Street, whereby the house held a mixture of local
craftspeople, Smith College employees and industrial workers. The closer the house was to Elm Street, the more likely the
Smith College employee was to be an academician and the original owners to be the owners of the businesses and industries.
Further north, the population changed slightly.
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.