19 Round Hill Road
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: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
Date (month / year): March, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
31B-169 Easthampton NTH.651
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 19 Round Hill Road
Historic Name: Oliver Walker House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1896
Source: Registry of Deeds, Directory & Springfield
Daily Republican Style/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: slate, metal and asphalt.
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.734 acre
Setting: This house is shaded by a large copper beech
tree and is located on the lower slope of Round Hill facing
west.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [19 ROUND HILL ROAD]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.651
__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 Walker House is a fine Colonial Revival style house, two-and-a-half stories in height under a truncated hipped roof. The
clapboard-sided house is three bays wide and the equivalent of four bays deep and it has a two-story ell on the west with a
partially enclosed north porch. The house has a centered cross-gable flanked by two hipped roof dormers with shingled walls.
In the cross-gable is a Colonial Revival style Palladian window composition. The west façade has a pedimented porch one bay
wide that rests on paired Ionic columns above paneled pedestals. Finely fluted cornerboards support a full entablature beneath
the eaves. A row of dentil molding ornaments the cornice of the main block of the house as well as the porch cornice. A
through-eaves exterior wall chimney is located on the north elevation and adjacent to it at the second story level is a rounded,
oriel window. Windows have architrave surrounds that have entablatures on the first story level.
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 Colonial Revival residence was built in 1896 for Oliver Walker at a cost of $10,000. Mr.
Walker was the secretary and treasurer of the Hampshire Mutual Fire Insurance Company and a practicing insurance and real
estate agent. Round Hill had long been one of Northampton’s most exclusive areas and Round Hill Road was the early means
of access. In the late 19th century, the southern slopes of the hill began to be developed.”
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.
Registry of Deeds: Bk. 484-P. 203
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [19 ROUND HILL ROAD]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.651
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 Round Hill Historic District. This potential historic district is significant according to criteria A
and C and would have local significance.
The residential streets that cross Round Hill are significant according to criterion A for their reflection of development in Northampton from
the early 19th century (1807) through the 1950s. Residential development began on Round Hill with the establishment of gentleman’s estates
but grew with schools and a resort hotel until the 1890s when residential development increased significantly. From the 1890s through the
1950s (1959 McAlister Infirmary) Round Hill became home to Northampton’s wealthy and to the Clarke School for the Deaf.
Architecturally this area of Northampton is significant for the range of residential architectural styles including the Queen Anne and Colonial
Revival, and for its institutional buildings in the French Second Empire, through High Victorian Gothic and Colonial Revival styles ending
with the American International style. The potential district has integrity of workmanship, design, feeling, association, and materials.