32 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-063-001 Easthampton NTH.604
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 32 Round Hill Road
Historic Name: Mrs. Merritt Clarke House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1859
Source: Hampshire Gazette, Mar. 29, 1859
Style/Form: Gothic Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Wing on west, wing on east, deck and enclosed porch, ca.
1990.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 1.115 acres
Setting: This is a south-facing house on the lower slope of
Round Hill. It is screened from the road.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [32 ROUND HILL ROAD]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.604
___ 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 brick house with a front-gabled slate roof and with a one-and-a-half story brick wing on the east
and a two-story clapboard wing on the west. The house has a large porte-cochere on the north. Through-cornice, front-gabled
dormers ornament the main block and the wing and have Gothic Revival pointed window compositions. Elsewhere windows are
paired beneath straight stone lintels. A porch across the south façade has been enclosed and a deck constructed on its east
end. The west wing is also a later addition.
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 1976: “This brick cottage was built on fashionable Round Hill in 1859 and derives from an Andrew Jackson
Downing design. Edward Clark was an important citizen and the owner of an unusual U-shaped Greek Revival house built in
1836-39 and located opposite the site of the Clarke cottage (Clarke School demolished the Greek Revival structure). Edward
Clarke’s estate was divided between three Round Hill residents, Lafayette Maltby (who got the house), W.B. Hale, and Merritt
Clark; the widow Clark chose to build an economical but genteel residence opposite her former home. In 1867, Clarke School
was chartered by the state legislature and moved to Northampton from Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Originally housed in
several structures atop Round Hill, the school acquired considerable property along the road in the late nineteenth century. The
Clarke Cottage is now part of the school and had been enlarged at the rear.”
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.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [32 ROUND HILL ROAD]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.604
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.