87 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
24D-319 Easthampton NTH.362
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 87 Round Hill Road
Historic Name: Clarence R. Gardiner House
Uses: Present: Single-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1884-1895
Source: Atlases
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Sash replaced, ca. 2005.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.257 acres
Setting: This house is set back from the street
behind a wood picket fence.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [87 ROUND HILL ROAD]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.362
_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 Gardiner House is a one-of-a-kind design whose overall characteristics are Queen Anne but whose details are uncommon.
It is two-and-a-half stories in height under a truncated, front-gabled roof whose eaves make a full return to form a pent roof. A
rope molding ornaments the clipped eaves. This roof form alone is unusual. The plane of the clapboard-sided second story is
set back from the plane of the first story by several feet, enough to support a two-story bay window. The house is three bays
wide and its center entry is a double leaf door with a pedimented, projecting porch on turned Queen Anne posts. The porch or
portico has a shingled gable-on-hip roof. It is further ornamented with a spindled frieze. At each side of the porch are paired
windows with shed-roofed lintels that are shingled. The lintels are in very low relief. On the north elevation of the house is a
two-story porch with novelty siding. It is open and latticed on the first story and glassed in as a sleeping porch on the second
story. It would date from the 1920s or thereabouts.
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: “Round Hill, north of the Clark School, was first opened for residential development in the early 1870’s.
This project proved a failure and the property was bought by John B. O’Donnell in the mid 1880’s. He felt that ‘the hill was by
nature the handsomest and most desirable building spot in America,’ and only sold substantial lots for residences. By the turn of
the century, this had become one of the most exclusive residential areas of the city, a position it has maintained to this day.”
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] [87 ROUND HILL ROAD]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.362
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.