88 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-320 Easthampton NTH.363
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 88 Round Hill Road
Historic Name: Ysabel Swan House
Uses: Present: Four-family house
Original: Single-family house
Date of Construction: 1909
Source: Registry of Deeds, Directory & Springfield
Daily Republican Style/Form: Colonial Revival/Georgian Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Four bay garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Window sash replaced, ca. 2010
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.257 acres
Setting: This house is set on a part of the crest of Round
Hill and is set back from the street. Large trees shade its
expansive lawn.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [88 ROUND HILL ROAD]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.363
_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 Ysabel Swan House is a fine Georgian Revival House whose designer must certainly have been aware of an original
Georgian house, The Manse, on nearby Prospect Street. It is a two-and-a-half story house under a side-gambrel roof, like that
of The Manse. It is five bays wide and three bays deep and the roof eaves make full returns in the gable ends. In comparison to
the Georgian house, however, the Georgian Revival’s proportions are larger and its features spread out to create larger interior
spaces. Three large dormers on the roof illustrate the grander scale. There are two pedimented dormers flanking a front-gable
dormer. The center dormer is large enough to accommodate a Palladian window composition. A broad entry with sidelights is
sheltered by a large, flat-roofed portico resting on Doric columns; it is topped by a balustrade. There is an enclosed, one-story
porch on the north elevation.
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 house was built in 1909 for Ysabel Swan of Chicago at a cost of $10,000. Round Hill, north of Clark
School, was opened for residential development around the turn of the century and quickly became one of the most exclusive
sections in the city. The hill provided sweeping views of the Connecticut River Valley and its surrounding hills, and had been the
site of Round Hill Hotel, Northampton’s premier tourist attraction of the mid 19th century.” Ysabel Swan also had a house on
Tyler Court.
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.462-P. 135
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [88 ROUND HILL ROAD]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.363
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.