176 South 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: Jayne Bernhard-Armington
Organization: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
Date (month / year): April 2011
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
38B-154 Easthampton NTH.1055
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 176 South Street
Historic Name: Jonathan Strong Residence
Uses: Present: Four-family residence
Original: Single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1862
Source: Hampshire Gazette, Jun. 10, 1862
Style/Form: Italianate
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: Brick
Wall/Trim: Brick
Roof: Unknown
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: Good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.468 acre
Setting: House sits in a residential neighborhood of former
single family homes that have been converted to buildings
with two or more residential units.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [176 SOUTH STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.1055
__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.
This is a two story Italianate style home with very low pitched hipped roof. The wide overhanging eaves are supported by
brackets. The wide frieze has decoratively patterned iron ventilators. A bracketed screened porch extends across the full width
of the front façade. The screened porch has chamfered posts that rest on solid brick piers, solid frieze, balustrade of bowed
balusters, and lattice apron. The front entrance has an elaborately styled door with ornately decorated leaded transom and
sidelights and this door is very similar in style to the house at 171 South Street. Above the porch, at the center of the front
façade, is a bayed window. On the southern elevation of the home is a shallow two story shingled bay that is rectilinear in shape
and has cross-hatched glazing on the second story with recessed corners on the first story. This feature was employed on other
Italianate style homes in this area of Northampton. Most of the home’s windows are six over six sash and have their orginal
glazings. Windows have stone lintels and sills. The house has a two story rear ell, also clad in brick and three brick chimne ys,
one of which is on the rear ell.
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: “Jonathan Strong had this brick residence built in 1862 on land of the Strong Family. Calvin Strong
owned the earlier residence, corner of South and Fort Streets, and sold the land to the northeast to J. Strong in 1862. The new
brick structure was hailed by the Hampshire Gazette as ‘one of the finest dwellings’ on South Street. At the time of its
construction, brick was scarce in the area, the Civil War and local conditions limiting production. In its massing, if not in its
decorative elements, the structure is related to the adjacent Calvin Strong House, a Federal style dwelling. The architect of the
Jonathan Strong House remains a mystery.
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: 1513.187, 1318.381, 873.279, 862.95, 204.131