130 Spring 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
Please see attached continuation sheet.
Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons
Organization: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
Date (month / year): March, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
22B-8 Easthampton NTH.144;2548
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence
Address: 130 Spring Street
Historic Name: Julius and Jemima Phelps House
Uses: Present: single-family house
Original: single-family house
Date of Construction: 1815
Source: Sheffeld, History of Florence
Style/Form: Cape Cod Form
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: not visible
Wall/Trim: vinyl
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: commercial garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Dormers added ca. 1900; siding added and windows
replaced ca. 2000. Porch added ca. 1920; bay window
added ca. 2000.
Condition: good-fair
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 1.51 acres
Setting: This houses faces northeast at an intersection
and overlooks agricultural fields.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [130 SPRING STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.144
__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 one-and-a-half story Cape Cod form house that has undergone many changes, but that still shows its original form.
The house has a side-gable roof of asphalt shingles, but its foundations are low and not visible form the road. The house has a
one-story wing on the north and a large attached commercial garage. The house is sided in vinyl and has small vinyl
replacement windows with 1/1 sash, both of which alterations obscure the age of the house. Two shed roof dormers were
added to its roof, and a Colonial Revival porch entry was added, ca. 1920. Also added to the house is a bay window on the east
and an ell on the south elevation for a relatively complex plan. Florence was a village of predominately modest buildings and it
is this context in which the Phelps House may be seen.
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.
Thought to be one of the older houses in Florence, the Captain Julius and Jemima Phelps House, was built ca. 1815 when the
Phelps left Northampton and moved to Florence to establish a farm around the junction of Meadow and Spring Streets. This
section of Florence, east of Spring Street, was part of Northampton’s Inner Commons in the allocation of land that took place in
1657. Although the Phelps land would have been tilled by previous owners, namely the Clarks and the Warners, it was not
settled until the Phelps’ arrival. As was common during the 19th century in Florence, a rather large number of people occupied
the small house. In 1820 there were 8 people, Julius, Jemima, and the first 6 of their 7 children. By 1830 the household
contained 9 members. In 1850 Julius was 70 and Jemima was 65 and they had their son Cephas living and farming with them
as well as 14-year old Caroline Rodney. Julius died in 1857 and Jemima remained on the farm with their son Julius, Jr., his 9
year-old daughter Harriet, and an older woman, “Widow Baggs”. Next door was another son, Solomon and his wife Nancy.
Julius, Jr. was a mechanic as well as farmer and was highly regarded in Florence as active in the Congregational Church and
town affairs. He had married Edith Jacobs prior to 1870 and lived with her daughter and Harriet. He became the oldest member
of the Congregational Church and led the 25th anniversary celebration for Rev. and Mrs. Cobb in 1891. After his death in 1892
the farm passed to John J. and Bridget Mahoney prior to 1900.
The Mahoneys had emigrated from Ireland in 1862 as newly-weds. With them in the house in 1900 were their children Michael,
Daniel, Margaret, Thomas, Stephen, and Frank. Frank was still in school, but two of the sons and the daughter farmed with their
parents while three of them worked in local factories: the brush factory, the silk mill, and as a machinist in an unnamed industry.
This was a distribution of occupations typical of families at the outset of the 20th century in Florence. By 1910 Bridget had died
and in 1920 John had retired from farming and three of his children were still living with him, Margaret, Thomas and Stephen, the
latter two of whom were working as truckers rather than farming. John J. had died by 1930 leaving Margaret, Thomas and
Stephen in the house. Margaret went out to work in a silk mill as a spooler, Thomas ran a trucking business and Stephen
worked in a machine shop as a laborer. The trucking company, Mahoney Trucking, continued and was run ning from the house
by Margaret and a business partner Bernard Slattery in 1948. Margaret was still in the house in 1950.
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.
U.S. Federal Censuses, 1820-1930.
Northampton Directories, 1900-1950.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [130 SPRING STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.144