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29 Tyler Court 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: PVPC Date (month / year): January, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 31B-299 & 300 Easthampton NTH.2464 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 29 Tyler Court Historic Name: Anna McCarthy house Uses: Present: single-family residence Original: two-family residence Date of Construction: 1930 Source: Northampton Directories Style/Form: Craftsman/Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: aluminum Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Garage Major Alterations (with dates): Siding added ca. 1980 Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: .246 acres over two lots Setting: This is an east-facing house at the end of a dead- end street. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [29 TYLER COURT] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.2464 _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 one of four houses on Tyler Court, and the only house that began as a two-family, and was converted to a single-family residence. It is stylistically transitional between the Colonial Revival and Craftsman. It is a two-and-a-half story house under a side-gable roof with a center projecting pavilion with its own front-gable roof. The pavilion roof has Craftsman style exposed rafters. The house is three bays wide and three bays deep and has wide eaves overhang with corner supporting braces , Craftsman features. It has a two-story rectangular bay window on its south elevation beside a chimney that laces through the eaves, but emerges above the roof further in from the end wall. A stacked porch covers the center pavilion’s first two stories on the east façade. It is screened in at the second floor and open at the first and supported on square posts. The use of a stacked porch for a two-family house became common in urban areas of western Massachusetts in the early 20th century as an economical way to provide porch space for the second floor unit. A one-story open section of the porch crosses the southern half of the façade. It has a decorative railing pattern. Windows in the house are largely 4/4. As a sided house, there may be other details that are not currently visible. There is a garage south west of the house that dates ca. 1940 . 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. This house first appears in the 1930 Northampton Directory with both of its units occupied. Anna D. Allison, widow of Henry E. Allison and teacher at the Hill Institute, moved here from 16 Paradise Road with her daughters Anna, a teacher, and Elizabeth Allison, a curator of the Smith Art Department. The second unit was occupied by Elliot and Laura LaMontagne. Elliot was a commercial traveler, or traveling salesman. Tyler Court had been laid out as a new street in Northampton in 1929. Rev. Henry M. Tyler had sold his property in 1928, including what was then his house at 44 Prospect Street, to developer Eugene J. McCarthy. McCarthy then took down the Tyler house and laid out six lots on a new street. Tyler was a professor of Greek and Literature at Smith College and McCarthy was a land speculator who bought and sold hundreds of properties throughout several of the Connecticut River Valley towns. He was instrumental in the development of Crescent Street in Northampton as well as areas in Florence and Leeds. The lots on Tyler Court were sold during 1929 and 1930 mainly to people who were already Northampton residents. Two lots, numbers 5 and 6, were put in his wife Anna McCarthy’s name in 1929 and this two-family house erected on them. Anna and Eugene McCarthy lived at 117 South Street in Northampton so this was an investment property for them. In the following year, 1931, the LaMontagnes had been replaced by Fay Webber in the second unit. He worked nearby in Florence as a production manager at a hosiery mill. The two-family house continued to be attractive to Smith College faculty members and had a relatively high initial rental turnover rate. In 1940 it was occupied by Vincent and Bethel Scramuzza. Vincent was an associate professor of history at Smith and in the second unit by John Strubbe and Georgia. John was president and treasurer of Northampton Buick Company. Just three years later one of the units was occupied by Harriet C. Ford who was a teacher at Smith, and the second by Timothy Hurley, Jr. and his wife Anne. Hurley was a salesman and both Ms. Ford and the Hurleys continued to occupy their portions of the house through 1960. The residents of Tyler Court were consistently a mix of educators, businessmen, and retired individuals. After selling this property Henry Tyler moved to a rental and at the age of 86 in 1930 was president of the Northampton Street Railway Company. He had always been active in academic, religious and commercial institutions. He was a deacon and on the Board of Directors of the Edwards Church in the 1890s, was president of the YMCA for a number of years, retired from Smith by 1925 when he became president of the Northampton Institute for Savings. The house was converted to a single-family residence in 2006 according to the assessor’s records. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [29 TYLER COURT] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.2464 BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES U.S. Federal Censuses, 1910-1930. Northampton Directories, 1900-1960. Hampshire County Registry of Deeds, Plan Book 13 Page 71A, 1929; Deed Book 849, page 33, 1928; Deed Book 855, page 135, 1929. Massachusetts Historical Commission Community Property Address State Archives Facility 220 Morrissey Boulevard Northampton 29 Tyler Court Boston, Massachusetts 02125 Area(s) Form No. NTH.2464 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 historic district that would encompass the residential/institutional side streets laid out from Elm Street in Northampton Center between Main Street on the east and the west boundary of Childs Park on the west. This potential historic district is significant according to criteria A and C and would have local significance. These residential streets are significant according to criterion A for their reflection of the development of Northampton from the mid-19th century as a relatively affluent community that supported several private schools for young women, which prepared them after 1875 for attendance at Smith College, and the Clarke School where deaf students were given an education that thoroughly prepared them for the hearing world. The residences in this area made a shift from gentlemen’s estates to accommodation of the growing middle class in Northampton during the 19th century with businessmen, scholars, teachers, doctors, and retired farmers. According to criterion C this district would be significant for the range of historical styles that it includes. Gothic Revival, Italianate, French Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles are all well-represented within a landscape of individual large lots, and streetscapes that were laid out and developed at one time.