3 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-296-001 Easthampton NTH.2461
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 3 Tyler Court
Historic Name: Joseph and Jean Huber House
Uses: Present: single-family residence
Original: single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1933
Source: Northampton Directories
Style/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: brick
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: attached garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.310 acres
Setting: Set on a raised corner lot, the house has a brick
terrace in front. It has a large landscaped lot with mature
shade trees.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [3 TYLER COURT]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.2461
__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 fine example of the 20th century Colonial Revival style house, a style that began in the last quarter of the 19th century
and continues to the present. It is two-and-a-half stories under a side-gable roof, is five bays wide and two bays deep but unlike
most of its New England Colonial predecessors it has centered, end-wall chimneys. The east façade has a center entrance
reached through a portico on Doric columns and battered pilasters, both of which have high impost blocks. The columns support
the portico’s entablature that has a frieze and row of over-scaled dentils beneath its cornice. This row of dentils is repeated at
the eaves cornice of the main house roof. The portico has a flat roof topped by a wrought iron railing. The door surround is
broad and consists of battered pilasters supporting an entablature. The door itself has nine lights in its upper half and is paneled
in its lower half. Windows in the house are large-scaled and have 8/8 sash. Their lintels are a row of soldier bricks. A two-bay
garage wing is located on the north elevation of the house, set back from the plane of the façade. It has a second story level
with two small windows and is clapboard sided.
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.
Tyler Court was laid out as a new street from Prospect Street in 1929 on land that had belonged to Henry M. Tyler. Tyler was a
professor of Greek and Literature at Smith College who lived at 44 Prospect Street and sold his property to Eugene J. McCarthy
in 1928 including his house. After selling this property, Henry Tyler moved to a rental with a son 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. He died
in 1931.
McCarthy was a very active developer speculating in land in many of the Connecticut River Valley towns: Easthampton,
Northampton, Amherst, Hatfield and other towns. A Northampton resident at 117 South Street with his wife Anna, he was
responsible for much of the land development on Crescent Street, in both Florence and Leeds as well. After Tyler’s house was
taken down, the lots sold within a few years. The first to sell was Lot 1 of 3 Tyler Place and it was sold to Joseph Huber in 1929.
Joseph and Jean Huber were Northampton residents renting a house in Roe Street. Though they were the first to buy a lot, they
were the last to build on the new street, their house going up in 1932. Joseph Huber began as a sales manager with the Pro-
phy-lactic Brush Company in Northampton and rose to become vice president of the company. The company played an
important role in Northampton’s industrial history and employed many people over the course of its operations. The Hubers had
two children, Joseph and Betty and were in the house through 1958. Joseph Huber died in 1991 in Hartford, Connecticut at age
104. The house was next owned by Margot and Osborne Griggs by 1960. Osborne Griggs was president and treasurer of the
Coca Cola Bottling Company of Northampton which was located on King Street. The Griggs had a son Alfred.
The development of Tyler Court and its residents is representative of much of the residential composition of the center of
Northampton. From large estates on Prospect Street at the end of the 19th century the center was gradually adding new streets
with smaller lots in the first decades of the 19th century, although residents remained largely a mix of company owners,
educators, and retired or independently wealthy individuals. The concentration of housing on smaller lots was an acceptable
change after World War I when the population increased and the concept of the garden suburb grew more common.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [3 TYLER COURT]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
NTH.2461
U.S. Federal Censuses, 1910-1930.
Northampton Directories, 1900-1959.
Hampshire County Registry of Deeds, Plan Book 13 Page 71A, 1929; Deed Book 849, page 33, 1928; Book 853, page 296,
1929.
Hampshire Gazette, 1931, Nov.4, 5, 14.
Hampshire County Registry of Deeds, Plan Book 13, Page 71A.
Massachusetts Historical Commission Community Property Address
State Archives Facility
220 Morrissey Boulevard Northampton 3 Tyler Court
Boston, Massachusetts 02125
Area(s) Form No.
NTH.2461
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.