Dawes form BFriday, March 11, 2016 at 3:09: PM
Inventory No:NTH.689
Historic Name:Brewster, Mary House - Smith College Dormitory
Common Name:James, Mary Lois Alumnae House - Dawes House
Address:8 Bedford Terr
City/Town:Northampton
Village/Neighborhood:Northampton
Local No:31B-225-001
Year Constructed:
Architect(s):
Architectural Style(s):Colonial Revival
Use(s):Doctor Or Dentist Office; Dormitory; Restaurant; Single
Family Dwelling House
Significance:Architecture; Commerce; Education; Health Medicine
Area(s):NTH.C: Smith College
Designation(s):
Building Materials(s):
Roof: Slate
Wall: Wood Clapboard; Wood
Foundation: Brick
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Massachusetts Historical Commission
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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): April, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
31B-225 Easthampton C NTH.689
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 8 Bedford Terrace
Historic Name: Mary Brewster House
Uses: Present: Smith College building
Original: single-family residence
Date of Construction: 1899
Source: Springfield Daily Republican
Style/Form: Georgian Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: clapboards
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates): Second story of porch
enclosed or added, n.d.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.22 Acres
Setting: This is a south-facing house on a short street
lined with houses and college dormitories.
RECEIVED
AUG 19 2011
MASS. HIST. COMM.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [8 BEDFORD TERRACE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
C NTH.689
_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 Mary Brewster House is a fine example of the Georgian Revival style that was a refinement of the Colonial Revival style. It
is two-and-a-half stories under a slate-covered gambrel roof. The house is three bays wide and three bays deep, where the
original Georgian house would have been five bays wide, but in the Revival style proportions grew larger. The house has a two-
story wing on its northwest corner. The main block of the house has a two-story porch centered over the entry. At first floor
level the porch is supported by fluted Doric columns with respondent pilasters framing the door surround, which has an elliptical
leaded glass fanlight and leaded glass sidelights. Turned balusters form the porch railing at first floor. The second floor has
been enclosed. Pilasters ornamented with oval patera above the capitals frame the house and window lintels have wide friezes
with a dentil row beneath a narrow cornice. There are three dormers on the roof’s east façade. Two of them are simply
pedimented but the center dormer has a broken swan’s neck pediment. There is an off-center chimney on the roof and a three-
sided, one story bay on the south elevation of the house. The wing is entered through a porch on paired columns. A balustrade
tops the porch roof and suggests the original appearance of the main porch. Windows in the house have 1/1 sash.
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.
Mary J. (F.) Brewster and her partner Mary Augusta Camp, were both physicians and lived and practiced here in 1900. Mary
Augusta Camp was Smith College’s physician. By 1908, however, Mary A. Camp and Mary Brewster were no longer listed in
Northampton directories. By 1917 this house had become the Mary Lois James Alumni House and by 1937 was German House
under Julia Bueckling.
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.
Hampshire Daily Gazette, November 30, 1895.
Springfield Daily Republican, December 28, 1895, p.4.
U.S. Federal Censuses, 1880-1930.
Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884.
Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [8 BEDFORD TERRACE]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
C NTH.689
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.
The Mary Brewster House would contribute to a potential Bedford Terrace historic district that developed after the
street was laid out at the end of the 19th century with houses built by well-to-do merchants, educators and
independently wealthy residents. Many of the first owners were single women several of whom were professional
academicians and physicians, as in the case of Mary Brewster and Mary Augusta Camp, both physicians . The street
is significant for its long association with Smith College as early on it became a part of the Smith College housing
plan when the school had insufficient on-campus housing and a growing student body. At the end of the 19th century
the houses became student boarding houses, dormitory residences or single rooms were rented out. The Bedford
Terrace association with Smith College grew even stronger with construction of two large-scale dormitories on the
street and Smith College gradually acquired the houses.
Architecturally the potential historic district is significant for the fine examples of the Colonial Revival style that line
its western side and for the architect-designed Revival style dormitories on its eastern side. This potential historic
district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.
FORM B - BUILDING
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02108
Area Form no.
I
Town
\
Northampton
Address 8 Bedford Terrace
Historic Name
Use: Original_
Present
M. Brewster House
residence
(-•g^aelua-t'e-jstudent housing
Ownership:O Private individual
Private organization
Smith College
Public
Original owner !ary J. Brewster
SKETCH MAP
Draw map showing property's
location in relation to nearest
cross streets and other buildings
or geographical features.
Indicate north.
DESCRIPTION:
Date 1899
Source ^ «D. R.
Style Gergian Colonial Revival
Architect
Exterior wall fabric
Outbuildings
clapboard
Major alterations (with dates)_
rear additions- 20th c.
Moved Date
Approx. acreage
Recorded by Ann bilkerson and E» Lonerg§gtting
Organization NHG
Date 3-24-77 and 1980
(Staple additional sheets he-^)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within community)
Sited on a sloping hill close to Elm St.,8 Bedford Terrace is
topped by a massive Gambrel roof. The three story elevation had been
altered by later two story, flat roofed additions. In style, the house
is in the Georgian Colonial Revival mode: light yellow clapboarding, r
resting on a brick foundation, is embellished with two story white Ionic
pilasters. Other Georgian details include: a deltilled cornice, class-
ical window moldings, two pedimented facade dormers, and a fanlit entry-
way. In addition, the central facade sormer ha a broken and scrolled
pediment, another feature of the Georgian style.
The syrnmetriaally arranged facade is of the traditional New England
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (explain the role owners played in local or state history cont
and how the building relates to the development of the community)
Tfiis house was built f<6r Nary Brewster, a physician in 1899 at a cost
$8000. Bedford Terrace had been opened around 1390, with residential devel-
opment taking plane only on the northern side of the street. There "Col-
onially" inspired houses were erected around the turnnof the century. By
1915 this house was listed in the directory as "Mary Lois James' Alumnae
HOuse and Tearoom". In 1935 the property was bought by Smith College and
converted into a German language house. Tn 1957, the building was changed
to a graduate student dormitory.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
1895 and 1915 Atlases.
Northampton Directory: 1900, 190j5_, ,1915, 1922,
Springfield Daily Republican Dec. 30, 1894.
20M-2/80
waasaemmm^issm
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Ccramunity: Form No:
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
Office of the Secretary, Boston
Northampton 31B-225
|Property Name: M . Brewster House
Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued belcw.
Architectural Significance
"three over three" pattern, in which each second floor window is aligned
with a matching opening at the first floor level. The Main entryway,
fanlit with flanking sidelights and pilaafeers, is supported by white
Doric fluted columns. A second story room was later added above the
porch roof. Two other side porches (east-service, west-formal) were
added at a later date. A polygaoal bay window which projects from the
west sdde of the parlor interrupts the taut rectilinear massing of the
rest of the houee.
I
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET NORTHAMPTON 8 BEDFORD TERRACE
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING r——-i.——
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Smith College Survey Update
February 2002 by Boston Affiliates Inc.
The following are changes to the original inventory form.
NAME: The present Smith College name is Dawes House.
ALTERED: Replacement windows were added in 1986.
PHOTO: Dawes House, 8 Bedford Terrace, 11/01