Audubon Road 395.pdf
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. FORM B − BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Photograph Topographic or Assessor's Map Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons Organization: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Date (month /year):
March, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 6-020-001 Easthampton NTH.2 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Leeds Address: 395 Audubon Road Historic Name:
Calvin Clark House Uses: Present: Single-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: ca. 1840 Source: Clark family history Style/Form: Greek Revival Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material: Foundation: stone Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Barn Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | |
Date Acreage: 8.87 acres Setting: This is a south-facing house that is set on a rise in the landscape.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [395 Audubon Road] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.2 _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-and-a-half story Greek Revival style house under a side gable roof. It has two interior
chimneys and boxed eaves that make returns in the gable ends. The house is five bays wide and two bays deep and had a broad trabeated door surround with pilasters supporting an entablature
and enclosing half-length sidelights. Windows in the house have 6/6 sash and drip molding surrounds. A wide frieze is beneath the eaves and pilasters form the cornerboards of the house.
There is a two-and-a-half story rear ell on the house and it has a one-story, shed roof addition on its south elevation. South east of the house is a large, New England form, side-hill
barn. The house and barn are one of the last relatively intact farmsteads on Audubon Road. 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 the Form B of 1975, “This large, sprawling farmhouse is located
on the Clark homestead near the intersection of the “highway” from Williamsburg to Northampton (Audubon Road) and the “highway” from Williamsburg to Southampton (Kennedy Road). During
the last decade of the 18th century three families established themselves on the Williamsburg-Northampton Road west of the Mill River. These were: James Smith (c.1790), Calvin Clark
(1792) and Luke Day (1794). The settlement was called Rail Hill and in later years, after the harnessing of the Mill River near its junction with Roberts Meadow Brook, and the growth
of an industrial village there, became part of Leeds. Calvin Clark was 22 years old and just married when he settled here, about six miles from the center of Northampton, and the nearest
of the three homesteads to the Williamsburg line. Mr. Clark continued on the homestead until his death in 1862 at the age of 93. According to Solomon Clark (1882) the present house is
the third one erected on the homestead. The Greek Revival styling would seem to date the house to about 1840. There is a large multi-level barn with “1882” inscribed on it to the east
of the house.” BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Hampshire Massachusetts, New York, 1873. Clark, Solomon. Antiquities, Historicals and Graduates of Northampton,
1882, pp. 162-165. Hales, John G. Plan of the Town or Northampton in the County of Hampshire, 1831. Miller, 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.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [395 Audubon Road] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.2 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 Clark House is eligible for the National Register as one of the two remaining homes of the Clark family that settled
the area in the late 18th century and farmed the area for generations. The history of their agricultural economy is an important feature of Northampton’s development and its current
immediate setting retains the character of the area as it appeared when the Clark family was actively actively working the land. Architecturally, the house is significant as an example
of the Greek Revival house of a large family, which, together with its dairy barn, represent a working 18th century farmstead and part of the dairying industry of the Connecticut River
valley.