Beacon Street 43.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: PVPC Date (month /year): April, 2010 Assessor’s Number
USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 23A-196 Easthampton NTH.220 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 43 Beacon Street Historic Name: Kate Coughlin House Uses:
Present: single-family residence Original: single-family residence Date of Construction: 1882-1884 Source: Registry of Deed and atlas Style/Form: Italianate Architect/Builder: Exterior
Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: slate and asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Carriage barn Major Alterations (with dates): Wing added ca. 2000.
Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.635 Acres Setting: House is on a wooded lot, facing south. It is set back from the street.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [43 BEACON STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NHT.220 _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 Kate Coughlin House takes a form that was popular during the Italianate style period. It is
two-and-a-half stories high under a side-gable roof on which is centered a transverse gable. A pair of chimneys rise from the center section of the roof. Wide boxed eaves have paired
Italianate brackets on all elevations. The house is only three bays wide but proportions are large. The center entry is sheltered by an Italianate style porch supported on chamfered
posts that have arched braces at the eaves. A railing tops the porch providing a second story porch entered by a second story door. Windows are paired on the first story and have 2/1
sash and shallow hooded lintels. The clapboard-sided house has a visually active surface divided by double stringcourses between stories. There is a one-and-a-half story wing on the
east that has an exterior wall chimney. A vertically-sided carriage house follows the elevation of the main house by being side-gabled with a centered transverse gable. It has an arched
window in the transverse gable and a cupola centered on its roof. 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 1976, “This was one of the earliest houses built on Beacon Street. The street
had been laid out during the 1860s, but was primarily the private domain of George Burr, one of Florence’s leading industrialists who had bought 8 ½ acres on both sides of the street
in 1868. In 1882 Kate Coughlin bought a lot east of Burr’s homestead and had this house built. At the end of the year she sold the lot and house to John B. O’Donnell, one of Northampton’s
first mayors and a real estate developer. Miss Coughlin continued to live in the house, however. “ 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. Registry of Deeds: Book 253. Page 217. Sheffeld, Charles (ed.) History of Florence, Florence, 1895.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [43 BEACON STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NHT.220 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 Coughlin House would contribute to a Beacon Street Historic District developed and resided in by some of Florence’s
leading industrialists in the 1860s-1910s. It represents the shift in Florence from neighborhoods that mixed mill workers’ housing with mill owners’ housing of the first half of the
century to that of neighborhoods of economically-similar residents with, in this case, large lots, grand homes set back from a broad street. Architecturally, the district is significant
for its range of high style homes and a church in the Stick Style, Italianate, Queen Anne and Tudor Revival styles. Further research would indicate which among them were architect-designed,
as many certainly were. The Coughlin House is a particularly fine Italianate style house that has been well-preserved.