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Bedford Terrace 12.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): June, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 31B-226 Easthampton NTH.690 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 12 Bedford Terrace Historic Name: Charles and Lillian Fitts House Uses: Present: 7-unit college housing Original: single-family house Date of Construction: 1895 Source: Springfield Daily Republican Style/Form: Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: Roscoe F. Putnam, architect Exterior Material: Foundation: granite blocks Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.205 acres Setting: This is a south-facing house house that sits on a lot that slopes down to the east. INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [12 BEDFORD TERRACE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.690 _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 good example of the Colonial Revival style in full bloom. It is a two-and-a-half story house on granite block foundations under a truncated hipped roof with wide eaves overhang. The house is only three bays wide and three bays deep, but proportions are grand and there is a front-gable pavilion centered on the east façade that is one bay wide and framed by fluted pilasters. Fluted pilasters also frame the main block of the house and rise to a wide entablature that is ornamented with a broad frieze and a dentil row. The decorative features of the house are focused on this pavilion. At the first floor level it has a porch across the width of the pavilion. The porch has Colonial Revival style corner posts and fluted Ionic columns with respondent pilasters framing the broad entry. The entry has a molded surround with leaded glass sidelights and transom lights framing the center wood paneled door. A balustrade tops the porch roof and provides a secondary porch for the second floor where a door in a Palladian composition surround opens. The door has an arched fanlight and sidelights that are now covered over. Fluted Ionic pilasters separate the elements of the Palladian surround. At the third floor level of the pavilion eaves make full returns to form a pediment and in its tympanum is a window beneath a broken swan’s neck pediment. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Discuss the history of the 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 1980, “This is one of four large Colonial Revival houses built on Bedford Terrace around the turn of the century. This house was built in 1895 at a cost of $8000 for Mrs. Rhoda Depuy. Through directory information it appears she was the mother-in-law of Charles N. Fitts, the owner of a furniture, carpet and undertaking business on Court Street in Northampton. Mr. Fitts also lived at this address. The design of the house is from R. F. Putnam, a well-known Northampton architect around the turn of the century.” Although the newspaper reported that the house was built for Mrs. Depuy, census records do not confirm that version. Charles and Lillian Fitts, their two sons, Lillian’s mother Rhoda Dupuy who was 73, three boarding Smith students, and a servant all lived here in 1900 and Charles was the head of household. The family continued to live in the house in 1910, now with three sons, but they no longer boarded students. Instead, they had two Japanese servants, a cook and a butler, and Rhoda (now spelled) DePew was in her 80s. In 1920 the Fitts family continued to occupy the house, although Rhoda had died, but rather than having live-in servants the Fitts three sons lived at home and two of them had married so there were two daughters-in-law as well. Charles continued to operate his furniture store (and seems to have dropped the undertaking business) while one of his sons, Donald, managed the store. The other two sons did not work and may have been in school. A family of several married generations was not unusual in Northampton at this time. By 1937 the house was occupied by Charles and Mrs. Woods. Charles commuted to Holyoke to work as a manager, while Mrs. Wood ran a lampshade business from the house. Roswell Putnam was a versatile architect who designed in the Stick Style, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles and worked for some of the city’s wealthiest residents. His son Karl Scott Putnam worked with his father for a period and then became a Smith College professor of architecture and practicing architect, so the family played an important role in Northampton’s architectural history. At the time this house was built, however, the father and son were not yet working together. 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. INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [12 BEDFORD TERRACE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.690 Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860. Northampton Directories of 1895-96, 1900, 1905, 1915, 1918. Springfield Daily Republican, December 28, 1895, p.4. Hampshire Daily Gazette, Nov. 30, 1895. INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [12 BEDFORD TERRACE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 NTH.690 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 Fitt 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. 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. 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 house designed by Northampton architect Roswell Putnam is a fine example of the Colonial Revival style and of his work. This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.