Bright Street 33.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 31B-105 Easthampton NTH.621 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 33 Bright Street Historic Name: Mrs.
Mary Finn House Uses: Present: five-family house Original: single-family house Date of Construction: 1882-1884 Source: Registry of Deeds and Atlas Style/Form: Queen Anne/Stick Style
Architect/Builder: William Fenno Pratt and son Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: vinyl Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with
dates): Converted from single-family to multi-family, 1917-1937. Siding added, windows replaced, rear addition made ca. 2000. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.172
acres Setting: This house faces south on a tree-shaded residential street.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [33 BRIGHT STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.621 _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 house is one of four on Bright Street that are stylistically idiosyncratic – a mixture of
Queen Anne and Stick Style not commonly found in Northampton. This house has suffered from having been vinyl sided and having had its windows replaced so that much of its stylistic character
has been covered if not entirely lost. What characterizes all four of the Pratt-attributed houses houses is the use of jerkin head roofs whether the house is two-and-a-half stories in
height, as is the case here at #33, or one-and-a-half stories in height as at 28 Bright Street. Though it is rare in the Queen Anne style, the jerkin head roof does appear as here. The
south façade only three bays wide is yet made monumental by its tall proportions and a projecting center entry pavilion one bay wide beneath a front-gabled roof. In the gable field of
the pavilion are the remains of a Stick Style decorative truss framing an oculus window in the center of the field. The house is two bays deep and has a two-story rear ell. Beneath the
jerkin head roofs at attic level are remaining three-part windows on the east and west. A wide frieze encircles the house beneath the eaves. The house has a shed roof porch sheltering
its entry on the south façade. The porch on thin posts appears to have been an alteration or addition. There is a pair of center chimneys on the roof ridge. Although this house is the
work of Northampton architect William Fenno Pratt, it has been considerably altered so is not the best example of his designs. 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 1980 form, “This is one
of eight houses built from designs of William F. Pratt and Son in the early 1880s for Parker Whitcomb. Mr. Whitcomb and Prof. Benjamin Blodgett collaborated on an opening of Bright Street
between King Street and State Street in 1882. Over the next two years Mr. Whitcomb had two houses built on either side of the western end of Bright Street and four houses on State Street.
He retained ownership of the houses after they were built and leased them to tenants.” In 1917 the house was owned by Mrs. Mary Finn a widow of Patrick Finn. Between 1917 and 1937 the
house was converted to a multi-family and in 1937 eight unrelated people lived here in the units. 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: Bk. 370-P. 345; 367-85; 385-31.