Crescent Street 181.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 24C-177 Easthampton NTH.316 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 181 Crescent Street Historic Name:
John Ruddy House Uses: Present: Two-family residence Original: Single-family house Date of Construction: 1896 Source: Atlas, Directory & Springfield Daily Republican Style/Form: Queen
Anne Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles Roof: metal with solar collectors Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Garage Major Alterations
(with dates): New metal roof with solar collectors added, second story porch restored, 1990-2010. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.256 acre Setting: This is an
east-facing house on a leafy, residential street.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [181 CRESCENT STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.316 _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 front-gabled, two-and-a-half story, Queen Anne style house with a gross-gabled roof on
the south. In the angle between the two sections of the building is a flat-roofed, two-story infill with an angled bay on its south elevation. The house has a full-width porch across
the east façade that includes the infill section. It is stacked and both stories of the porch have turned, half-length posts on high pedestals. The posts are connected by square baluster
railings. There is a large, fixed light window next to the main entry of the house, and sash elsewhere in the house is 2/2 and 1/1. There is a shallow oriel window in the shingled gable
field of the east façade. The house has a two-and-a-half story, shed roof ell on the west elevation. 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 Form B of 1980: “Crescent Street was laid out in 1886
midway along the slopes of Round Hill. It quickly became one of the most fashionable streets to build upon in Northampton. This house was built shortly before the turn of the century,
probably for John Ruddy, a local policeman at a cost of $2000.” 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.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [181 CRESCENT STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.316 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 Ruddy House would contribute to a potential historic district that extends north of Northampton’s primary corridor,
Elm Street, encircling and encompassing the primary feature of that landscape, Round Hill. The potential historic district is significant for its 19th century development from a few
gentlemen’s farms to a neighborhood dense with the homes of its most prominent residents and educational institutions that shaped the character of Northampton for several hundred years
to the present. Architecturally the potential historic district is significant for the mix of high style late Gothic Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne style houses, the Colonial Revival
and Tudor Revival styles of the 20th century that were often architect-designed by the region’s most well-known designers. The Ruddy House is a good example of the Queen Anne style.
This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.