Crescent Street 27.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-10 Easthampton NTH.596 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 27 Crescent Street Historic Name: Reverend
Rufus S. Underwood House Uses: Present: Four-family residence Original: Single-family house Date of Construction: 1894 Source: Springfield Daily Republican Style/Form: Queen Anne Architect/Builder:
Putnam and Bayley, architects Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: vinyl, aluminum Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Garage Major Alterations (with dates): Sided
ca. 1990 Condition: good/fair Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.319 acre acre Setting: This house occupies a large corner lot that is shaded by an enormous beech tree.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [27 CRESCENT STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.596 _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 Queen Anne style house that is two-and-a-half stories in height beneath a slate hipped
roof. It has cross gables on the west, north and south giving the interior considerable volume. The roof has wide eaves that flare slightly and a slim, shed roof dormer on the west.
Aluminum and vinyl siding obscures much of the character of the house and where metal panning has been been applied at the eaves additional detail has been lost. What remains largely
uncovered is the entry porch on the west. It is one-story in height under a front-gable roof whose eaves form a pent roof. The roof rests on posts with solid brackets that follow an
arch between the posts and over the center entry. A fine spindle frieze and turned baluster railings add to the porch’s unique design. Windows in the house are a mixture of 6/2 and 2/2
sash with a Queen Anne style multi-paned window in an angled bay above the porch. 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: “This large house was built for the Rev. Rufus S. Underwood
in 1894 from the designs of Putnam and Bayley. This form had been formed the previous year and consisted of R.F. Putnam, a native of the area, and Lewis Bayley, from Louisville, Kentucky.
In 1897, Mr. Bayley left the area and Mr. Putnam continued practicing here. His son, Karl S. Putnam, was also an architect in Northampton.” 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. 418-P. 34, 406-118
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [27 CRESCENT STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.596 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 Underwood 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 it 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 Underwood House is a fine example of the Queen Anne style and is exceptionally well-preserved.
It is the work of Northampton architects Roswell Putnam and Bayley. This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.