Dryads Green 59.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 31A-264 Easthampton NTH.569 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 59 Dryads Green Historic Name: Reverend
Robert Seneca Smith House Uses: Present: Single-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1915-1919 Source: Atlas and Directory Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: granite Wall/Trim: granite, clapboards Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.181 acre Setting: This is a west-facing house on a quiet, dead-end, residential street.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [59 DRYADS GREEN] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.569 _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 Smith House is one of the most unusual late Queen Anne houses in this section of Northampton.
It is two-and-a-half stories in height under a front-gable roof. There is a cross-gable bay on the south elevation and in the angle between the main block and the cross-gable is a round,
three-story tower with a domed metal roof. The first story of the house is rusticated granite blocks and the second story is wood shingles. The west façade has a wraparound porch that
crosses from west to north elevation. It is distinct for its rounded corner, turned posts and bracketed eaves. There is a secondary porch on similar posts at the south east corner of
the house. An exterior wall chimney is granite block on the first story level and becomes brick as it rises through the eaves of the south elevation, a Craftsman feature that was adopted
by the designer of this house. 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: “Dryads Green was opened in 1890 and quickly became built up with costly, modern houses. This house is
located at the end of the major leg of Dryad’s Green and provides a fitting focus for one of the most ‘aristocratic’ of areas in the city. The house doesn’t appear on the 1915 atlas,
and seems to have been built in 1918, as the Rev. Robert S. Smith is first listed here in 1919. Rev. Smith lived next door at 57 Dryads Green prior to having this house constructed.
He was a professor of Biblical literature at Smith College.” 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] [59 DRYADS GREEN] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.569 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. This property would contribute to a potential historic district that would encompass the residential/institutional side
streets laid out from Elm Street in Northampton Center between Main Street on the east and the west boundary of Childs Park on the west. This potential historic district is significant
according to criteria A and C and would have local significance. These residential streets are significant according to criterion A for their reflection of the development of Northampton
from the mid-19th century as a relatively affluent community that supported several private schools for young women, which prepared them after 1875 for attendance at Smith College, and
the Clarke School where deaf students were given an education that thoroughly prepared them for the hearing world. The residences in this area made a shift from gentlemen’s estates to
accommodation of the growing middle class in Northampton during the 19th century with businessmen, scholars, teachers, doctors, and retired farmers. According to criterion C this district
would be significant for the range of historical styles that it includes. Gothic Revival, Italianate, French Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles are all well-represented
within a landscape of individual large lots, and streetscapes that were laid out and developed at one time.