Henshaw Avenue 51.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): January, 2010 Assessor’s
Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 31B-124-001 Easthampton NTH.2453 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 51 Henshaw Avenue Historic Name: Uses: Present: multi-family
residence Original: single-family residence Date of Construction: ca. 1900 Source: atlas of 1895 Style/Form: Queen Anne/Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation:
brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Porch reconstruction, 2010. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes
| | Date Acreage: 0.19 acres Setting: Building occupies a corner lot at intersection of Henshaw Avenue and Barrett Place. The latter is a dead end at Henshaw, and is at a lower elevation.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [51 HENSHAW AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.2453 ___ 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 two-and-a-half story house that occupies a sloping lot, which fully exposes its basement
on south and east elevations, adding considerably to its size. In comparison to several other Queen Anne and Colonial Revival style houses on Henshaw Avenue and adjoining Crescent Street,
this is a stylistically more conservative and modest house. It is a two-and-a-half story house under a front-gable roof with transverse gable bays on north and south elevations for a
Queen Anne plan and elevation. The building has a two-story ell on the east that has a three-story stacked porch encompassing the exposed basement level. The main block of the house
is a simple two bays wide, one bay of which is a three-sided window adjacent to an entry with simple framed surround. A stacked, wrap-around porch crosses from west façade to north elevation.
It is supported on Colonial Revival style Doric columns at the first floor level and at the second story its railing runs between low posts and its roofed section is supported by ¾ length
Doric columns. Porch walls are shingled while the body of the house is clapboard-sided, foundations are brick, and roof is asphalt shingled – mixed siding materials that are characteristic
of both the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles. Windows in the house are 1/1 sash and have capped, Colonial Revival style lintels. In the west gable field, a pair of windows is separated
by an ornamental medallion with three recessed panels. 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. This house occupies land that in 1895 was part of the H. R. Hinckley residence, now known as “the Manse”
that extended between Prospect and Henshaw Avenues. It appears from the Northampton street directories that the land was divided and the house built as a single-family ca. 1900-1910,
as in 1919 Helen Strong lived here with a single boarder, Vina L. Bement. It was at about this time that Barrett Place was put in from Prospect Street on the Hinckley property and subdivided
into residential lots. 51 Henshaw had become a two-family house by 1929 when Genevieve and John Hodgins lived in one apartment and Anna and Mary Waterbury in the second. John Hodgins
was a custodian at the U. S. Veterans Hospital; Anna and Mary Waterbury were not employed. Between 1920 and 1925 the Northampton population had grown by 10% and it was profitable for
property owners to create apartments, so by 1930 the large house was further divided for a third apartment, which was occupied by John and Dorothy Boland. John Boland was a Northampton
dentist with an office at 160 Main Street. In 1940 the Bolands were still here but Ruth Griswold, assistant in the Alumni Office of Smith College and Helen Sherrill with no occupation
occupied the other two apartments. John Boland was a trustee of the Forbes Library through the 1940s and 1950s. Unlike most of the houses that were converted to multi-family use and
have remained that way, this house appears to have been returned by the Bolands to single-family use. The Bolands shared the house with their son John in 1960. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, 1873. Massachusetts Historical Commission. Reconnaissance Reports, “Northampton”, 1982. Miller, D. L. Atlas of the City
of of Northampton and Town of Easthampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, 1895. Northampton Directories 1910-1960. Sanborn Insurance Maps, Northampton, 1915. U. S. Federal
censuses 1890-1930. Walker, George H. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884.
Massachusetts Historical Commission Community Property Address State Archives Facility 220 Morrissey Boulevard Northampton 51 Henshaw Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02125 Area(s) Form
No. NTH.2453 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.