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Henshaw Avenue Smith Campus_Parsons_House.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-170 Easthampton NTH.652 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: Henshaw Avenue, Smith Campus Historic Name: Parsons House Uses: Present: College dormitory Original: Private School Date of Construction: 1902 Source: Smith College Archives Style/Form: Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: granite and brick Wall/Trim: clapboards, shingles Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Entry added. Ca. 2000 Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.638 acres Setting: This building is set on a a hillside in the center of a block and set back from the street. INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ][HENSHAW AVE, SMITH CAMPUS] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 NTH.652 _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. Parsons House is a two-and-a-half plus one-half story building under a side-gambrel roof that is slate-covered. The basement on the east façade is exposed for a full story. It is a large Colonial Revival style building six bays long and three bays deep and it has a cross-gambrel ell of two-and-a-half stories on the west elevation. The clapboard-sided building has a row of of five pedimented dormers across its east and three pedimented dormers across its west elevations. The dormers have shingled pediments and their exposed sides are slate-covered. The main entry to the building is on the east façade at the basement level. It is a contemporary alteration to the building, a glass-enclosed vestibule. There are secondary entries on the north and south elevations of the buildings through porches. The porch on the north is an open, balustrade-topped porch on columns and the porch on the south, also open, has more slender post supports. The north ell is composed of two sections with gambrel roofs; the second section attached to the north elevation of the first ell is slightly lower in height. The first ell is two bays wide and contains on its north elevation a cross-gable above an angled bay window. The second ell, three bays wide, has a centered polygonal tower in which is a secondary entry. The building is decorated with a molded stringcourse, a wide beltcourse and in its gable ends the roof eaves make full returns to form pediments. The Colonial Revival style building does not have a strong entrance but shows many of the features of this style adapted to school use. 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 1977: “In 1921, Parsons House was purchased from the builder, Miss Capen, who had used the building, then called Faunce House, as a part of Capen School. In 1928, the Trustees of Smith College changed its name to Parsons House, in honor of the prominent Northampton family. Cornet Joseph Parsons was one of the founders of Northampton in 1654; his descendent Harriet Parsons graduated from Smith in 1892. The house stands on the old Sydenham Clark Parsons property.” 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 ][HENSHAW AVE, SMITH CAMPUS] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 NTH.652 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. Parsons 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. Parsons House is a fine example of the Colonial Revival style applied to an institutional building and would contribute to the historic district. This potential historic district has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.