Highland Avenue 2-4.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):
December, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 25C-183 Easthampton NTH.402 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 2-4 Highland Avenue Historic Name:
Morris Stront-William Fenno Pratt House Uses: Present: Three-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: ca. 1835 Source: Registry of Deeds Style/Form: eclectic
Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: asphalt shingles Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Siding added,
windows replaced, porches altered, building converted to 3-family, 1950-2000. Condition: Condition: fair-poor Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.151 acres Setting: This house occupied
a raised corner lot in a neighborhood of mainly 19th c. houses.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [2-4 HIGHLAND AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.402 ___ 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-story, south-facing house under a low-pitched hipped roof, a form that was more common
in the Federal style than the Greek Revival style of the 1830s when it was constructed. The house is five bays wide and three bays deep and rests on high brick foundations. It has two
entries on the south façade corresponding to the two living units and an exterior wood stairs on on the east elevation leads to a third unit. The south entries are sheltered by two porches
of flat roofs resting on replacement fluted columns of artificial material. Respondent pilasters, however, are Italianate in style and rise to an Italianate arched frieze with a dentil
row at the roof eaves. There is a one-story bay window on the west elevation that has three Italianate arched windows. It is likely that the porches and bay window were alterations made
by William F. Pratt, architect. All the windows of the remainder of the house have been replaced with 1/1 sash and the house has been sided with artificial shingles, so further historic
details are obscured. 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 house appears to have been built between 1834 and 1836 by Lewis Bliss, a ‘house carpenter.’ In 1836, Mr.
Bliss sold 1 ½ acres and the house to Morris Strong, who made his homestead here and maintained the property until 1861. In that year, the property was purchased by William F. Pratt.
Mr. Pratt was Northampton’s most prominent architect of the second half of the 19th century and had grown up in the house next north to this one, which was still owned by his father,
Thomas Pratt, himself a noted ‘master builder’ of the early 19th century. Mr. Pratt went bankrupt in the late 1870’s and his homestead was foreclosed on. Walter Rodiman, the agent for
the Connecticut River Railroad owned the house for a few years, and then in 1883, Charles Stevens, treasurer of the Crystal Emory Wheel Co. at Hawley and Main Streets bought the property.
Mr. Stevens lived in the house for a while, but soon moved to King Street. The 1895 atlas shows the house with the eastern addition, and the new street-Highland Avenue. Mr. Stevens still
owned this property as well as two other residences on the north side of Highland Avenue, and rented out tenements in all of them.” 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. 378-P. 31, 347-93, 199-333, 76-549, 73-27, 67-186