Kensington Avenue 61.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-242 Easthampton NTH.551 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 61 Kensington Avenue Historic Name:
Mantor House Uses: Present: Two-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1890-1894 Source: Registry of Deeds & Directory Style/Form: Queen Anne Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: vinyl Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Siding added and windows replaced, ca.
2008. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.112 acres Setting: This is an east-facing house set near to the Smith College Quadrangle.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [61 KENSINGTON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.551 _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 Queen Anne style house shared architectural elements with other houses on Kensington Street
at 58, 64 and 62, suggesting they originated in a common plan. It is two-and-a-half stories in height under a front-gable roof with a two-and-a-half story tower set back from the plane
of the main block. The tower has a steeply-pitched hipped roof, and at its first story is the main entry to the house behind a porch on turned posts with brackets and a spindled frieze
at its eaves. A three-story bay is attached to the front-gabled section of the house. Like the bay at 64 Kensington it has an open porch at the third story supported on thick turned
posts. Windows in the house are replacements and it is vinyl-sided, which has made its details less apparent. 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: “Kensington Avenue was opened in 1890
and quickly became one of Northampton’s most ‘aristocratic’ streets. By 1895, half of the lots were built upon with residences and the rest were filled up early in the 20th century.
Smith College’s Quadrangle dormitory system caused the demolition of six houses on the southern side of the street in the late 1920’s. This is one of the earlier houses on the street,
appearing on the 1895 atlas as the property of Frank Mantor. Frank and James Mantor were first listed here in the 1894 directory. James was superintendent of the C. A. Maynard Co., manufacturers
of shovels and hoes on Green Street, while Frank was a clerk for the same company.” 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] [61 KENSINGTON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.551 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 on the south side of 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.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [61 KENSINGTON AVENUE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 3 NTH.551