Main Street 16.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 32A-141-147 Easthampton NTH.2271 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center Address: 16-18 Main
Street Historic Name: Crafts and Dawson Block Uses: Present: commercial with six apartments Original: commercial Date of Construction: 1871 Source: Hampshire Gazette Style/Form: Italianate
Architect/Builder: J. M. Miner, architect, Northampton and Cleveland Exterior Material: Foundation: stone Wall/Trim: brick/brownstone Roof: not visible Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates): Storefronts altered repeatedly over time. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.068 acres Setting: This building occupies a corner lot
in downtown Northampton.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [16MAIN STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.861 ___ 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 Italianate style Crafts and Dawson Block is a three-story red brick block that is twelve bays
wide on Main Street and seven bays deep on Strong Avenue. It has a flat roof with a patterned cornice whose brick is laid in a box pattern with corbelling above and below. The two bays
of the building’s corner at second and third stories are rounded and slightly inset into a framed panel. panel. The windows of the second story have segmentally arched brownstone lintels
and footed brownstone sills, while at the third story the windows have round arched brownstone lintels and footed brownstone sills. Window sash in these two stories is 1/1. At the first
story level entry to the upper stories from Main Street is in the fourth bay and consists of a recessed entry with a brownstone lintel and rusticated brownstone piers. There are three
storefronts on the first story each distinctively different from the other. The storefront furthest west is apparently the most well-preserved. It has a center recessed entry between
two glass display windows. The storefront is topped by a three-part transom composed of multiple lights. 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 1975: “The brick blocks lining the main
street of Northampton between Pleasant Street and Strong Avenue are the earliest brick commercial structures in Northampton. In 1865, the block known as the Union Block was built at
the corner of Main and Pleasant Streets. (This block collapsed in 1914 and was replaced by the 1915 Sherwin Block.) On the corner of Strong Avenue and Main Street, Crafts and Dawson
Block, later known as the Commercial Hotel, was built in 1870-1871. With stores on the ground floor and ‘a hotel on the European plan’ occupying the 2nd and 3rd floors, the building
took advantage of its proximity to the railroad depots. J.M. Miner, native of Cleveland who practiced architecture in Northampton from 1869 to 1872, was the architect of the hotel at
the corner of Main and Strong Avenue.” 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.