Main Street 210.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 31D-163 Easthampton NTH.790 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Northampton Center Address: 210 Main Street
Historic Name: Northampton Town Hall Uses: Present: City Hall Original: Town Hall Date of Construction: 1849-1850 Source: Hampshire Gazette, 3/19/1850 Style/Form: Gothic Revival Architect/Builder:
William Fenno Pratt Exterior Material: Foundation: granite Wall/Trim: stucco/wood Roof: not visible Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Windows replaced
ca. 1990. Condition: Good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: Setting: City Hall occupies a corner lot in a row of four institutional buildings in downtown Northampton.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [210MAIN STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.790 ___ 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. Northampton’s town hall is something of an architectural folly, which is to say that it was intended
to be a picturesque building drawing on the Gothic and Italianate styles for its inspiration, and its stylistic features were exaggerated for their romantic effect. Had there been a
large budget, according to the architectural precepts of the period the building preferably would have have been pure masonry, but it is stucco-covered as a second choice to convey the
appearance of a Gothic fortress, and its trim re-created in wood. At the time it was designed, architectural designers such as Andrew Jackson Downing were recommending Gothic and Italianate
models for rural country houses (and stucco was recommended) and the two styles were appearing in urban settings for institutional buildings such as churches and schools. Town Hall is
a tall, two-story building with a flat roof from whose eaves are suspended scroll-cut wood barge boards carved in the same pattern as the cornices of many of the neighboring brick commercial
buildings – an Italianate arch and pendant design--and backed up with paired brackets. Centered on the roof of the north façade is a low pediment on paired brackets. The north façade
is divided into four bays with square piers at the building’s corners and octagonal towers setting off the center bay. The piers and towers rise above the roofline of the building as
high as tall chimneys and have been capped with crenellated wooden parapets. Without these crenellations, the building would be largely Italianate in design. The center bay of the north
façade is recessed. It has at first story level a main entry flanked by tall narrow windows and at the second story leading on to a balcony is a centered pair of doors flanked by tall,
narrow windows. Doors and windows have label lintels in a contrasting, painted sandstone. The building is six bays deep, and as it is on a lot that slopes steeply down to the south,
the granite basement is increasingly exposed in that direction. 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 1976: “In 1846, the town voted to build a new town hall, either on the site of
the existing hall (near the First Church and the Courthouse) or on a new lot. In May of 1849, the lot adjoining adjoining the Unitarian Church was purchased and a month later, William
Pratt’s plan was adopted in spite of an offer by John Tappan, a Northamptonite, to secure an architect from Boston, Theodore Voelchers (about whom nothing else is known), to design the
building. By March of 1850, the building was completed and dedicated. The Town Meeting Building Committee Report is in the archives of the Forbes Library; it includes mention of Pratt’s
fee and a list made by the architect of errors which the workmen made in construction. (Pratt did not get the contract to build the Hall). Until the construction of Memorial Hall in
1873, the Town Hall served as a lecture hall, this space on the second floor now being offices. Many socials, dances, and lectures were held in the building. On several occasions, the
more advanced thinkers in town invited speakers like William Lloyd Garrison and found themselves locked out by the more conservative keeper-of-the-keys.” BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Beers, F. W. County Atlas of 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.