Market Street 63-65.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, 2011 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 32A-48 Easthampton NTH.2020 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 63-65 Market Street Historic Name:
Asa Wright House Uses: Present: Six-family house Original: Single-family house Date of Construction: ca. 1760 Source: Registry of Deeds Style/Form: Georgian Architect/Builder: Exterior
Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Stacked porch added, rear ell and side porch added, n.d.
Condition: fair Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.469 acres Setting: This building faces west in a mixed commercial/residential neighborhood.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [65MARKET STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.2020 ___ 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 Wright House is a fine Georgian style house that has been altered but retains the evidence
of its early date in its visible structure. It is a two-and-a-half story house under a steeply-pitched side-gable roof that has lost its center chimney. In each gable end are jetties
or overhangs that mark its 18th century construction date along with the roof pitch. The house is five bays wide and its second story windows are set close to the eaves in Georgian fashion.
The eaves are clipped on all elevations. Windows are narrow and tall and contain 6/6 wood sash. After its conversion to a multi-family house a two-story stacked porch was added to the
west façade along with a second story door in the center bay. The house has a two, two-story ells on its eastern elevation, and in the angle between the main block and the first ell
is a side porch on Colonial Revival style Doric columns suggesting it was added at the same time as the Colonial Revival style stacked porch that is also supported on Doric columns.
One bay of the side porch has been filled in. 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 1976/1980: “This is a Colonial period house which appears to have been built for the Wright family. A
deed of 1805 describes this as the homestead of Asa Wright, who had died in 1787. His eldest son, Asa, had taken over the homestead in the late 1780’s and maintained it until 1808. The
house would seem to have been built for either father or the son. The next owner and occupant was Seth Parsons, who lived here until his death in the early 1830’s. The property, including
two acres of land extending easterly from Market Street to the cemetery, was bought by Silas M. Smith in 1834. Mr. Smith had come to Northampton in 1828 and engaged in the furniture
business, which he continued until his retirement in 1877. As this area was developed, Mr. Smith sold off over half his homestead for residential lots. By 1861, when he sold the homestead
to David W. Crafts, there was only ¾ of an acre with this property. Mr. Crafts was the superintendent of the local gasworks, later called the Northampton Gaslight Co. He lived here until
about 1870, when he moved to a house in the rear of the gasworks, on a short street later named Crafts Avenue. Mr. Crafts continued to own the Market Street property, at least until
the end of the 19th century, and it was during this period that the house was subdivided into four tenements.” 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. 200-P. 198, 71-659, 50-103, 27-527, 25-136