Meadow Street 123.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 22B-66 Easthampton NTH.153 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 123 Meadow Street Historic
Name: Ross Farm Uses: Present: Three-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: ca. 1800 Source: National Register nomination Style/Form: Federal Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material: Foundation: stone Wall/Trim: clapboard Roof: slate, asphalt Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Three barns Major Alterations (with dates): Porch added, ca. 1910. Condition:
good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 2.25 acres Setting: This house faces south at the edge of a large field.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [123MEADOW STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.153 ___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. This property is already on 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 substantial Federal style house
that is a two-and-a-half story house with a side–gable roof and a center chimney. It is only three bays wide and has its entry in the easternmost bay while the two adjacent windows are
not evenly spaced from the entry, but have been slightly paired, a practice that was generally limited to the late 18th-early 19th century. The entry is tall and narrow and has slender
pilasters supporting a full entablature that is topped by a pediment. The pediment has a recessed tympanum. Sash in the windows is 6/6 but in the western gable at the attic level the
sash is 12/12. The main block of the house is the equivalent of four bays deep and attached to it is a two-story ell on the north, a one-story enclosed porch on the west, a one-story
wing on the east and connecting the main block and the east wing is an open porch on posts. This is the only house of its kind remaining in Northampton and as a farmstead it has considerable
architectural significance. East of the house are three barns, a large New England style barn and a slightly smaller eaves-front barn that appears from its fenestration to have at one
time served as a poultry barn, and a second New England style barn north of the house. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or
or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community. From Form B of 1974: “This property is interwoven with the early history
of Florence and has been of importance in later years. The farm includes the first tract of land granted to one of the original proprietors of Northampton within the territory now known
as Florence. In 1657, John Broughton received the grant of a tract of this meadowland. Although it remained in Broughton’s possession only 18 years, the name persisted and it was known
as Broughton’s Meadow for nearly 200 years. In 1675, Broughton sold his grant to Joseph Parsons, probably Cornet Joseph Parsons, who built he house on Bridge Street, not the Northampton
Historical Society, for Cornet Parson’s son, Samuel Parsons, was one of four men granted a permit in 1861 to erect a saw mill near Broughton Meadow, and the site chosen was near the
silk mill dam. In 1798, Gaius Burt of Northampton moved to Broughton’s Meadow and bought 30 acres. He built a house a few rods east of the present homestead which was built about 1830
by his son, Theodore Burt. In 1835, the property was purchased by Samuel Whitmarsh, pioneer in the silk culture here. He planted 15 acres of this meadow land to choice cutting of mulberry
trees. The collapse of the mulberry craze in the late 30’s threw the property on the market. The property was bought by Samuel Hill, Joseph Conant, William Coe, and George Benson, the
projected Northampton Association of Education and Industry. After this had been given up, the land was bought by Austin Ross and operated by different tenants when it was purchased
by Henry W. Marsh of Hatfield. It was purchased by the Blauvelts in 1927.” This history has misconstrued the date of the house’s construction. Further research has determined it has
a ca. 1800 date. 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. 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.