Park Street 35.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 Please see attached map. Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons Organization: Pioneer Valley Planning
Commission Date (month /year): March, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 23A-025 Easthampton NTH.2542 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address:
35 Park Street Historic Name: Sojourner Truth House Uses: Present: single-family house Original: single-family house Date of Construction: ca. 1850-1900 Source: African American Heritage
Trail Style/Form: Queen Anne Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: vinyl Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with
dates): House raised and reconfigured, ca. 1895 Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.343 acres Setting: This is a west-facing building overlooking Park Street Cemetery.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [35 PARK STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.2542 __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 house of two-and-a-half stories contains the foundation and framework of Sojourner Truth’s
house, which was discovered by the David Ruggles Center in 2001 during an investigation of its interior structure. In its current condition the house is without particular architectural
merit, its only distinguishing feature being the porch on turned posts with eaves brackets and a small small Queen Anne style stair window on the south elevation. The house is vinyl-covered
and has vinyl replacement windows. 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. The Sojourner Truth House was identified as being at 67 Park Street from a labeled photograph in the collection of the David
Ruggles Center. A closer reading of the photograph however reveals that the Truth House was not at 67 but at 35 Park Street, a small Cape house that was later to be expanded to its current
size. Sojourner Truth, a former slave, came to Florence in about 1843 at the suggestion of friends who knew about the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, a utopian community
whose principles included the equality of all people no matter their sex, color, or condition, sect or religion. She stayed in 1843 and became a member of the community. According to
a letter written by association member Dolly W. Stetson to her husband James A. Stetson on March 6, 1845, ”the washing room is a seperate [sic] department Sojourner Director and Mr Fitch
assistant and they wash for all the community that choose to send their washing”. In 1844 she gave her first anti-slavery lecture and within a few years became a noted public speaker
on abolition. Truth wrote her autobiography Narrative of Sojourner Truth in 1850 and with proceeds from sale of the book she bought or built this house in Florence. The mortgage of the
house was held for her by Samuel L. Hill, an Abolitionist, and co-founder of the utopian community in Florence called the Northampton Association of Education and Industry and founder
of the Nonotuck Silk Company. Truth was able to pay off her mortgage to Hill by 1854. She continued to live in the house until 1857 when she moved to Battle Creek, Michigan where she
lived out the rest of her life. In 1884 the house had been enlarged and by 1895 it had been re-modeled and enlarged and belonged to E. Brackett. By 1926 it was owned by retired couple
Edward C. and Ella Waite. 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. Sheffield, Charles (ed.). History of Florence 1681-1894, Florence,
1895. David Ruggles Center. African American Heritage Trail, n.d.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [35 PARK STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.2542 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. The Sojourner Truth House would contribute to a multiple resource listing on the National Register of Historic Places of
properties associated with Abolition and the Underground Railroad in Northampton. In these Northampton locations, documented activities in support of the Underground Railroad transporting
fugitive slaves to Canada took place. Here lived Sojourner Truth, former slave and noted Aboliti
onist. INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [35 PARK STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 3 NTH.2542