Phillips Place 28.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):
May, 2011 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 32A-194 Easthampton NTH.2082 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 28 Phillips Place Historic Name: Josiah
Hunt-Thomas Meekins House Uses: Present: Single-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1847-1851 Source: Registry of Deeds, 119.201, 138.208 Style/Form:
Exotic Revival/Swiss Chalet Architect/Builder: William Fenno Pratt, Architect, Northampton Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: Flushboard Roof: asphalt Outbuildings/Secondary
Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.189 acres Setting: This house is set on a slight rise on its lot, faces south, and
is on a short, residential street.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [28 PHILLIPS PLACE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.2082 __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. The Hunt-Meekins House is an Exotic Revival style house that takes its inspiration from Swiss chalets
as they were understood in the 19th century. Its architect, William Fenno Pratt had a taste for the exotic in architecture having designed the Northampton City Hall among other buildings
in a more theatrical, rarified style. He designed a second Swiss chalet style house at 58 Pomeroy Terrace. Here the house is gable-and-wing in form. The front-gabled main block of the
house is two-stories in height and the wing under its side gable is one-and-a-half stories. On the north elevation are one-and-a-half, and one-story ells. The plan of the house, then,
is conventional and found in many houses in Northampton. It is the ornament that creates the Swiss Revival. The thinly boxed eaves extend far beyond the plane of the wall and are supported
on oversized, shaped braces. The exterior siding of the house is flushboard that has been ornamented with two stringcourses at the level of the window and door lintels of the first and
second stories in a scalloped pattern. Between the two stringcourses is a wider beltcourse in which a row of circle ornaments has been applied. In the angle between the main block and
the wing is a one-story porch on filigree-filled posts. The posts terminate in brackets and brackets also support the porch entablature. The elements of this porch are repeated on a
second porch that extends across the east elevation. The main entry to the house is in the wing. There are oriel windows on the south façade of the main block and on the west elevation
of the wing. 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: “This Swiss Cottage was built between 1847 and 1851 on the land of the Clarke family. A Josiah Hunt was apparently the first occupant
of the house, which was sold at auction in 1851 to Caleb Wright, for $2000. In 1852, Wright sold the ‘tasteful residence’ to C.K. Hawks and Hawks in turn sold the house to Thomas Meekins
in 1857. The cottage then remained in the Meekins family through the 20th century.” 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: 138.208
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [28 PHILLIPS PLACE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.2082 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 Hunt-Meekins House would contribute to a potential Pomeroy Terrace historic district that developed south and east
of the Bridge Street Cemetery from the second third of the 19th century as Northampton’s finest residential district. Original residents here were merchants, retired farmers, lawyers,
and other professions. As the century progressed the adjacent streets were laid out for the growing middle class with railroad personnel joining clerks, teachers, and others. Architecturally
the potential historic district is significant for the fine examples of the 19th century architectural styles from the Greek and Gothic Revivals, Italianate, Queen Anne and Colonial
Revival styles. The district includes significant examples of the work of Northampton architect William Fenno Pratt, one of which is the Hunt-Meekins House. This potential historic district
has integrity of workmanship, feeling, setting, design and materials.