Ryan Road 15.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 22B-048 Easthampton NTH.2546 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 15 Ryan Road Historic Name:
Cynthia Dorsey House Uses: Present: single-family house Original: single-family house Date of Construction: ca. 1872 Source: Sheffeld, Charles. History of Florence. Style/Form: raised
Cape Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: parged brick Wall/Trim: vinyl Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Garage Major Alterations (with dates):
Siding added ca. 2000; windows replaced ca. 2000. Condition: Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 0.29 acres Setting: This house is set on a corner lot and faces north in an area that
has been both residential and commercial.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [15 RYAN ROAD] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet
1 NTH.2546 _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 Cynthia Dorsey House is a one-and-a-half story raised Cape Cod form house on high brick foundations. It has a center
chimney on its asphalt-covered roof. The main entry to the house is currently in its gable end on the north elevation, with a secondary entry on the west elevation, however, it appears
that the original entry to the house was on its west elevation. This is a very modest house, as are many of its neighbors in this section of Florence that housed many of the workers
in the nearby industries during the 19th century. The house has an enclosed porch on its north elevation and a second enclosed, porch on its west. Windows are replacement 1/1 except
in the west porch where they are 2/2. This porch also rests on stone footings. 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 the 1980 Form B, “Ryan Road was originally known as West Street, and first
appeared on the 1831 map of Northampton as a connecting route between Florence (then known as Warner District) and West Farms. The 1873 atlas is the first to show houses along this street
most of which were located near Florence, and by 1895 most of the street north of this site to Florence was lined with houses, with that portion of the street south of here to West Farms
not being developed until after WW II. “ The maps of Florence of these years do not extend as far west as the Cynthia Dorsey House, but the house would have been built between the 1873
and 1895 maps. Cynthia Dorsey was a free black woman who was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts the daughter of Almond and Nancy Jones. Almond was a farmer and Cynthia was the second
of six children in a household with two families and 12 people in 1850. She met and married Basil Dorsey and by 1850 was living with him in Florence. Basil Dorsey (1810-1872) was a mixed-race,
escaped slave from Libertytown, Maryland who had a wife Louisa and three children, two of whom, Eliza and John, were born in Maryland. Basil and Louisa were sold to separate people and
Louisa was freed. In 1833 with three brothers Dorsey (who had been named Ephraim Costly in Maryland) fled their owner Thomas Soller. He was re-captured in Pennsylvania in1836, but on
a point of law escaped a second time to be brought with Louisa and children to Massachusetts on the Underground Railroad. Louisa died in 1838 a few months after giving birth to her third
child Charles. The Dorseys lived in Charlemont and Basil remained there after Louisa’s death until 1844 when he moved to Florence and began working as a teamster. The Fugitive Slave
Law enacted in 1850 meant that Dorsey was vulnerable to being returned to slavery so his manumission was purchased in 1851 by several men from Florence, and Basil was one of the few
African-Americans who did not have to flee to Canada after 1850, but remained in Florence working as a cotton mill teamster. Cynthia and Basil’s first child was named Louisa. In their
household were his sons by his first wife, Charles 13 and John 14, but not Eliza. They appear to have been in a two-family house with Jacob and Eliza Benson and Anna – all former slaves
from Maryland, on Nonotuck Street in a house that Basil built in 1849-50 but sold in 1852. They next lived in a house at junction of Ryan and Florence Roads on six acres that Basil bought.
In 1870 Basil and Cynthia (ages 60 and 39) had a much enlarged family with children: Louisa, Julia, Anna, Millie, Edward, Clara, Herbert, Betsy, Gertrude, and Bertha ages 19-2. Basil
died in 1872 and after his death Cynthia appears to have built this house on part of the six acres of their former house. She remained for about a decade, but she does not appear in
the census of 1880. She is indicated on the atlas of 1884 as owning the house but is thought to have left Florence ca. 1892 having sold this house to a former Pittsfield resident and
moving to New Haven, Connecticut. She is listed in the 1893 New Haven directory as Basil’s widow living at 135 Foote Street, though none of her children was with her by then. In 1895
she moved to Saugatuck, then to Saybrook in 1897 before her appearance in the directories ends. Several of her daughters’ names appear in Connecticut directories and further research
might confirm their move to that state with their mother. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Hampshire Massachusetts, New York, 1873.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [15 RYAN ROAD] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet
2 NTH.2546 Hales, John G. Plan of the Town of 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. Northampton Directories, 1892-1910. U. S. Federal censuses, 1850-1930. Connecticut City Directories 1893-1897. www.davidrugglescenter.org Sheffeld,
Charles A. The History of Florence, Massachusetts, Florence, 1895. U.S. Federal Censuses 1850-1900. Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884.
Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [15 RYAN ROAD] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet
3 NTH.2546 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 Cynthia Dorsey 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 took place.
Fugitive slaves were employed in Florence businesses and after the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, they were transported to Canada with Florence citizens as their guides. Here lived Cynthia
Dorsey a free Black who married Basil Dorsey a former slave whose freedom was bought by the community. Cynthia raised and supported their ten children in this house after Basil died.
The house is modest but reflects the economic position of former slaves and free Blacks in Florence who were employed and thereby enabled to buy property.