Spring Street 130.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 continuation sheet. Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons Organization: Pioneer Valley
Planning Commission Date (month /year): March, 2010 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 22B-8 Easthampton NTH.144;2548 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village)
Florence Address: 130 Spring Street Historic Name: Julius and Jemima Phelps House Uses: Present: single-family house Original: single-family house Date of Construction: 1815 Source:
Sheffeld, History of Florence Style/Form: Cape Cod Form Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: not visible Wall/Trim: vinyl Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
commercial garage Major Alterations (with dates): Dormers added ca. 1900; siding added and windows replaced ca. 2000. Porch added ca. 1920; bay window added ca. 2000. Condition: good-fair
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 1.51 acres Setting: This houses faces northeast at an intersection and overlooks agricultural fields.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [130 SPRING STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.144 __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 is a one-and-a-half story Cape Cod form house that has undergone many changes, but that still
shows its original form. The house has a side-gable roof of asphalt shingles, but its foundations are low and not visible form the road. The house has a one-story wing on the north and
a large attached commercial garage. The house is sided in vinyl and has small vinyl replacement windows with 1/1 sash, both of which alterations obscure the age of the house. Two shed
roof dormers were added to its roof, and a Colonial Revival porch entry was added, ca. 1920. Also added to the house is a bay window on the east and an ell on the south elevation for
a relatively complex plan. Florence was a village of predominately modest buildings and it is this context in which the Phelps House may be seen. 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. Thought to be
one of the older houses in Florence, the Captain Julius and Jemima Phelps House, was built ca. 1815 when the Phelps left Northampton and moved to Florence to establish a farm around
the junction of Meadow and Spring Streets. This section of Florence, east of Spring Street, was part of Northampton’s Inner Commons in the allocation of land that took place in 1657.
Although the Phelps Phelps land would have been tilled by previous owners, namely the Clarks and the Warners, it was not settled until the Phelps’ arrival. As was common during the 19th
century in Florence, a rather large number of people occupied the small house. In 1820 there were 8 people, Julius, Jemima, and the first 6 of their 7 children. By 1830 the household
contained 9 members. In 1850 Julius was 70 and Jemima was 65 and they had their son Cephas living and farming with them as well as 14-year old Caroline Rodney. Julius died in 1857 and
Jemima remained on the farm with their son Julius, Jr., his 9 year-old daughter Harriet, and an older woman, “Widow Baggs”. Next door was another son, Solomon and his wife Nancy. Julius,
Jr. was a mechanic as well as farmer and was highly regarded in Florence as active in the Congregational Church and town affairs. He had married Edith Jacobs prior to 1870 and lived
with her daughter and Harriet. He became the oldest member of the Congregational Church and led the 25th anniversary celebration for Rev. and Mrs. Cobb in 1891. After his death in 1892
the farm passed to John J. and Bridget Mahoney prior to 1900. The Mahoneys had emigrated from Ireland in 1862 as newly-weds. With them in the house in 1900 were their children Michael,
Daniel, Margaret, Thomas, Stephen, and Frank. Frank was still in school, but two of the sons and the daughter farmed with their parents while three of them worked in local factories:
the brush factory, the silk mill, and as a machinist in an unnamed industry. This was a distribution of occupations typical of families at the outset of the 20th century in Florence.
By 1910 Bridget had died and in 1920 John had retired from farming and three of his children were still living with him, Margaret, Thomas and Stephen, the latter two of whom were working
as truckers rather than farming. John J. had died by 1930 leaving Margaret, Thomas and Stephen in the house. Margaret went out to work in a silk mill as a spooler, Thomas ran a trucking
business and Stephen worked in a machine shop as a laborer. The trucking company, Mahoney Trucking, continued and was running from the house by Margaret and a business partner Bernard
Slattery in 1948. Margaret was still in the house in 1950. 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. U.S. Federal Censuses,
1820-1930. Northampton Directories, 1900-1950.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [130 SPRING STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.144