Riverside Drive 557.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 23C-091-001 Easthampton NTH.249 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Florence Address: 557 Riverside Drive Historic
Name: T. Franzen/John Francis House Uses: Present: Single-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: c. 1870 Source: Map and Atlas Style/Form: eclectic
Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: clapboards Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Carriage barn Major Alterations (with dates):
Replacement windows added, ca. 2005. Condition: house good; barn fair Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Date Acreage: 0.356 acre Setting: This house is set close to the road and overlooks
a large open park.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [557 RIVERSIDE DRIVE] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.249 ___ 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 an eclectic house that may have started out as quite simple and modest, but with the addition
of a Queen Anne wrap around porch became higher style. The house is one-and-a-half stories in height under a side-gable roof. It has a shed roof ell across the north elevation and a
one-story wing at the north east corner. The house is three bays wide and two bays deep and its porch crosses a portion of the south façade and most of the east elevation. It is pedimented
and the roof rests on turned posts. A spindled frieze adds visual interest to the porch along with its turned balusters in the curved railing. Sash is vinyl 6/6. The carriage barn set
close to the road as well is one of the few remaining in this section of town. 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. In 1850 John and Katherine Frantzen and their eight children were living in Northampton,
though it is difficult to say that they were in this house. The children are all listed as having been born in Germany the country from which they had emigrated. Once child, Emma, 9
years old was listed as “at sea” suggesting that she was on her way over. By 1860 John and Catherine were in this house and listed their surname as Francen. With them were seven children,
children, including Emma. John was an operator working in one of the nearby mills. On the map of 1873 this house is noted as being owned by T. Franzen. At this location next door to
Thomas Gleason on the 1870 census the family listed itself as that of John and Katherine Francis with their two children Ferdinand and Peter. John and Katherine listed their home country
as Prussia, and they owned this house. Their oldest daughter was working as a mill operative. She was listed as the only one who had been born in Germany, but we know from earlier censuses
that all eight had been born in Germany, the country from which they had come. John by 1870 had retired. The only employed person in the household was Ferdinand, 18, who was working
in the nearby silk mill. Peter was 14 and at home. Clearly this is a history of an immigrant family that like the many others who came to Northampton provided much of the labor for the
mills of Florence and Bay State. 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.