Round Hill Road 32.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 31B-063-001 Easthampton NTH.604 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 32 Round Hill Road Historic Name:
Mrs. Merritt Clarke House Uses: Present: Single-family residence Original: Single-family residence Date of Construction: 1859 Source: Hampshire Gazette, Mar. 29, 1859 Style/Form: Gothic
Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Wall/Trim: brick Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with dates): Wing on west, wing on
east, deck and enclosed porch, ca. 1990. Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: 1.115 acres Setting: This is a south-facing house on the lower slope of Round Hill. It
is screened from the road.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [32 ROUND HILL ROAD] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH.604 ___ 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 two-and-a-half story brick house with a front-gabled slate roof and with a one-and-a-half
story brick wing on the east and a two-story clapboard wing on the west. The house has a large porte-cochere on the north. Through-cornice, front-gabled dormers ornament the main block
and the wing and have Gothic Revival pointed window compositions. Elsewhere windows are paired beneath straight stone lintels. A porch across the south façade has been enclosed and a
deck constructed on its east end. The west wing is also a later addition. 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 1976: “This brick cottage was built on fashionable Round Hill in 1859 and
derives from an Andrew Jackson Downing design. Edward Clark was an important citizen and the owner of an unusual U-shaped Greek Revival house built in 1836-39 and located opposite the
site of the Clarke cottage (Clarke School demolished the Greek Revival structure). Edward Clarke’s estate was divided between three Round Hill residents, Lafayette Maltby (who got the
house), W.B. Hale, and Merritt Clark; the widow Clark chose to build an economical but genteel residence opposite her former home. In 1867, Clarke School was chartered by the state legislature
and and moved to Northampton from Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Originally housed in several structures atop Round Hill, the school acquired considerable property along the road in the
late nineteenth century. The Clarke Cottage is now part of the school and had been enlarged at the rear.” 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.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [32 ROUND HILL ROAD] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH.604 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. This property would contribute to a potential Round Hill Historic District. This potential historic district is significant according to
criteria A and C and would have local significance. The residential streets that cross Round Hill are significant according to criterion A for their reflection of development in Northampton
from the early 19th century (1807) through the 1950s. Residential development began on Round Hill with the establishment of gentleman’s estates but grew with schools and a resort hotel
until the 1890s when residential development increased significantly. From the 1890s through the 1950s (1959 McAlister Infirmary) Round Hill became home to Northampton’s wealthy and
to the Clarke School for the Deaf. Architecturally this area of Northampton is significant for the range of residential architectural styles including the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival,
and for its institutional buildings in the French Second Empire, through High Victorian Gothic and Colonial Revival styles ending with the American International style. The potential
district has integrity of workmanship, design, feeling, association, and materials.