Round Hill Road 54.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):
April, 2011 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 31B-004-001 Easthampton NTH. Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: 54 Round Hill Road Historic Name:
Skinner Hall Uses: Present: Classrooms Original: Classrooms Date of Construction: 1933 Source: integral date sign Style/Form: Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: A. Lincoln Fechheimer,
architect, Ohio Exterior Material: Foundation: poured concrete Wall/Trim: brick, stucco, cast stone, clapboards Roof: slate Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Major Alterations (with
dates): Condition: good Moved: no | s | yes | | Date Acreage: 7.4 acres Setting: This building is east-facing and is set on the campus a good distance from the street. It is heavily
shaded with trees and shrubbery.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON ] [54 Round Hill Road] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 1 NTH. __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. Skinner Hall is a two-and-a-half story brick building under a side-gable roof. Gables are ornamented
with wide clapboards. On its east façade Skinner Hall has a centered, cross-gable at each side of which in the angle between the cross-gable and the main block are two-story high entries.
The entries are stucco-covered at the second story and extend slightly over the first story in in a Colonial Revival style jetty. They have extensions of the main roof as a shed-roof.
The entries have trabeated surrounds with flat pilasters supporting an entablature. Above the door is a large stair window of 15 lights in metal sash. Windows elsewhere in the building
have 20 light steel sash with operable hoppers. The building is two bays deep with paired windows. Brick corners of the buildings have Colonial Revival style quoins. Foundations exposed
on the west are scored horizontally, a feature of the buildings by A. Lincoln Fechheimer. 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. The documented architect of this building is A. Lincoln Fechheimer
who was in the class of 1891 at the Clarke School for the Deaf and returned to design for the school in the 1930s. Besides Skinner Hall Fechheimer designed Coolidge Hall and Hubbard
Hall and most most likely the Engineer’s Cottage. He was an Ohio architect trained at Columbia University and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He began practice in Cinncinnati in 1906
in partnership with Harry Hake and then with Benjamin L. Ihorst into the 1940s, and specialized in school campus work. Skinner Hall was built to house the woodworking, printing and mechanical
drawing classrooms for (boy) students. It was named for John Skinner, who was chairman of the executive committee of the Board of Trustees in the 1930s. 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 ] [54 Round Hill Road] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation
sheet 2 NTH. 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.