Northampton – Page 5 – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

Hotel Northampton (1927)

by Dan/May 21, 2013May 21, 2013/Colonial Revival, Hotels, Northampton

The Hotel Northampton, at 36 King Street in Northampton, was first opened in 1927. The hotel was funded by a five-year subscription drive by the local chamber of commerce to provide Northampton with an appropriately substantial and luxurious hotel. The Colonial Revival-style Hotel Northampton is one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “Historic Hotels of America.” Attached to the hotel is the old Wiggins Tavern, a building which dates back to 1786 and was moved to Northampton from Hopkinton, New Hampshire. The Tavern had been opened by Benjamin Wiggins, an ancestor of Lewis Wiggins, the entrepreneur who had built the Hotel Northampton.

Bray-Hoadley House (1873)

by Dan/April 23, 2013/Houses, Italianate, Northampton

The house at 9 Park Street in Florence (Northampton) was built circa 1871-1873 for Eliphalet Bray, a lather (lathe machinist), and his wife Sarah C. Tilton Bray. In the 1880s, the house was home to George Hoadley, principal of Florence High School.

Dewey Block, Northampton (1912)

by Dan/April 22, 2013/Commercial, Northampton, Romanesque Revival

Born in Ireland and coming to America as a child, John T. Dewey became a businessman in Northampton. He built the commercial block at 24-36 Pleasant Street in about 1912. It is a Romanesque Revival building that features brick, cast iron and stone arches. Taking advantage of an alleyway on the north, the facade of the Dewey Block extends around the northwest corner.

First Churches of Northampton (1877)

by Dan/November 25, 2012November 25, 2012/Churches, Gothic, Northampton

First Churches of Northampton is made up of the combined congregations of the First Church of Christ and the First Baptist Church. The first meeting house of the town’s Puritan settlers was constructed in 1655 on what became known as “Meeting House Hill,” near where the courthouse stands today. A new meeting house, further up the hill, was then built in 1661. The third meeting house was built in 1737, during the pastorate of Jonathan Edwards. It was replaced in 1812 by what became known as the “Old Church,” a Federal-style edifice, designed by Isaac Damon. After it was destroyed by fire in 1876, it was replaced by the current church building, built in 1877 and designed by Peabody and Stearns.

The Baptist Church in Northampton was founded in 1822 by Benjamin Willard, an itinerant Baptist missionary. A church building, designed by Isaac Damon, was dedicated on West Street in 1829. Repairs were made to the church after a fire on December 29, 1863. A new church edifice was dedicated in 1904. The First Baptist Church of Northampton merged with the First Church of Christ in 1988

John L. Mather House (1882)

by Dan/November 21, 2012/Houses, Northampton, Queen Anne

The John L. Mather House, at 275 Elm Street in Northampton, is a Queen Anne style residence with some distinctively English elements (note the central gable). The house was built in 1882 for John L. Mather, a mason and contractor who served as mayor of Northampton in 1897 and again in 1899-1900.

Sessions House (1710)

by Dan/November 13, 2012/Colonial, Houses, Northampton

Sessions House is a colonial residence at 109 Elm Street in Northampton that is now used as a Smith College dormitory. It was built around 1710 (or perhaps as early as 1700) by Captain Jonathan Hunt (1665-1738) and was the first house in Northampton to be built outside the early settlement’s protective stockade. The house has a staircase that was originally designed as a secret passageway for the family to hide in during Native American raids. The house passed to the Henshaw family by marriage and was later owned by other families. Eventually, around 1900, it passed to Mrs. Ruth Huntington Sessions, who ran it as off campus housing for Smith College students. Born in Cambridge in 1859, Ruth Huntington moved with her parents to Syracuse, New York when her father, Frederic Dan Huntington, became Episcopal Bishop of Central New York. In 1880, her family sent her to Europe, where she studied piano under Clara Schumann. In 1887 she married Archibald Lowery Sessions and moved with him to New York City. A social activist and writer (her memoir, Sixty Odd: A Personal History, was published in 1936), Sessions (d. 1946) spent her summers at the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House in Hadley, given to her by her father, and her winters in Northampton. She sold the Northampton house to Smith College in 1921. Continue reading “Sessions House (1710)”

Rosbrook-Kyle House (1884)

by Dan/October 24, 2012/Gothic, Houses, Northampton, Queen Anne, Shingle Style, Victorian Eclectic

The Kyle Estate, also known as the Rosbrook-Kyle House, is an interesting Victorian residence at 18 Park Street in the village of Florence in Northampton. It was originally constructed as a one-and-a-half story Gothic cottage around 1865. The land on which the house was built was purchased by Francis O. Rosbrook in 1850 and passed through three other owners before it was purchased in 1844 by Oscar N. Kyle, treasurer and manager of the Florence Machine Company. He hired local architect Charles H. Jones to remodel the cottage, which was elevated one story. The front porch on the ground floor features Eastlake elements and the ornament of the porch on the second floor suggests Middle Eastern design. A three-story octagonal tower was also added at the southwestern corner of the house. The altered house combines different architectural styles, with the Gothic style retained on the original Gothic section (now the second floor and attic gable). The second floor and part of the gable have board-and-batten siding, while wood shingles cover the third story of the tower and the upper section of the gable. The house is now divided into apartments. Continue reading “Rosbrook-Kyle House (1884)”