Category: Northampton

Granite Stores, Northampton (1826)

by Dan//Commercial, Northampton, Vernacular

During a visit to Boston in 1825, builder Isaac Damon of Northampton observed the new granite market buildings being constructed next to Faneuil Hall. After returning home, he acquired land with a granite quarry in Medfield and c. 1826-1828 constructed a pair of three-story granite front commercial buildings at 108-112 Main Street. These were built using traditional post-and-beam construction techniques, but with granite instead of wood. The ground floors and cornices of these buildings have been changed many times, but the central two granite floors are still visible.

Shepherd House (1796)

by Dan//Colonial, Houses, Northampton

Built by Seth Russell in 1796, the house at 66 Bridge Street in Northampton is part of Historic Northampton’s complex of buildings. It is known as the Shepherd House because Susan Monroe Shepherd purchased it in 1856 and lived there with her husband, Henry Shepherd. Their son, Thomas Monroe Shepherd (1856-1923), left the house to the Historical Society, now called Historic Northampton. The late colonial-style house was much altered over the years by its various owners. The Gothic-style front porch was added in 1840 and the columned porch on the west side was added in 1899. The house is now rented as the headquarters of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities.

J. Stebbins Lathrop House (1848)

by Dan//Greek Revival, Houses, Northampton

Jere Stebbins Lathrop, from West Springfield, became a merchant in Northampton and then in Savannah, Georgia, where he remained until the start of the Civil War. He spent summers in his house at 57 Bridge Street in Northampton, which was built in the 1840s from plans in a book of southern architecture brought north by his wife, Elizabeth. The plans for the house (also known as the Lathrop-Butler House) were executed by architect W.F. Pratt, who would design a similar house using the same plans in 1855 for lawyer Osmyn Baker at 78 Pomeroy Terrace. Not wanting to fight a brother in the Confederate army, Lathrop and his family spent the Civil War in Canada, where he was suspected of supplying goods to Southern blockade runners. The Federal government confiscated his house, which was then bought at public auction by Osmyn Baker, who returned it to Lathrop after the war. J. Stebbins Lathrop continued as a business man in Northampton until his death in 1894.

48 Pomeroy Terrace, Northampton (1850)

by Dan//Houses, Italianate, Northampton

The house at 48 Pomeroy Terrace in Northampton was built around 1850, or perhaps as early as 1847. Its first resident was Rev. Rufus Ellis (1819-1885), a Unitarian clergyman who rented the property. In 1853, Edward Clarke sold it to Mary Ann Cochran and the house became known as the Miss Cochran Cottage. According to tradition, the house was a stop on the Underground Railroad. In the 1850s, the house’s cupola had differently colored panes of glass and fugitive slaves were said to have known whether it was safe to proceed based on which pane was lit. The house is now used for the offices of the neighboring College Church.