Download 55 Amherst Road - Pelham Library

FORM B – BUILDING
Assessor's number
3-13
Massachusetts Historical Commission
Massachusetts State Archives Building
220 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, Massachusetts 02125
USGS Quad
Shutesbury
Town
Pelham
Place (neighborhood or village)
Address
Photograph
(3" x 3" or 3" x 5", only black and white)
Staple onto the left side of the form. Indicate the
address of the property on the back of the photo.
Indicate the roll and film number of the negative
here on the form.
roll
1
film number
11
Area(s)
Form Number
PEL.43
West Pelham
55 Amherst Road
Historic Name
Uses: Present
Dwelling
Original
Dwelling
Date of Construction 1921
Source
1921 Pelham Tax Valuations
Style/Form
no style
Architect/Builder
Sketch Map
Show the building’s location in relation to the
nearest cross streets and/or major natural features.
Circle and number the inventoried building.
Indicate north.
Exterior Material:
Foundation
concrete; fieldstone
Wall/Trim
aluminum; wood shingles
Roof
asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures
Major Alterations (with dates)
porch
enclosed ca. 1950; south porch added ca. 1970
Recorded by Robert Lord Keyes [Historical] and
Bonnie Parsons [Architectural]
Organization Keyes: Pelham Historical
Commission; Parsons: Pioneer Valley Planning
Commission
Date (month/day/year)
March 1, 2005
Condition
Moved
fair
No (X) Yes ( ) Date
Acreage
0.2
Setting
House faces north and is set fairly
close to the well-traveled road.
BUILDING FORM
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION  see continuation sheet
Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of
other buildings within the community.
This is a one-and-a-half story, steeply pitched, front-gabled cottage that is without a
particular style and is one of the most modest houses in West Pelham. The house has an
enclosed one-story porch on the north or street elevation and is three bays wide. The
house is three bays deep for a rectangular plan. Full-length shed roof dormers are found
on each side of the gable roof. There is an added rear shingled porch and as the house is
set on a south-sloping lot, the basement is exposed on the south end of the house. The
one concession to stylistic differentiation is the use of shutters at the 1/1 windows incised
with the initial “B”.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE  see continuation sheet
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.
55 Amherst Road was originally part of Home Lot No. 32 drawn by William Johnson in
1739. 55 Amherst Road had been part of 51 Amherst Road until the property was sold by
George Howard Cadwell [b. 1866] in 1912. (A house has stood at 51 Amherst Road since
before 1821.) Cadwell spun off building lots from 51 Amherst Road and developed
several properties on Amherst Road and Cadwell Street. Cadwell Street was named for
him. Most of the houses were built by the purchasers of the individual properties.
Pelham Historian Charles O. Parmenter [1833-1913] recalled [in 1898] when 51 Amherst
Road was owned by John Harkness, Jr. [1788-1844] in the 1820s. “East of [51 Amherst
Road] and on the same side of the way are gravelly knolls that were often plowed and
sowed to winter rye in the fall for harvesting next season.” This was generally the site of
what was to become 53, 55, 57, 59, 61 and 63 Amherst Road. Ethel Lillian Thornton
Cushman [1901-1992] recalled [in 1979] how there were no houses along the south side
of Amherst Road between 51 Amherst Road and Harkness Cemetery. She said she
thought that trees in the Cadwell Street area were cut down and used to construct the
houses that went up along Amherst Road and Cadwell Street after 1912.
Cadwell sold the lot that became 53 and 55 Amherst Road to Mary A. Turcotte Mailloux
[ca. 1867-1946] in 1913. The house is listed [as “unfinished”] on the 1913 Pelham Tax
Valuations. Mary Mailloux was French Canadian and a naturalized U.S. citizen. Her
husband, Joseph H. Mailloux [ca. 1856-1934], was also of French Canadian ancestry and
a naturalized U.S. citizen. Joseph Mailloux was a harness maker in 1910, but later was a
polisher in the Montague City Fish Rod Factory at 22 Amherst Road.
John N. Davis of Amherst, husband of the Mary and Joseph Mailloux’s granddaughter
Ruth Helen Mailloux Messier Davis [b. 1923], recalled Mary and Joseph Mailloux in
2004. Mary Mailloux took care of the family business and paid the bills. Mary’s brother
Frank E. Turcotte [b. 1878] built 59 and 61 Amherst Road, having bought the property
from Cadwell in 1912. Frank Turcotte “owned a lot of property in Amherst” and Mary
Mailloux had several rental properties herself. Joseph Mailloux had a lame leg. Mary and
Joseph Mailloux moved to 53 Amherst Road from 141 Amherst Road.
In 1921, Mary and Joseph Mailloux built 55 Amherst Road [it is listed as “house under
construction” in the 1921 Tax Valuations]. The Tax Valuations, in fact, list 53 and 55
Amherst Road together—one-half acre total—until 1942 when 55 Amherst Road was
sold to Mary E. Stone. Thus, for is first 20 years, 55 Amherst Road was owned by Mary
and Joseph Mailloux and rented. In 1930, it appears that 26-year-old dry goods store
clerk William J. Moat [b. ca. 1904] and his wife, Dorothy G. Moat [b. ca. 1909], age 21,
were renting 55 Amherst Road.
In 1942, when Mary E. Stone purchased 55 Amherst Road, the lot was listed as being 52
feet by 166 feet with a house and a garage. In 1947, Mary Stone sold 55 Amherst Road to
Alice M. Whitcomb of Amherst. She owned it only until 1947 when she sold the property
to Frank C. Holzhauer [1905-1956] and Gladys M. Warnes Holzhauer [1915-1991].
Frank Holzhauer was a veteran of World War II. Gladys Holzhauer was a naturalized
American citizen. They had two sons, Alan Holzhauer [b. ca. 1949] and Gordon D.
Holzhauer [1951-2001].
Gladys Holzhauer sold 55 Amherst Road in 1974 and moved to Cottage Street in
Amherst. The new owners were Russell Bardwell [b. 1941] and Ann D. Bardwell [b.
1940], who are the present owners. Russell is a Park Supervisor and Ann an
Administrative Assistant. The Bardwells have five children born between 1967 and 1974.
In 2003, Russell Bardwell was a resident of Bernardston with Ann Bardwell the sole
owner of the property.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
 see continuation sheet
Hampshire County Deeds 1023-277 [1947]; 1764-55 [1974]; 7625-192 [2003].
Pelham Tax Valuations, Annual Reports, and Street Lists, [Town Vault, Town of Pelham;
and History Room, Pelham Free Public Library].
Pelham Vital Records, [Town Clerk’s Office, Town of Pelham].
Federal Census, 1930.
Board of Assessors, Town of Pelham, Revaluation Card, 55 Amherst Road, 1982.
Parmenter, C[harles] O[scar], “History of Pelham,” [Amherst, MA: Carpenter and
Morehouse, 1898], pp. 24, 25, 30, 31, 497.
Cushman, Ethel, Oral History, 1979, [Copy in History Room, Pelham Free Public
Library].
Davis, John N., Personal Recollections, April 18, 2004, to Robert Lord Keyes.
Keyes, Pearly P., Jr., Personal Recollections, May 19, 2004, to Robert Lord Keyes.
Lockwood, Rev. John, Ed., “Western Massachusetts: A History, 1636-1925,” [New
York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1925], Vol. 3, pp. 49-50.
[Northampton, MA] Daily Hampshire Gazette, Feb. 21, 2001.
Keyes, Robert Lord, 40 South Valley Road, Pelham, MA 01002, Pelham, Massachusetts
History Project: Genealogical and Historical Research.
Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you
must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.
Massachusetts Historical Commission
Address
State Archives Facility
220 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, Massachusetts 02125
Community
Pelham
Property
55 Amherst Road
Area(s) Form No.
PEL.43
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
Criteria Considerations:
B
C
A
D
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 contributes to the potential West Pelham Historic District. The district is
significant according to criteria A and C and it has local significance. West Pelham is
significant as the site of 18th century settlement at four mill sites, one of which exists
today, and for its association with events of Shays’s Rebellion after the Revolutionary
War.
West Pelham, known during the late 19th and early 20th century as “Pelham City”
represents a 19th century agricultural and light industrial village that superceded Pelham
Center as the town center due to the long term success of its industry attracting and
sustaining workers and to its development in the early 20th century as a suburban area for
population spillover from Amherst, long a college town and intellectual center of the
region. A late 19th century resort destination, West Pelham is also important as it retains
a building from this era, and from the resort Orient Springs.
The district retains buildings from its 19th century agricultural, resort and industrial past
as well as from its early 20th century suburban phase, which continues to the present.
There are fine examples of Federal and Greek Revival farmsteads. With a Queen Anne
store and single and double houses from the Colonial Revival and Craftsman styles applied to bungalow, cape and Four-square forms - the district’s stylistic range as a home
to workers and suburban commuters is exemplary.