The Armstrong House is a historic house located in
North Adams, Massachusetts
North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population was 12,961 as of the 2020 census. Best known as the ...
. Built about 1875, it is a well-preserved example of a locally idiosyncratic Italianate style. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
on October 25, 1985.
Description and history
The Armstrong House is located on a residential street on the north side of North Adams, on the east side of Brooklyn Street. It is a two-story wood-frame structure, three bays wide, with a low hip roof supported by decorative brackets at the corners and studded with modillion blocks. Its main entrance is in the leftmost bay, with a portico that is also bracketed, with 20th-century columns and balustrade that are sympathetic to its
Italianate style
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
. A single-story polygonal bay projects from the right side of the main block. A two-story ell extends to the rear, connecting the house to a barn that is of the same vintage as the house, with an oculus window in its gable end. Extending across the ell's side is a bracketed shed-roof porch.
The house was built in 1875, during North Adams' industrial boom time. Its combination of features are a locally distinctive variant of the Italianate style, which is found repeated elsewhere in the community. The house was built for W. W. Armstrong, a worker at the
Arnold Print Works
The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is a museum in a converted Arnold Print Works factory building complex located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing ar ...
, and is considered one of North Adams' best-preserved Italianate houses.
See also
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References
Notes
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts, state=collapsed
Buildings and structures in North Adams, Massachusetts
Houses in North Adams, Massachusetts
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Berkshire County, Massachusetts
Houses completed in 1875
Italianate architecture in Massachusetts