The Crowley 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 ...
. It is one a small number of houses in North Adams built in a transitional Federalist-Greek Revival style, and one of its relatively small number of early 19th-century houses. The house 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 ...
in 1985.
Description and history
The Crowley House is located in the West End of North Adams on the north side of Main Street (
Massachusetts Route 2
Route 2 is a major east–west state highway in Massachusetts. Along with Route 9 and U.S. Route 20 to the south, these highways are the main alternatives to the Massachusetts Turnpike/ I-90 toll highway. Route 2 runs the entire ...
), just east of Fairgrounds Avenue. It is a -story wood-frame structure, with a front-facing gable roof and two interior end chimneys. The main block is flanked by single-story wings, the left one a single bay wide, and the right one three bays wide. The house follows a fairly typical Greek Revival plan, with a central hall and wings on either side of the main block. The front facade has Greek Revival details, including Doric
pilaster
In classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s and Greek fret molding, but the workmanship of some of the details shows that it was probably done by someone with more practice in the Federal style. The fan in the front gable end is a Federal period feature.
Little is known of its early history; based on its architecture, a construction date of 1830 is estimated. It first enters the documentary record in the 1860s when its owner defaulted on debts and lost the property. It was occupied from the 1880s into the early 20th century by David Crowley, a clothes finisher working in the local textile mills. It is unknown if Crowley occupied the property, and it appears to have had long use as a rental.
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See also
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References
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts, state=collapsed
Houses completed in 1830
Houses in North Adams, Massachusetts
1830 establishments in Massachusetts
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Berkshire County, Massachusetts
Greek Revival architecture in Massachusetts
Federal architecture in Massachusetts