FORM B – BUILDING
Assessor's number
3-24
Massachusetts Historical Commission
Massachusetts State Archives Building
220 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, Massachusetts 02125
USGS Quad
Shutesbury
Town
Area(s)
Form Number
PEL.40
Pelham
Place (neighborhood or village)
Address
West Pelham
50 Amherst Road
Historic Name
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
14
Uses: Present
Dwelling
Original
Dwelling
Date of Construction
1935
Source
Daily Hampshire
Gazette, Nov. 29, 1935 and 1936 Pelham Tax
Valuations
Style/Form
English Cottage
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.
Milton Leroy Thornton, Jr.
[1910-1997]
Exterior Material:
Foundation
concrete
Wall/Trim
wood shingles, brick and stone
Roof asphalt shingle
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures
Major Alterations (with dates)
window added
in gable peak (ca. 2000)
Condition
excellent
Moved No (X) Yes ( ) Date
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
Acreage
0.44
Setting House faces south 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.
The English Cottage style was greatly favored during the 1920s and 30s in New England
as it was at once economical to build, compact, and had a stylistic charm. This house is a
good example of those qualities. It is a one-and-a-half story, wood shingle sided, cape
house with a transverse gable bay on its street or south elevation, and a one-bay-by-onebay wing on its east elevation. It has a steeply pitched end-gable roof with one chimney
offset on the back side of the roof and a second through-cornice chimney on the street
elevation decoratively set with fieldstones and brick. The brick of the chimney
interspersed with stones extends to surround the entry. The roof also extends just above
the entry to create a small, unsupported portico. In the transverse gable bay three
windows form a band that illuminates the living room while on the other side of the
stepped chimney there is a diamond pane fixed sash window to suggest the cottages of
England. A new window was installed in the peak of the transverse gable, otherwise
there are no apparent alterations to the building.
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.
50 Amherst Road was originally part of Home Lot No. 32 drawn by William Johnson in
1739. The property was part of 44 Amherst Road since at least before 1812. Owners of
44 Amherst Road included John Harkness, Sr. [ca. 1750-1821], William Harkness, Sr.
[1793-1831], John Harkness, Jr. [1788-1844] [or at least 44 Amherst Road was occupied
by John, Jr.], William Newell [1802-1878], John P. Lovejoy [ca. 1817-1879], Helen
Hammersley [Roper] [b. ca. 1850], Capt. Benjamin Page [1829-1913], Annette Sophia
Page Morgan [1854-1937], Francis [Frank] Henry Morgan [ca. 1846-1892], and Edith
Mary Morgan Thornton [1877-1951].
In 1935, Edith Thornton split off 0.44 acres from 44 Amherst Road to her son, Milton
Leroy Thornton, Jr. [1910-1997], for a house lot. The Gazette reported on Nov. 29, 1935
that “Mr. and Mrs. Mil[ton] Thornton, who recently moved into a new house, were given
a surprise party recently in the West Pelham Community hall by neighbors and friends.
They were presented a kitchen cabinet.” Milton Thornton was husband of Isabel M.
Jacque Thornton [1911-1990]. Pearly P. Keyes, Jr. recalled [in 2004] that the house “was
a pre-fab house.” The Thorntons had two children: Barbara Jean Thornton Griswold [b.
1936] and Martha Louise Thornton [b. 1940].
Milton Thornton was listed as a chauffeur in 1930. He eventually worked as a manager
for Sealtest Ice Cream Co. in Northampton until he retired in 1972. He was Forest Fire
Warden in Pelham in 1939 and 1940. The Thorntons added a garage to 50 Amherst Road
in 1957. In 1965, the property expanded from 0.44 to 2.80 acres, presumably coming
from 44 Amherst Road.
In 1941, an acre from 44 Amherst Road was sold by Milton Thornton’s mother to his
sister Ethel Lillian Thornton Cushman [1901-1992] and her husband George Merritt
Cushman [1900-1985] and, in 1949, the Cushmans built a house at 48 Amherst Road just
west of 50 Amherst Road.
Isabel Thornton died in 1990. Milton Thornton continued to reside at 50 Amherst Road
until 1992 when daughters Barbara Griswold and Martha Felton [who received the
property from their parents in 1987] sold the property to Kevin A. Cram [b. 1967] and Jill
G. Cram [b. 1970].
On March 22, 1995, Kevin A. Cram and Jill G. Cram, later Jill G. Brown, sold 50
Amherst Road to Hector F. Berrios [b. 1966] and Jannet Berrios b. 1968] of Amherst.
The Barrios rented the property in 1998 and 1999.
The Barrios owned 50 Amherst Road until they sold it to Katherine L. Doyle [b. 1962], a
staff assistant, in 2000.
In 2003, Doyle sold 50 Amherst Road to Stefan Graham Christian [b. 1964], a tech writer
from Brookline.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
 see continuation sheet
Hampshire County Deeds 974-194 [1943]; 3054-124 [1987]; 4002-146 [1992]; 4520-191
[1994]; 4640-32 [1995]; 5654-202 [1999]; 5753-232 [1999]; 7296-241 [2003].
Hampshire County Plan Book 64-119 [1963].
Pelham Tax Valuations, Annual Reports, and Street Lists, [Town Vault, Town of Pelham;
and History Room, Pelham Free Public Library].
Parmenter, C[harles] O[scar], “History of Pelham,” [Amherst, MA: Carpenter and
Morehouse, 1898], pp. 24, 25, 30, 31.
Pelham Vital Records, [Town Clerk’s Office, Town of Pelham].
Board of Assessors, Town of Pelham, Revaluation Card, 50 Amherst Road, 1982.
Campbell, Paul H., Jr., Personal Recollections, Aug. 17, 2004, to Robert Lord Keyes.
Cushman, Ethel, Oral History, 1979, [Copy in History Room, Pelham Free Public
Library].
Keyes, Pearly P., Jr., Personal Recollections, May 19, 2004, to Robert Lord Keyes, May
19, 2004.
[Northampton, MA] Daily Hampshire Gazette, Nov. 29, 1935; Jan. 31, 1936; June 11,
1997; Jan. 26, 1999.
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
50 Amherst Road
Area(s) Form No.
PEL.40
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.