HISTORIC NORTHAMPTON
  • About
    • About Historic Northampton
    • What's On View
    • Hours and Directions
    • Volunteer
    • Board-Staff
    • Legal/Financial
  • PROGRAMS
    • Slavery and Freedom in Northampton 1654 to 1783 Exhibit
    • Upcoming Programs
    • Past Events at Historic Northampton >
      • Past Programs 2025
      • Past Programs 2024
      • Mill River Flood 150 Commemoration >
        • Mill River Flood 150 Commemoration Events
        • Mill River Flood Introduction
        • Mill River Flood Lives Lost
        • Mill River Flood Commemoration Markers >
          • \\\\\\\\Williamsburg Mill River Flood Markers
          • Skinnerville Mill River Flood Markers
          • Haydenville Mill River Flood Markers
          • Leeds Mill River Markers
          • Florence Mill River Markers
          • Northampton Mill River Markers
        • Mill River Flood Who Was Responsible
        • Mill River Flood Guided Walks to the Dam Ruins
        • Mill River Flood Memorial Tree Project
      • Past Programs 2023
      • Past Programs 2022
      • Past Programs 2021
      • Past Programs 2020
      • Past Programs 2019
    • MCC Card to Culture at Historic Northampton
    • Help I am not receiving email announcements
  • Explore
    • Collections & Research
    • History at Home >
      • Videos
      • Interactive Witch Trial
      • Paper Dolls
      • Hidden Histories
      • Scavenger Hunts
      • Coloring Pages
      • Brain Teasers
      • Peg Doll Hunts
      • Jonathan Edwards Prayer Requests
    • Properties >
      • Parsons House
      • Damon House
      • Shepherd House
      • Shepherd Barn 2020
      • The Bridge Street School Sprouts
    • Educational Websites
    • Historic Highlights
    • COVID-19 Stories >
      • Vaccination Photos
      • Submit Your COVID Story
      • Children React
      • Family and Neighborhood Fun
      • It's a New World
      • Hope and Togetherness
      • Images
      • How Illness Feels
      • Brings Forth Memory
      • Blessings and the New Busy
      • Fear and Worry
  • Indigenous Native History
    • Native Histories in Nonotuck
    • Nonotuck Histories Essay by Margaret M. Bruchac
    • Recovering Nonotuck Histories Photo Essay
    • Profiles of Native People
    • Extended Biographies of Native People
    • Nonotuck to Northampton Maps
    • Native LIves Bibliography
  • History of Slavery
    • Exhibiit Slavery and Freedom in Northampton 1654 to 1783
    • About the Slavery Research Project
    • Black Enslaved People
    • Free Black People
    • Native Enslaved People
    • Enslavers of People
    • Relationship Map >
      • Relationship Map Family Groups
      • Relationship Map Enslavement
      • Relationship Map Indenture
      • Relationship Map Legal
      • Relationship Map Commerce
      • Relationship Map Foster or Guardian
      • Relationship Map Social Connections
    • Timeline of Slavery in Northampton
  • DONATE
    • Donate to the Spring Appeal
    • WAYS TO GIVE >
      • Monthly Donation
      • IRA Giving
      • Stock Giving
    • Join the Email List
    • Donate to the Collection

POMEROY-SHEPHERD HOUSE

Land
The land on which this house sits was part of the home-lot assigned to Joseph Parsons in 1654. The original lot was divided into successively smaller parcels, and as far as we know, the first house on this parcel was built about 1797 or 1798. The lot was enlarged in the late 19th century by adding the small parcel directly behind the barn, at the end of the newly developed Graves Avenue.

House
Shepherd House is a typical center hall house with four rooms down and four rooms up. A small lean-to kitchen with back porch was added sometime before 1853. The charming little gothic-style front porch may have been added in 1856, when Susan Munroe Shepherd bought the house, or perhaps as much as a decade earlier. The cornices across the gable ends were probably added about the same time. The attic was originally a single space with one window at each gable end, but at some point in the mid-nineteenth century, it was divided into four rooms surrounding a center landing with new windows for each room. Some of these rooms were wallpapered and appear to have been used by servants.

A mid-nineteenth century barn still stands toward the rear of the original property. 

Ownership
The house was probably built by Seth Russell, who owned the property in the late 1790s. For about 30 years in the early 19th century it was owned by well-known local innkeeper Asahel Pomeroy. Asahel Pomeroy's father was the locally famous blacksmith and Revolutionary war soldier Seth Pomeroy, whose anvil, beartrap and cowbell are owned by Historic  Northampton. When Pomeroy fell on hard times, the house was sold, and it had a series of short-term owners until 1856, when it was bought by Susan Lorinda Brigham Munroe, wife of Henry Shepherd, the same year in which her son Thomas was born. We do not know why the house is in Susan's name rather than Henry's, but it seems possible that it was bought with money from her dowry.

Research Studies of the House
In 1991-1992, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquites (now Historic New England) examined the Shepherd Family House.  Click on the button below to view their report, Report on Building Archaeology at the Russell-Shepherd House, Northampton, Massachusetts.
1992 Report Russell-Shepherd House

Click on the button to view Annotated Photographs and Illustrative Site Plans, Shepherd House by Menke & Menke Landscape Architects, ​December 1986.
1986 Report Menke & Menke
Picture
Picture
Picture
HISTORIC
​NORTHAMPTON
46 Bridge Street
Northampton
​Massachusetts 01060
[email protected]
​413-584-6011
Current Exhibit:
​Slavery and Freedom in Northampton, 1654 to 1783


Exhibit Hours
July and August Hours:

Wednesday - Sunday
11 am to 5 pm
© COPYRIGHT 2015-2024. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • About
    • About Historic Northampton
    • What's On View
    • Hours and Directions
    • Volunteer
    • Board-Staff
    • Legal/Financial
  • PROGRAMS
    • Slavery and Freedom in Northampton 1654 to 1783 Exhibit
    • Upcoming Programs
    • Past Events at Historic Northampton >
      • Past Programs 2025
      • Past Programs 2024
      • Mill River Flood 150 Commemoration >
        • Mill River Flood 150 Commemoration Events
        • Mill River Flood Introduction
        • Mill River Flood Lives Lost
        • Mill River Flood Commemoration Markers >
          • \\\\\\\\Williamsburg Mill River Flood Markers
          • Skinnerville Mill River Flood Markers
          • Haydenville Mill River Flood Markers
          • Leeds Mill River Markers
          • Florence Mill River Markers
          • Northampton Mill River Markers
        • Mill River Flood Who Was Responsible
        • Mill River Flood Guided Walks to the Dam Ruins
        • Mill River Flood Memorial Tree Project
      • Past Programs 2023
      • Past Programs 2022
      • Past Programs 2021
      • Past Programs 2020
      • Past Programs 2019
    • MCC Card to Culture at Historic Northampton
    • Help I am not receiving email announcements
  • Explore
    • Collections & Research
    • History at Home >
      • Videos
      • Interactive Witch Trial
      • Paper Dolls
      • Hidden Histories
      • Scavenger Hunts
      • Coloring Pages
      • Brain Teasers
      • Peg Doll Hunts
      • Jonathan Edwards Prayer Requests
    • Properties >
      • Parsons House
      • Damon House
      • Shepherd House
      • Shepherd Barn 2020
      • The Bridge Street School Sprouts
    • Educational Websites
    • Historic Highlights
    • COVID-19 Stories >
      • Vaccination Photos
      • Submit Your COVID Story
      • Children React
      • Family and Neighborhood Fun
      • It's a New World
      • Hope and Togetherness
      • Images
      • How Illness Feels
      • Brings Forth Memory
      • Blessings and the New Busy
      • Fear and Worry
  • Indigenous Native History
    • Native Histories in Nonotuck
    • Nonotuck Histories Essay by Margaret M. Bruchac
    • Recovering Nonotuck Histories Photo Essay
    • Profiles of Native People
    • Extended Biographies of Native People
    • Nonotuck to Northampton Maps
    • Native LIves Bibliography
  • History of Slavery
    • Exhibiit Slavery and Freedom in Northampton 1654 to 1783
    • About the Slavery Research Project
    • Black Enslaved People
    • Free Black People
    • Native Enslaved People
    • Enslavers of People
    • Relationship Map >
      • Relationship Map Family Groups
      • Relationship Map Enslavement
      • Relationship Map Indenture
      • Relationship Map Legal
      • Relationship Map Commerce
      • Relationship Map Foster or Guardian
      • Relationship Map Social Connections
    • Timeline of Slavery in Northampton
  • DONATE
    • Donate to the Spring Appeal
    • WAYS TO GIVE >
      • Monthly Donation
      • IRA Giving
      • Stock Giving
    • Join the Email List
    • Donate to the Collection