FORM B − BUILDING Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number

UMASS No. 171 Williamsburg N/A AMH.127

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD
Town: Amherst
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Place: University of Massachusetts
Photograph
Address: 140 Hicks Way
Historic Name: Goodell Building
Uses: Present: Academic
Original: Library
Date of Construction: 1934
Source: University of Massachusetts Facilities Dept.
Style/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder: Morse, Dickenson & Goodwin
Exterior Material:
Foundation: Stone
Wall/Trim: Brick
Topographic or Assessor's Map
Roof: Originally slate. In process of being replaced, September 2008.
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: None

Major Alterations (with dates): Construction of large

addition (Building #172) on west side, 1959. Replacement
of roof in progress, September 2008.

Condition: Good
Moved: no | X | yes | | Date
Acreage: Total Campus Acreage: 1,348 Acres
Setting: Located at the historic core of the University
campus, directly south of Building #129 South College
(built 1885), directly east of Building #80 Chapel (built
1884-85), and northeast of Building #115 Memorial Hall
(built 1920).

Recorded by: W. Maros/C. Weed/C. Beagan

Organization: VHB/Pressley Associates
Date (month / year): May 2009

Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
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___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.

Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community.

The Goodell Building, originally known as Goodell Library, is a two-story Colonial Revival brick structure that has a hip roof, a
cupola, and a projecting two story portico with Ionic columns and a demilune window. The building has a rectangular footprint,
with a 7-bay central block that is flanked by 3-bay wings. The Goodell Building has a stone foundation, brick quoins at its
corners and wood trim. The roof was in the process of being replaced in September 2008. The central block and the portico, but
not the wings, are ornamented with modillions. The four-sided cupola has central louvered panels, a domed metal top and
weathervane.

The main entry is within the projecting portico on the east elevation. The portico’s base is three steps above ground level. The
entry consists of three doors that have 3/2 panes in their upper half and a rectangular panel in their lower half. The entry
ornamentation is elaborate, extending from the top of the doorway to the underside of the portico. This includes three, square,
neoclassical transom windows over the doors, which are flanked by scrolled brackets that support a cornice. Above the cornice is
an embellished rectangular panel that has a raised decorative shield at its center, which contains the Seal of Massachusetts. The
decorative woodwork continues above this, in the form of a classical window frame around the second story’s central 8/8 sash
window.

On either side of the doorway, the main block’s east elevation contains three 12/12 sash windows, which are set within arched
recesses that have keystones at the top of the arches. The wings each contain three 12/12 windows with brick lintels that have
keystones. The main block’s second story has three 8/8 windows to either side of the central 8/8 window, and the wings each
have three 8/8 windows on their second story.

The building’s north elevation contains five evenly spaced windows on its first and second stories. These windows match the
windows on the wings’ east elevation.

Building #172, a brick and concrete structure, was appended to the west side of the Goodell Building in 1959.

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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [AMHERST] [140 Hicks Way]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

Landscape – Visual/Design Assessment

The Goodell Building is located to the west of the Old Chapel on a flat site. The eastern side of the building faces a bituminous
drive and mown lawn. At the northeast corner of the building is lawn with deciduous trees. The lawn with deciduous trees meets
a bituminous concrete drive and parking area on the north side of the building and to the west at the back of the side of the
addition. At this entrance are evergreen shrubs. A bituminous concrete walkway leads to the main entrance on the east façade.
Pole lights are located at the corners of the walkway. The approach includes concrete steps and a handicap ramp with railings.
To the left of the entrance are bike racks. Boulders are scattered in the lawn at the northeast corner of the building.

2005 orthophotograph of Goodell Building (center) and surrounding landscape, north is up (MassGIS).

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HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
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.

Overview
The University of Massachusetts, Amherst was chartered as the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1863 but did not accept
its first class until 1867. As one of two land grant universities in Massachusetts, the university’s original mission was
agricultural education. Its mission, however, evolved within the first 20 years in response to the changing needs of the United
States. While agriculture remains, even today, a mainstay of the University’s mission, the University now also supports
engineering, science, education, and liberal arts colleges and departments.

A full historical narrative of the University of Massachusetts from its founding to 1958 is contained in the survey report. This
narrative was prepared in 2009 by Carol S. Weed, Senior Archaeologist with Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc.

Shown below are selected highlights from the text of the full historical narrative, along with additional information pertinent to
the specific building that is described in this Massachusetts Historical Commission Building Form. This section contains: (1)
highlights of the historic periods in the development of the University of Massachusetts, leading up to and including the period
when the building was constructed, (2) information about the university in the decade when the building was constructed, (3)
information about the circumstances that led to the construction of the building, along with information about its architect, if
known, and (4) an analysis of the historic landscape of the building.

1863-1867: Administration and Initial Campus Layout

As the educational mission evolved in the years after 1863, so did the university’s approach to its facilities and its landscape.
There was no accepted plan for the layout of the college, despite the preparation of various plan proposals in the 1860s,
including separate proposals from the country’s preeminent landscape planners, Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, who
had formerly worked together on the winning design for New York City’s Central Park. Neither Vaux’s plan, nor Olmsted’s plan
to create a campus around a central green, were accepted by the University Trustees.

1867-1916: The Early Growth

In the absence of a coordinated plan, the Trustees put existing buildings that were acquired with the campus land into service as
agricultural laboratories. Campus development for several decades after 1863 was sporadic and focused on the construction of
individual buildings to meet specific functional needs of the fledgling university. It was not until after 1900, during a period of
rapid student population growth and resultant new building construction, that the University Trustees again sought proposals for
comprehensive campus planning.

In 1912, a professional landscaping publication reported that Warren H. Manning, formerly affiliated with the Olmsted firm, had
spent over four years preparing a comprehensive plan for the University Trustees. The Trustees had considered it imperative for
the college to plan harmonious development that would conserve the beauty of campus grounds while meeting the needs of a
growing student population whose expanding range of activities was unprecedented.

Manning’s plan designated three distinct sections of the campus, the Upland, Midland and Lowland Sections. Each section was
intended to be the locus of specific functions, with clusters of purpose-built structures to serve those functions. For example, one
section would be designated for faculty, women’s and horticultural facilities. A second section would contain administration,
research, science and student life (dormitory, dining hall, and sports) facilities. The third section would be dedicated to poultry,
farming and sewage disposal facilities.

Although Manning’s Upland, Midland, and Lowland sections are not fully realized, it is apparent that discipline specific
groupings were developed. Building clusters, especially those related to agriculture, administration, and the hard and earth
sciences (physics, chemistry, and geology) continued to expand through the present day.

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1916-1931: World War I and the Transition Years

Long range building programs were developed beginning with Landscape Gardening Professor F.A. Waugh’s 1919 plan. Like
Manning’s 1911 plan, Waugh’s 1919 work emphasized building groups in order to maintain the proper balance between
buildings, cultivated fields, meadows and lawns, forests and trees. By World War I and continuing through the 1920s, University
records frequently refer to the inadequacy of the physical plant; the lack of class room space; the lack of properly ventilated and
lighted spaces; and the danger of having to cancel classes because of a lack of appropriate facilities. Expansion of the campus
through acquisition of additional land was considered essential if the University were to construct new and better facilities to
address these deficiencies and excel as an institution of higher education.

The 1920s, however, had the fewest buildings constructed of any decade in the campus history to that point. The slow pace of
building is largely attributed to the annual funding levels that were appropriated by the Massachusetts Legislature during the
decade.

1931-1941: Great Depression, New Deal

The change in campus orientation wrought by the expansion of the school’s mission began in the 1930s with its name change to
Massachusetts State College. With that program expansion there was a concerted effort to modernize and expand the campus
facilities. The campus population had grown steadily during the 1920s.

In 1933, the campus was hosting about 1,200 students in its graduate and undergraduate sections. By 1935, there were 1,300
students enrolled representing a 53 percent increase in five years and of 80 percent in ten years, prompting the University to limit
the freshman class to 300 students due to the inadequacy of facilities and staff to care for a greater number. This student
population was putting extreme pressure on basic resources such as the library.

Despite the growing student population and an identified need for additional and improved campus facilities in the 1920s and
1930s, the onset of the Great Depression with its wide-ranging consequences effectively restricted funding to the bare minimum
needed to operate. By late 1933, the funding outlook had improved through the economic stimulus initiatives of the Federal
Government, and National Recovery Act funds were available for the construction of a library, a new administration building,
and other unspecified buildings for the University.

As part of the University’s planning effort to select a site for the new library, the Campus Planning Committee charged with this
work issued a final report in late 1933, which contained five recommendations for campus development: 1) That the general
organization and building program on the campus be planned so as not to interfere with the sightliness [sic] and beauty of the
present central open space, 2) That buildings of such a general service nature (library, dining hall, etc.) that they affect the entire
student body be located in the first zone immediately adjacent to the central open space, 3) That buildings dealing with services
more specialized (agriculture, home economics, etc.), and therefore affecting only certain groups of students, occupy the second
zone, 4) That buildings used by students, but not directly contributing to organized instruction (dormitories), occupy the third
zone and 5) That buildings dealing with problems of general maintenance and physical service (heating plant, carpenter shop,
horse barn, etc.) occupy the outer, or fourth zone.

The committee went on to note that with these five recommendations in mind, they would site newly proposed buildings
according to the defined zones. These zones were basically the ones that Professor Waugh had recommended in his 1907 and
1919 planning reports and Manning had proposed in his 1911 plan. The zones or sections were designed to focus significant
elements of the college’s mission to its physical core which was defined as the broad, central bench with its hallmark pond.
Everything that supported these core elements were dispatched to outer zones.

Despite documents entitled “Final Report of the Campus Planning Committee,” the group operated in one form or another as the
primary planning unit on campus for the next 15 years, until 1948. The committee continued to focus on where buildings and
facilities would be best sited relative to the campus missions.

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Goodell Building
This structure was built to house the University library, which had outgrown its space in the 1885 Chapel building. Originally
known as Goodell Library, the building was named for Henry Goodell, who had served as College Librarian, Professor of
Modern Languages and English Literature, and eighth President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. Construction of the
Goodell Library during the Great Depression was made possible through the Emergency Public Works Administration. Both
Federal and State government funds were used for this project.

Landscape Analysis
The buildings to the west of the Campus Pond were historically organized along two circulation routes, neither of which is
extant. The eastern façade of buildings closest to the pond, including the Chapel and Memorial Hall, were organized along
Olmsted Road/Ellis Drive overlooking an open space indicated as Front Slope on a 1901 campus plan and the Campus Pond.
Olmsted Road/Ellis Drive was an historic tree-lined street that curved along the west side of the campus pond, connecting to
North Pleasant Street at both its northern and southern ends.

The western façade of the buildings faced an extension of Lincoln Avenue (no longer extant). Historically, the northern terminus
of the Lincoln Avenue axis was occupied by North College (no longer extant), which stood on the approximate site of Machmer
Hall (1957). The southern axis of Lincoln Avenue was obstructed by the construction of Whitmore Hall in 1967. Historic
buildings along the west side of Lincoln Avenue include South College, Munson Hall, Munson Hall Annex, Hicks Physical
Education Building, Hicks Physical Education Cage, Gooddell Building, and Machmer Hall. Historically, Lincoln Avenue was
tree-lined and featured some open lots interspersed with athletic fields.
In 1934 the Goodell Building was constructed immediately across Lincoln Avenue from the Chapel. Pedestrian access to the
building was accommodated by three walks, one on axis with Chapel and two with diagonal approaches from the north and
south. The southern access walk is extant, the other two are not. Construction of Bartlett Hall negatively impacted the landscape
at the south side of the building. Historically, the landscape to the east of the building was open lawn with a few scattered trees.
Early historic photographs show no planting at the foundation of the building, but later historic photographs show evergreen
foundation planting, including upright shrubs framing entrance (no longer extant). The landscape surrounding the Goodell
Building includes new vegetation and additional paved area from its historic condition.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES

David L. Adams and Lynne E. Adams, Massachusetts Memories: UMass Amherst History (Amherst, Collective Copies, 2008)

Harold Whiting Cary, The University of Massachusetts: A History of One Hundred Years (Amherst: University of
Massachusetts, 1962)

Three Architectural Tours: Selected Buildings on the Campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst (Amherst, the
Campus Beautification Committee, the UMass Arts Council and the University Gallery, 2000)

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Figures

Detailed Map

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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [AMHERST] [140 Hicks Way]
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Goodell Building, view southwest, September 2008

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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [AMHERST] [140 Hicks Way]
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Goodell Building, view southeast September 2008

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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [AMHERST] [140 Hicks Way]
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Goodell Building, no date (early 1930s)

Courtesy Special Collections and Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst

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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [AMHERST] [140 Hicks Way]
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Goodell Building, no date (early 1930s)

Courtesy Special Collections and Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst

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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [AMHERST] [140 Hicks Way]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
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Goodell Building, no date (mid 20th century)

Courtesy Special Collections and Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Continuation sheet 11
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Community Property Address
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING UMASS AMHERST Building #171 – 140 Hicks Way
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Area(s) Form No.

National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form

Check all that apply:

Individually eligible Eligible only in a historic district

Contributing to a potential historic district Potential historic district

Criteria: A B C D

Criteria Considerations: A B C D E F G

Statement of Significance by: Rita Walsh and Walter Maros, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc.____
The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here.

First established in 1863 under the provisions of the Federal Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act, the University of
Massachusetts Amherst retains a significant collection of buildings dating from its first period of operation as the
Massachusetts Agricultural College (1863-1931). These include, but are not limited to: substantial brick and masonry
classroom, laboratory, research and administrative buildings dating to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
barns and stables related to its function as an agricultural college, pre-existing wood frame buildings (including two 18th
century buildings [117, 118]) incorporated into campus functions, the power plant [107], the Chancellor’s House [124],
and the Old Chapel [126] and Memorial Hall [112], historic centerpieces of the campus. The historic buildings from the
“Mass Aggie” period for the most part are concentrated in three areas: (1) an arc that extends west to east between the
Mullins Center and the Northeast Residential Area, including the Grinnell barn complex [109, 110, 111], Blaisdell [108],
the power plant [107], Flint [104], Stockbridge [105], Draper [103], Goessmann [106], and West [114] and East [113]
Experiment Stations; (2) a smaller grouping that includes, Wilder [115], the University Club buildings [117, 118], Clark
[116] and Fernald [119]; (3) and the group of South College [128], Old Chapel [126] and Memorial Hall [112] at the
center of the campus. Other individual buildings [including 120, 124, 125] also survive outside these areas. Although the
campus has expanded significantly in and around the Massachusetts Agricultural College core, both individual buildings
and groups of buildings that still convey their relationship to each other as part of the Agricultural College are campus
plan, are eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places under criteria A and C at the state level.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst also retains a significant collection of buildings dating from 1931-1958, which
is a period characterized by the expansion of the school’s mission and physical plant that began in the 1930s with its name
change to Massachusetts State College. At this time, the Trustees made a concerted effort to modernize and increase
campus facilities, through the post-World War II mid-20th century period when there was unprecedented growth in the
size of the university student population and a concurrent growth in specialized academic research and degree work.
Significant buildings that were constructed to meet the University’s needs between 1931 and 1958, as well as significant
buildings predating 1931 which have no prior Form B on file with the Massachusetts Historical Commission, include
(listed in order of construction date): [UMass 58]; Hatch Laboratory, built 1891 [UMass 118]; Clark Hall Greenhouse,
built 1907 [UMass 84], French Hall Greenhouse, built 1908 [UMass 105]; French Hall, built 1909 [UMass 104]; Waiting
Station Shelter, built 1911 [UMass 63]; Apiary Laboratory, built 1911 [UMass 74]; Hicks Physical Education Building,
built 1931 [UMass121]; Hicks Physical Education Cage, built 1932 [UMass 122]; Thatcher House, built 1935 [UMass
30]; Research Administration Building, built 1939 [UMass 579]; Lewis House, built 1940 [UMass 28]; Butterfield House,
built 1940 [UMass 5]; Greenough House, built 1946 [UMass 24]; Chadbourne House, built 1947 [UMass 6]; Mills House
(New Africa House), built 1948 [UMass 29]; Skinner Hall, built 1948 [UMass 128]; Gunness Laboratory, built 1949
[UMass 91]; Brooks House, built 1949 [UMass 4]; Hamlin House, built 1949 [UMass 25]; Knowlton House, built 1949
[UMass 26]; Marston Hall, built 1950 [UMass 92]; Paige Laboratory, built 1947 [UMass 6]; Hasbrouck Laboratory, built
1950 [UMass 124]; Baker House, built 1952 [UMass 3]; Crabtree House, built 1953 [UMass 12]; Leach House, built 1953
[UMass 27]; Worcester Dining Hall, built 1953 [UMass 85]; Arnold House, built 1954 [UMass 2]; Durfee Range, built
1955 [UMass 96]; Van Meter House, built 1957 [UMass 32]; Machmer Hall, built 1957 [UMass 111]; Student Union,
built 1957 [UMass 131]; Wheeler House, built 1958 [UMass 33]; and Johnson House, built 1959 [UMass 36].

The recommended University of Massachusetts Amherst historic district meets Criterion A for its association with the
ongoing mission of this state university to meet the educational requirements of a rapidly changing world. From the
inception of the University in 1863 as the Massachusetts Agricultural College, through the current day, the Trustees have
sought to provide educational programming and facilities that would enable students to advance the practice of agriculture
and a steadily increasing host of other fields, meet the needs of a rapidly-industrializing world, and succeed in leading a
post-industrial information and technology-based economy.

The historic district also meets Criterion C for its stock of buildings and landscape features whose forms and functions
reflect the evolving and expanding mission of the University in the 95 years between its 1863 founding and 1959 (1959
being the 50 year cut-off for National Register consideration). A number of architects, landscape architects and planners
of local, regional and/or national prominence were involved in the design of the individual buildings and the overall plan
of the current University of Massachusetts Amherst campus. The aggregate efforts of these design professionals produced
a distinctive public university campus landscape, primarily of the mid-19th to mid-20th century, which is unique in
Massachusetts.

Despite the loss of certain buildings and landscape features up to the present time in 2009 and incremental physical
changes seen in new window, door and roofing replacements, as well as siding replacements in a small number of
buildings, the district retains integrity of location, setting, design, feeling, association, workmanship, and materials.