CHAPTER V
OLD SALEM HOUSES AND THEIR DOORWAYS
The Rebecca Nurse House
THE REBECCA NURSE HOUSE
Belonging to the earliest period of Salem architectural history is an old house standing in what is now the town of Danvers, originally a part of Salem, as were also the present towns of Marblehead, Beverly, and Peabody. This house is usually called the Rebecca Nurse house, for the reason that Rebecca, the wife of Francis Nurse, who lived here at the time of the infamous witchcraft delusion, was one of the victims of the cruel fanaticism of the Court, and condemned by the judges to be hanged as a witch, although the jury had rendered a verdict in her favor. Architectural interest centers in the fascinating batten door, with its pattern of diagonal squares scratched upon the planks, studded at the points of intersection with round-headed nails, and adorned by a heavy handle or door-pull of iron. The sill is a simple heavy plank and the casing absolutely plain. Above the doorway, and several inches off center, is a unique and curious sun-dial, on which the shadow of an iron rod, placed slantingly upon a background of plank resembling the heavy square shutter of a window, falls along carved lines radiating from the center and marked at their extremities with Roman numerals indicating the hours from five to two. On the upper edge of the sun-dial are carved the initials ‘T. B.’ and between them the date ‘1636.’ Townsend Bishop, the original owner of the house, built it in the above year. Later the estate changed hands several times, being in turn the property of no lesser personages than Governor John Endicott, the son of the Governor, John Endicott, Jr., and the Reverend James Allen, pastor of the First Church in Boston. In 1692, from the curious doorway above described, with the inexorable shadow upon the sun-dial above it crawling slowly toward her hour of doom, brave Rebecca Nurse passed to her execution. In the dooryard one still sees the old-fashioned garden which she once tended, and just beyond is shown a solitary grave where she rests in peace—history having vindicated her in her steadfast declaration before her judges—‘I can say before my Eternal Father I am innocent, and God will clear my innocency.’
The John Ward House
THE JOHN WARD HOUSE
In the picture, two Salem maids of Colonial times are shown gossiping at the huge door-stone of the lean-to of this interesting old house, built in 1684 and originally located at 38 St. Peter Street. The illustration is taken from the restored building as it now stands in the grounds of the Essex Institute in Salem. Fallen into neglect and disrepair, the old house once came to have a forlorn aspect. But it now presents a most attractive appearance, with its latticed casements, its huge central chimney-stack, its batten front door, and its cheerful surroundings of lawn and flowers.
The steep pitch of the roof and the overhang of the main second story are indications of the age of this fine old house. English cottages were commonly thatched, and a very steep pitch of the roof was necessary to carry off the water. For a considerable time after the founding of Salem, many houses were thatched; and even when the roofs began to be covered with shingles or tiles, habit still retained the steep slope from ridge to eaves. As to the overhang, tradition persists in declaring that the purpose of this was to provide floor loopholes through which a musket might be fired at Indians who had come too close to the building to be reached from openings in shutter or wall. This may possibly be true. But the overhang was quite common in Elizabethan dwellings in the old country; and builders may have used it here without conscious purpose, but simply from custom.
In the John Ward house, the main part was at one time used as a bakery. Our picture shows a window display in the lean-to addition, of apothecaries’ supplies on one side and on the other of striped candy in glass jars, and other unknown dainties, perhaps that flint-like rock candy imported by Salem merchants from the East, or the strange confections known as ‘Black Jacks’ and ‘Gibraltars,’ dear to the childish heart in early times. Other rooms both upstairs and down are furnished in Colonial style and contain interesting relics. The house is innocent of paint, inside and out, and takes its only color from the mellowing touch of weather without and of time within.
Altogether, with its gables, its lean-to, its batten door and lozenge casements, its overhang and its silvery weathered walls, the John Ward house presents a most interesting example of the Old Salem dwelling of the second period.
The Tucker-Rice House
THE TUCKER-RICE HOUSE
The young Salem dames whom we saw at the doorway of the John Ward house a few moments ago, have apparently transferred themselves, by means of some witchcraft, from the seventeenth century, to which the Ward house belongs, to the beginning of the nineteenth, in which was built the Tucker-Rice house, upon the steps of which we now find them. They are still, however, in the garden of the Essex Institute, for this fine portico has been removed from its original location, on the house at 129 Essex Street, and brought here for preservation.
In changing hands in 1896, the Tucker-Rice house became subject to alterations which considerably detracted from its original character, architecturally speaking. The previous year, its classic porch had been pronounced by an eminent authority the best-proportioned porch in Salem. It had at the time, too, an ugly modern door, and the adjacent glasswork was not appropriate. In its present location, as we note in the photograph, the fanlights and side-lights are graceful and artistic in Colonial design, while the door itself presents a rare example of the three-piece pattern belonging to the proper period.
The porch itself, the work of Samuel McIntire, is in the semi-oval composite style. The tall, slender, fluted columns with their flanking pilasters seem almost to spring into the air, so light is the effect produced by their perfect proportions. The roof of the porch is borne aloft without a semblance of effort, while the easy grade of the stone steps with their wrought-iron railings provides a solid and handsome base for the whole.
Directly across the street from the Tucker-Rice house stands the Gardner-White-Pingree mansion, with a porch of similar design, without the fluting of the columns. This was erected in 1810, also the work of McIntire, perhaps his last, and considered the best of his brick houses.
The Ropes Memorial
THE ROPES MEMORIAL
At 318 Essex Street stands a complete and beautiful example of the Salem residence at its best, the house now known as the ‘Ropes Memorial,’ erected in 1719, and continuously occupied by successive generations of this famous family over a period of nearly a hundred and fifty years. The Honorable Nathaniel Ropes, Judge of the Superior and Probate Courts, and a stubborn Loyalist, and after him in regular descent four other Nathaniels, lived here from 1768 until 1893, when the last one died.
In 1912 a board of trustees, under the instructions by will of Mary Pickman Ropes and Eliza Orne Ropes, assumed the care of the house and its rich content of Colonial treasures, under the name of the ‘Ropes Memorial.’
As originally built, like so many dwellings of its period, the Ropes house stood close to the front of its lot. After the death of the fifth Nathaniel, it was moved back some distance from the street—the effect of the mellow brick walk, the richly carved and ornamented gate-posts, and the intervening lawn being greatly to enhance the dignified and simple beauty of the Ionic entrance with its six-paneled door.
CLOSER VIEW OF THE ROPES DOORWAY
This doorway was added in 1807. An original treatment of the fanlight and side-lights of leaded glass, which show a pattern of alternate ovals and circles, is to be noted. The supporting columns rest upon massive plinths of granite, lending an effect of solidity and permanence to the entire construction; the pure white of the woodwork being pleasantly relieved by the green shutters which back the side-lights.
Colonial hospitality took thought for the comfort of its guests even before they passed the hospitable threshold; and this is evidenced by the recession of the doorway in many old houses, so that visitors, lifting the heavy knocker to announce their arrival, and waiting for Abigail or Nancy to answer the summons, might find shelter under the broad lintel from searching east wind or pouring rain. The doorway of the Ropes house is of this type.
Tradition relates that in 1774 the Loyalist dwelling was attacked by a mob of patriotic enthusiasts. The death of the old judge, who at the time was lying upon a sick-bed, may have been expedited by the excitement of the occasion. Be that as it may, his end came on the day following.
The Lindall-Barnard-Andrews House
THE LINDALL-BARNARD-ANDREWS HOUSE
Popular tradition has it that the unjust aggressions of Great Britain first met armed resistance in the Colonies at Lexington and Concord. But nearly two months previous to Paul Revere’s famous ride, on Sunday, February 26, 1775, British troops were reported approaching North Bridge at Salem, in search of cannon which were known to be concealed somewhere in the town. The Reverend Thomas Barnard, pastor of the Old North Church, was in his pulpit. To him appeared a breathless messenger: ‘The regulars are coming!’ From all directions the excited citizens flocked to the bridge, where the open draw frustrated the further advance of Colonel Leslie and his troops. Barnard, in the forefront, calmed his excited townsmen; Leslie was allowed to cross the bridge; but his search for the concealed guns proved fruitless and he retired discomfited to Boston.
At the time in question, the Reverend Mr. Barnard lived at 393 Essex Street, in the handsome mansion now known as the Lindall-Barnard-Andrews house. This was built in 1747 for Timothy Lindall, for several years Speaker of the House of Deputies. Much of the elaborate carving in the interior of this old dwelling is from the hand of Samuel McIntire, the famous architect and worker in wood.
The doorway of the Lindall house is almost sternly plain, the sole attempt at decoration being found in the fluting of the pilasters, repeated in the posts which flank the gateway, these also supporting interesting urns. Similar urns grace the posts at the gate of the Ropes Memorial, these being much more elaborate, though perhaps no more effective, than the ornaments at the Lindall house.
The style of this doorway is Doric, the pediment utterly without carving or ornament of any description. It possesses a unique feature in its door, the panels being seven in number instead of six, the extra one very narrow, and running horizontally across directly above the lower pair. A rectangular top-light with five square panes completes the fine Colonial ensemble.
The Cabot-Endicott-Low House
THE CABOT-ENDICOTT-LOW HOUSE
Distinctive among Salem residences is the Cabot-Endicott-Low house at 365 Essex Street. It is clapboarded, but possesses white corner-boards which simulate the marble quoins used later in brick houses, which did not begin to appear in Salem until about 1800.
This house was built in 1748 by Joseph Cabot, the architect being unknown, though tradition attributes to his hand a number of other famous dwellings in Salem. It is universally considered to be a typical example of the best in Colonial architecture at the time when commercial prosperity was at its height. Unlike most of the large square houses of the period, it stands at some distance back from the street, this lending it through proper spacing additional charm. Its rooms are crowded with rare furniture and china, the latter brought home by famous Salem clippers from foreign parts over a century ago; and its garden is the finest in Salem. Once the home of six hundred to seven hundred varieties of tulips imported from Holland by its original owner, the garden is now largely given up to peonies, of which a thousand have been counted in bloom at one time.
The doorway of the Cabot house is a later addition, and its effect is marred by the presence of inappropriate doors. It possesses Doric pilasters, and the pediment is ornate with carving.
The Cabot house has many historic associations. Its original owner, Joseph S. Cabot, was Mayor of the town from 1843 to 1845. The Honorable William C. Endicott, Secretary of War under President Cleveland, and a Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court from 1873 to 1882, lived here for thirty years. Through this doorway entered as a guest the Right Honorable Joseph Chamberlain, who afterward married the daughter of his host. In 1890 General W. T. Sherman was entertained here. Later the house was bought by Daniel Low, the well-known silversmith, who occupied it until his death.
The Pickering House
PORCH OPENING ON OLD-FASHIONED GARDENS ON THE PICKERING ESTATE
This ancient dwelling is said by many to be the oldest of all Salem houses. One of the first Colonists, John Pickering, built it in 1660. The Essex Institute shows an iron fire-back taken from the old house which bears this date.
The averting of bloodshed at North Bridge in February, 1775, has been mentioned above. Colonel Timothy Pickering, born in this house in 1745, was at that time on service with Continental troops, and remained actively engaged until after Yorktown. He achieved honorable distinction, first as Colonel, and later as Adjutant-General of the army. Returning from military service, he entered the doorway of this ancient house, soon to pass from it again as Representative and Senator. In Washington’s Cabinet he held office in three different capacities, and in all of them acquitted himself with credit—as Secretary of War, Secretary of State, and Postmaster-General. This record is hardly surpassed in American annals.
Colonel Pickering was interested also in other issues. He it was who led the schism which founded the North Church in Salem, as the result of differences in the Tabernacle Church. One imagines that he was versed in the classics as well, for John Pickering, his son, afterward became the well-known linguist and Greek lexicographer.
The Poynton House
THE POYNTON HOUSE, KNOWN AS THE ‘PINEAPPLE HOUSE’
Built in 1750
In an old painting in the Essex Institute is shown the famous Governor Bradstreet mansion, with its numerous gables, its batten door flanked by curious latticed towers, and its lozenged windows. At the tip of each gable and tower perches a carved ornament in the shape of a pineapple, the ancient symbol of hospitality. Over the doorway of the Thomas Poynton house at 7 Brown Street Court, on a pedestal between the members of a broken arch pediment, was once to be seen a similar pineapple, most elaborately and delicately carved, and resplendent in its appropriate tints of red and green. Captain Poynton was a merchant, and some foreign port may have supplied this famous ornament, which for years lent its name to the ‘Pineapple House.’ The illustration shows the doorway in its original condition, though the door itself is modern. Note the cutting-out of the blinds, made necessary by the height of the pineapple.
Now removed for safe-keeping to the Essex Institute, this beautiful entrance has always attracted the attention of architects and connoisseurs. The simplicity of the fluted Doric pilasters leads the eye upward to a sudden surprise, albeit an agreeable one, in the unusual character of the decorations above. Altogether the effect is unique and charming, and is well brought out against the gray walls of the house itself.
The Eden-Brown House
THE EDEN-BROWN HOUSE
In 1762, Thomas Eden built a house at 40 Summer Street. In 1804 the original doorway was replaced by one designed and executed by the famous McIntire, possessing one unusual feature, the elliptical fanlight unaccompanied by other glasswork. The doorway is of simple design, showing plain Doric pilasters, over each of which appears a carved rosette or floret, with festooned drapery between. Once more, the use of modern doors lends an unpardonably discordant note to this otherwise artistic composition.
Much interesting history centers in the Eden-Brown house. Thomas Eden was the first signer of the roll of the famous Salem Marine Society, founded in 1766, membership in which was conditioned upon a man’s having sailed his ship at least around the Cape of Good Hope. The quality of Salem ship-masters is seen in the fact that eighteen charter members were thus enrolled at the first meeting. Robert Hooper, of Marblehead, was a partner of Eden in his commercial ventures, and was familiarly spoken of as ‘King’ Hooper because of his Royalist leanings.
How many vigorous and adventurous figures must have passed through the Eden-Brown doorway! ‘King’ Hooper himself, owner of a house at Marblehead and another at Danvers, the well-known ‘Lindens,’ occupied as a summer home by the Royal Governor Gage, the year before Lexington. Many a wealthy captain, perhaps, and trader to the East, who in the spirit of the bold motto on the Salem official seal, ‘Unto the utmost bounds of wealthy Ind,’ had driven his fifty-ton schooner across the mysterious ocean, returning laden with silks, rugs, and shawls, mulls and muslins, jade, crystal, spices, and if not, like the far-famed navies of Solomon, with ‘ivory, apes, and peacocks,’ at least with many a comical monkey and gaudy parrot—the latter commonly past-master in the use of a certain deep-sea vocabulary not to be repeated here.
Such cargoes made Salem owners wealthy, and paved the way for the erection of the spacious and dignified residences, with their noble pillars and pediments, so many of which are still standing to-day as a memorial of by-gone greatness.
‘The Lindens’
‘THE LINDENS’
‘King’ Hooper, partner of Thomas Eden, as just stated above, beside his Marblehead home, had a fine residence at Danvers, once a part of Salem, which is one of the most pretentious of the time. Now called ‘The Lindens,’ it was built in 1754, the siding scored and beveled so as to present the appearance of granite blocks, a resemblance still further carried out in the gray paint of the surface and the white of the beveling. The doorway is of special dignity and beauty, two Corinthian columns supporting a large gable containing a window, which rises to the deck of the roof. Of similar appearance was the John Hancock house on Beacon Street, Boston, now destroyed.
At the time of his governorship of the Province in 1774, this handsome house was used by General Gage as a summer home. Colonel Leslie, commanding officer of the 64th Regulars opposed at North Bridge by the Salem citizens in February of the following year, pitched the tents of his regiment across the road. One may imagine how gay were the goings-on, as scarlet uniforms, rich with gold lace, passed in and out of the stately portal, through which might be heard the hum of conversation and the strains of music—for the British officers were good entertainers, and made the most of what society they had in a hostile environment.
It was perhaps during some such festivity that an indignant patriot fired a shot from his musket through the panel of the door—the hole being still visible where his messenger of protest made its entrance. ‘The Lindens’ was lately the home of Francis Peabody. It is now owned by Ward Thoran.
The Pierce-Johonnot-Nichols House
THE PIERCE-JOHONNOT-NICHOLS HOUSE
At 80 Federal Street, Salem, stands this fine old residence, frequently referred to as the best specimen of its kind now existing. It is the work of Samuel McIntire, the master-craftsman of Salem, and represents possibly the first of his efforts, as it is surely one of his best, although he was at the time only twenty-five years of age.
The house is square in shape, close to the sidewalk, with an L and stable in the rear. The front porch is of simple classic design, the architect having freely combined the Tuscan and the Doric, with unique effect. The door itself possesses the rare number of eight panels, with a graceful fanlight above. The approach to the steps is flanked by handsome gate-posts of the Tuscan order, surmounted by ornamental urns carved from a single block of wood.
At the side of the house, and serving as a carriage entrance, is an enclosed porch, similar in type to that at the front, and admirable in its effect upon the eye. This enclosed porch as a side-entrance is indeed characteristic of Old Salem houses—the particular one in question being of exceptional attractiveness. Oval side-windows afford light, and the door itself is of the correct ancient pattern.
Although dating from 1782, this old mansion is of no particular historical interest. It possesses, however, human interest of a genuine sort, drawn from the vicissitudes and disappointments, as well as the joys, of its successive tenants.
Jerathmiel Pierce, the original owner, was a wealthy merchant, successful in his ventures in foreign trade. To the wharf at the rear of his house came his returning ships, to discharge their cargoes at his warehouse, reached by a path through the garden. Financial reverses, however, came upon him; and in 1827 the property was acquired by George Johonnot. From the handsome doorway of his beloved home, where he had spent forty years of a happy life, went forth the broken old man to find shelter with George Nichols, his son-in-law, who had also suffered business reverses; and after a brief time he died.
THE FRONT DOOR OF THE PIERCE-JOHONNOT-NICHOLS HOUSE FROM THE INSIDE
At the death of the Johonnots, twelve years after, George Nichols and his wife inherited, under a deed of trust, the famous old mansion. At the age of seventy, Nichols retired from business and spent his declining years in tending the famous old garden which he loved. In 1917 the property was bought by the Essex Institute, as a memorial of the old days when Salem was known for her prosperity due to foreign trade.
The Hosmer-Townsend-Waters House
Chimneys on Salem houses were customarily built to rise from the center of the roof—huge structures of brick, containing many flues from the fireplaces opening from the rooms arranged about them on all sides. In later periods they were placed wherever convenience dictated. A fine example of the former style is seen on the Hosmer-Townsend-Waters house at 80 Washington Square, Salem. This building dates from 1795, designed by McIntire, for Captain Joseph Hosmer. Near it, at 82 Washington Square, East, is the Boardman house, where Washington was entertained when in Salem in 1789, and which elicited from him an exclamation of wonder that the people of Salem could build such handsome residences.
In Virginia, the Colonial type was also in vogue, but with a difference. The General’s surprise was apparently at the fact that in towns, as well as upon the great estates of the South to which he had been accustomed, so large a degree of taste and comfort could prevail.
The side-door of the Hosmer dwelling has an attractive enclosed porch, almost hidden by a huge wistaria which clothes it in a tangle of leafage and bloom. It resembles that already described in the Johonnot house in the presence of oval side-lights, although differing somewhat in architectural features. The front entrance of the Hosmer house closely corresponds with that at the side in design, and both possess the correct six-panel door, relieved by brass latch and knocker.
Historical interest attaches to the Hosmer-Waters house in that it was once the home of Henry Fitz-Gilbert Waters, whose genealogical researches and writings are well-known. These include ‘John Harvard and his Ancestry,’ ‘An Examination into the English Ancestry of George Washington,’ ‘Genealogical Gleanings in England.’ Connoisseurs have stated that Mr. Waters’s collection of antique furniture was surpassed by none in New England.
Assembly Hall
ASSEMBLY HALL
Not long after the Revolution, the Federal Party in Salem desired a meeting-place, and Samuel McIntire was commissioned to design for this purpose the Assembly Hall. In 1782 the building was erected at 138 Federal Street. Not to be outdone, the Democrats also, though somewhat later, built Washington Hall, likewise the work of McIntire.
Social festivities of all sorts immediately found their center in the Assembly Hall. In 1789, when Washington, for whose personal use the Boardman house had been designated during his stay, paid a visit to Salem, a ball was arranged in his honor, and this took place in Assembly Hall, where he opened the festivities with Miss Abbot, daughter of General Abbot, his host of the occasion. Washington, however, turned his fair partner over to General Knox when the dancing began, asserting that this was out of his line. At Assembly Hall a banquet was tendered Lafayette on his first tour of America some years earlier.
Curiously enough, and contrary to the usual order of things, after a brief period of only thirteen years, Assembly Hall became a private residence, in the year 1795.
Instead of being clapboarded, the front of this building is laid flat, giving a rather bare effect. This impression is somewhat relieved by the elaborate decorations—four handsome Ionic pilasters rising above the roof of the porch nearly to the eaves, while a gable or pediment extends across almost the full width of the façade. The porch itself is of generous breadth, Ionic pillars with a beautifully ornamented frieze, representing grape leaves and clusters, forming a fitting frame for the hospitable entrance just behind. Probably the porch is of more recent date than the building itself, although this is a matter of conjecture. The sides and back of the house differ from the façade in being clapboarded instead of flat. Elaborate iron railings on either side guard the ascent from the sidewalk.
The Boardman House
THE BOARDMAN HOUSE
Reference has already been made to the Boardman house at 82 Washington Square, East, as offered to Washington on his Salem visit in 1789. The porch is of the enclosed type, of the Tuscan order, with fluted pilasters, oval side-lights and a picket fence with tall gate-posts surmounted by the familiar urns. A light and homely touch is added in the trellises with their climbing vines which are set close against the house upon either side.
‘Oak Hill’
‘OAK HILL’
The present town of Danvers was originally part of Old Salem, and after its separation in 1752, Danvers included the present town of Peabody, which was set off in 1855. In the year 1800, while McIntire was producing his most beautiful and finished work, ‘Oak Hill,’ now in Peabody, was erected from his designs. It is now the summer residence of Mrs. J. C. Rogers, and contains throughout as complete and elaborate a wealth of detail from the wood-carver’s hand as can anywhere be found.
Reference has been made to the fact that craftsmen from the shipyards of Salem, skilled in the carving of figureheads and cabin decorations, sometimes found employment ashore in the service of architects and builders. The year when ‘Oak Hill’ was built marked the climax of Salem’s maritime importance. Carvings suggesting the familiar rope mouldings of ships’ cabins are found upon the balusters.
The porch of this beautiful house, with the exception of the modern doors, is a most complete and graceful composition. Fluted Ionic columns, four in number, support in pairs the front edge of the roof, while its rear rests upon pilasters grouped in the same way. The columns, as often in McIntire’s work, are slender for their height; but instead of appearing spindling, they seem to assume an airy grace which lightens and relieves the whole. A spider-web fanlight surmounts the door, and the leaded glass in the side-lights is heart-shaped—a unique and charming feature.
The Kimball House
THE KIMBALL HOUSE
Another of McIntire’s porches, placed in 1800 upon the Kimball house at 14 Pickman Street, is interesting, as illustrating the architect’s characteristic freedom in the combination without discord of the various orders. The columns are Ionic—the entablature is Corinthian style, although incomplete. Side-lights flank the six-paneled door, but the usual fanlight is missing, paneling taking its place. Door-frame and side-lights are decorated by a border of garlands, which are of composition applied to the surface of the wood—although the capitals of the columns are painstakingly carved by hand.
The Cook-Oliver House
THE COOK-OLIVER HOUSE
One of the most elaborate examples of the work of Samuel McIntire is found in the Cook-Oliver house at 142 Federal Street. The amount of detail upon the entrance-posts and about the doorways is unusual, and is carried to a point where it just misses being overdone. Originally carved for the Derby house on Market Square, much of this work was transferred to the Cook-Oliver house about 1804, at which date this mansion was begun, although unfortunate commercial ventures delayed its completion until about 1814 or 1815. This delay may have worked out as a blessing in disguise, as was also perhaps the use of material from the Derby house, which was finally razed in 1815, although the work of demolition had begun at an earlier date.
Samuel Cook was a sea-captain, the father-in-law of General Henry K. Oliver, who was prominent in political and industrial affairs, being at various times Mayor of the city of Lawrence, Mayor also of Salem at the advanced age of eighty years, Treasurer of the State of Massachusetts, Treasurer of the Lawrence Cotton Mills, and Adjutant-General. With the present-day public, however, his chief claim to recognition lies in the fact that he was the composer of many familiar hymns, notably ‘Federal Street,’ named from the thoroughfare where he then lived.
The Cook-Oliver house is a three-story square clapboarded structure save on the eastern side, which is constructed of brick to keep out the east wind. An old-fashioned ‘jut-by,’ with flat boarding, projects from the rear L, with a side-entrance—an arrangement seldom found in houses of this late period, though common in lean-to days.
The porch of the Cook-Oliver house exemplifies once more that characteristic quality of McIntire’s genius—freedom of combination conjoined with restraint of artistic taste—which lends his work so much of originality, while it never approaches the bizarre. Here we find Tuscan, Corinthian, and Doric motives all present, yet without discord. The garlands and festoons about the door-casing and side-lights relieve the severity of the right angles, while elliptical fanlight and side-lights with unique leading complete the harmonious whole. The modern door is again the sole jarring note.
A word must be added regarding the gate-posts, which are the most ornate among many of similar design in Salem. The medallions, carved knots and garlands, the cornice directly below the urns, and the moulded urns themselves with their flames at the top, represent a veritable labor of love on the part of the master-craftsman. The final touch is found in fence and gate, which, simple to plainness, modestly concede to the remainder of the work its proper importance.
The George M. Whipple House
THE GEORGE M. WHIPPLE HOUSE
Erected in the year 1804, the George M. Whipple house at 2 Andover Street is a typical example of the three-story square wooden dwelling of the period. The enclosed porch with its balustraded roof is of more recent construction, but in keeping with the best architectural traditions. Rather shallow as to depth, light is admitted by means of leaded side-lights of unusual design, as well as by the glazed upper panels of the door itself. Pilasters of Doric order support a dentiled entablature, while the door is divided after the Dutch fashion into upper and lower leaves.
Above is a fine Palladian window of design harmonious with that of the entrance, surmounted by an arched pediment enriched by a carved ornament representing a basket of flowers.
In many of the old houses of the earlier Salem times, the location of the doorway with relation to the façade was dictated by considerations of convenience rather than a desire for symmetry. Sometimes, as in the cabins of the first period, it was placed as far from the fireplace as possible, so that the smoke might not be blown about the room. Structural arrangements of the interior sometimes determined its position, as well as that of the windows, which in many instances seemed to be placed haphazard.
In the Whipple house the front entrance is at the left of the center as one faces the building, with two windows on one side of it and one upon the other—an unusual arrangement in houses of this type.
The Nathan Robinson-Little House
THE NATHAN ROBINSON-LITTLE HOUSE
One of the most pleasing porches and doorways of all in Old Salem is that of the house at 10 Chestnut Street, built by Nathan Robinson about 1804. Resting upon the massive granite plinths so favored by the famous McIntire, fluted Ionic columns support a simple entablature with dentiled cornice above. The fanlight and side-lights are artistically designed, the latter showing a pattern of alternate circles and diamonds. Above the door itself is a curious and unusual strip of dentil character, and this is supported by four slender half-round pilasters which constitute the framework of the door.
Close to the plinths at the base of the porch columns are set the handsome gate-posts with their surmounting urns. The posts themselves are paneled, and adorned by carved rosettes within a paneled square. They possess flat capitals with a fine dentil member just beneath, and the bodies of the urns are delicately fluted.
In making some changes within this old house, it was discovered that there were in the hallway three fireplaces, one within the other, in the thickness of the wall. Successive alterations had changed the dimensions of the opening, until it narrowed finally to culminate in a small modern grate. It now stands as at first constructed, its narrow mantel adorned with rare bits of old pewter.
The Dodge-Shreve House
This splendid old house at 29 Chestnut Street deserves to be called sumptuous in architectural detail, as no part of doorway, porch, or Palladian window lacks its elaborate decoration—with the single exception of the side-lights, which are chastely simple.
Both supporting and engaged columns are of the Corinthian type, these being reproduced in miniature in others which form the framework of the doorway itself.
The porch roof has a handsome balustrade, and above this we find once more slender Corinthian columns in the frame of the Palladian window. The arched pediment of the latter has a keystone bearing a carved emblem, and frames a fanlight of original design. The windows of all three stories receive special attention in the addition of carved lintels, embodying the familiar ‘Grecian border’ motif, with interesting variations.
The beautiful paneled door of this fine old mansion is of the true Colonial pattern, and has three leaves, with a handsome brass knob. A spear-head iron fence curving gracefully inward to the granite steps, and iron hand-rails of a different design, complete the architectural whole, which is said to have been imitated more than any other in Old Salem.
The White-Lord House
THE WHITE-LORD HOUSE
Like other old New England towns, Salem once possessed a ‘Common,’ originally a pasture for cattle. The Salem Common consisted of eight acres of land. In early days this tract was swampy, containing several small ponds, and thick with blackberry bushes. At the eastern end was an enclosure in which animals might be shut up at night. The herdsman was a regular functionary of the town, like the ‘fence-viewer’ and ‘herring inspector,’ and under bonds for the honest performance of his duty. In 1770 the almshouse was erected upon the northeast corner of the plot; but in 1801 this was much improved by grading and the setting-out of trees, Colonel Elias Hasket Derby heading the subscription-list for the purpose. A few years later the field was fenced in, with four entrances or ‘gateways’ consisting of tall wooden arches with suitable ornamentation. The ‘Western Gateway’ was crowned by one of McIntire’s famous eagles, gilded; while upon the face of the arch appeared a medallion of Washington in profile—the ‘Common’ having been dedicated in 1802 to the General under the name of Washington Square. This famous medallion measured thirty-eight by fifty-six inches, and was carved from McIntire’s sketch of Washington made while he stood on the porch of the City Hall to receive the welcome of the citizens of Salem in the Square below.
On the various sides of Washington Square stood many of the chief mansions of the old town. Among these were the Boardman house, the Hosmer-Townsend-Waters house, the Crowninshield-Devereux-Waters house, the Baldwin-Lyman house, and that now under consideration, the White-Lord house. This, erected in 1818, stands at 31 Washington Square. Its doorway has been said to embody reminiscences, architecturally speaking, of two famous houses in Germantown and Philadelphia.
The Salem Club
THE SALEM CLUB
Closely resembling in its architectural features the Baldwin-Lyman porch at 92 Washington Square, East, and the Dodge-Shreve porch at 29 Chestnut Street, the porch of the Salem Club at 29 Washington Square presents a fine example of the Corinthian style which came into vogue in Salem about 1816. A wrought-iron balustrade on the porch roof adds an unusual touch.
Like so many old family residences in Salem, which in time became converted to public use through their acquisition by societies, homes, and lodges, the building now housing the Salem Club was once a private dwelling. It was built in 1818 for John Forrester. After this fine mansion passed out of the Forrester family, it was owned by Colonel George Peabody, whose daughter married the Honorable William C. Endicott, Secretary of War in Cleveland’s Cabinet.
Colonel Peabody owned many art treasures, one of which, housed in this dwelling, was Murillo’s ‘Immaculate Conception,’ valued by connoisseurs at the sum of $100,000.
The story is told of one Salem citizen, named Simon Forrester, father of the original owner of the house in question, that he projected a plan for the decoration of his own residence, including the representation upon the walls of drawing-rooms and hallways, not of the favorite scenes so often found on the costly wall-papers of the time, such as Cupid and Psyche, Roman ruins, Venetian lagoons, the English hunting-fields, the adventures of Don Quixote, etc., but rather a series of episodes from his own life, ‘showing his rise from poverty to grandeur; the place of his birth, a humble cottage in Ireland; his various places of business, with the wharves of Salem, and the vessels which had brought his merchandise to them.’
The Baldwin-Lyman House
THE BALDWIN-LYMAN HOUSE
Also on Washington Square, at Number 92, the square three-story brick house in question, standing well apart from other buildings, its mellow façade almost completely hidden by ivy, deserves far more than passing mention. The date of its erection is 1818. It bears a peculiar and charming air of self-respecting reserve, to which effect the simple wooden picket fence with ornamental posts contributes by seeming to supply an appropriate frame to the picture.
The windows of the top floor, as was customary at the period, are shorter than those of the other tiers, giving the desired effect of foreshortening. The windows themselves, however, have been modernized by the use of four-panel sashes, and this substitution detracts from the Colonial ensemble.
The porch of the Baldwin-Lyman house, supported by four smooth Corinthian columns and surmounted by a pleasing wooden balustrade, with its white six-paneled door, its plain square-panel side-lights, simple fanlight, and complete absence of embellishment or decoration, presents a singularly pure and distinctive appearance. In contrast to this simplicity, the gate-posts are in full dress—they are fronted by small Ionic pilasters with a wide reeded band above, and are further embellished with carved diamonds or lozenges, some placed in a vertical and some in a horizontal position, in the space immediately below the capital. The surmounting urns again are purely designed. Their covers, however, have a beaded edge; and the details of the flames which they emit are more deeply and carefully carved than usual.
The Andrew-Safford House
THE ANDREW-SAFFORD HOUSE
The mahogany door was discovered in the cellar and replaced in its
original position
Another fine example of the old brick mansion of the closing period of Colonial Salem is the Andrew-Safford house at 13 Washington Square. Erected in 1818, it was reputed to be the most costly private residence in New England. Thanks to successful commercial ventures in foreign trade, money was plentiful in Salem, and it was freely spent in the provision of comfortable and indeed luxurious homes for those who had earned it. It seems, perhaps, a wonder that there was so little in the architecture of the time which was merely ornate or pretentious, and so much which exhibited refinement and restraint. But we must remember that for thirty years the genius of Samuel McIntire dominated Salem in this field, and his tradition lived after him; so that up to the time of the so-called Greek revival, about the second quarter of the nineteenth century, there was no inclination, as there was indeed, no occasion, for departure from the best artistic ideals in building and decoration.
The Andrew-Safford estate comprises the house itself, an extensive garden of old-fashioned flowers at one side, and out-buildings and stables in suitable style. The house has suffered from a coat of paint; four-paned sashes have replaced the quaint twelve-paned style of the period. At the rear a beautiful portico resting upon fluted columns extends to the full height of the three stories. The Andrew-Safford house as a whole is as well worth study as any of equal age in Salem.
A thing of genuine beauty is the stately porch at the front entrance. Elaborate almost to overloading, it still avoids this, maintaining an air of pride and dignity almost reaching the majestic.
Six mighty Corinthian columns hold aloft the heavy elliptical roof, with a rectangular element at either side. Smaller columns frame the side-light and door. The pattern of side-lights and fanlights repeats the suggestion of the ellipse; while a heavy balustrade about the roof-edge crowns the work, with a total impression of nobleness and power. The handsome granite steps and iron hand-railings below, and the charming and appropriate Palladian window above, complete a harmonious whole.
This dwelling was built by John Andrew, whose famous nephew John A. Andrew, War Governor of the Commonwealth, frequently enjoyed its hospitable welcome.
Here Hawthorne was a favored guest, as was his charming cousin Susan Ingersoll, familiarly known as ‘The Duchess.’ Henry Clay was at one time entertained here.
The Gardner-White-Pingree House
THE GARDNER-WHITE-PINGREE HOUSE
Samuel McIntire, the famous Salem architect, died in 1811. The Gardner-White-Pingree house was designed by him in the previous year, and was possibly his last achievement. The shape of the building is oblong, most of the best houses of the period being square. The windows of the top story are foreshortened. The narrow bands of white marble running across the façade at the height of the first and second floor deceive the eye, and make the building appear lower than it is.
In the front doorway and porch we have a notable specimen of McIntire’s work, illustrating the freedom with which he employed original ideas in the use of the various architectural orders. Corinthian columns support the porch roof, but they are without the usual fluting; while the pilasters farther back are fluted. The slender grace of the tall columns is most pleasing and the elliptical roof with its simple mouldings well crowns the whole. A spider-web fanlight of beautiful proportions surmounts the doorway, which is flanked by side-lights of pleasing design. The wide door itself, though not of original Colonial type, is not a discordant note in the ensemble.
A most elaborate cast-iron fence with square openwork posts resembling tree-boxes, standing at the foot of the steps and continued by simpler hand-rails, lends a proper finish to the approach; while the marble sills and keyed lintels of the windows relieve the plain expanse of the façade.
The House of the Seven Gables
Reference has been made to two of the doorways of the famous ‘House of the Seven Gables’ at the lower end of Turner Street, close to the harbor. This romantic old dwelling dates from the year 1662, a fact gleaned from an ancient iron fire-back standing in one of the fireplaces, bearing this date.
The many gables doubtless belong to sections of the house, built at different times, and the assemblage as a whole is rendered charming by the many irregularities of its composition. It was for four successive generations occupied by the Turner family, from whom Turner Street received its name; they were wealthy citizens, prominent in the civil, military, and mercantile life of the town.
Captain Turner was a representative in the General Court, or legislature, and was once sent with a detail of militia to prevent the town of Andover from falling into the hands of hostile Indians, bringing back as a trophy, as told by his great-granddaughter, a string of scalps which were for many years in his possession.
After the passing of the Turners, the house was occupied by the Ingersoll family. Susan Ingersoll, termed by Hawthorne ‘The Duchess,’ was a favorite cousin. Tradition has it that a chance remark of hers confirmed him in the choice of the name for his famous novel ‘The House of the Seven Gables’—one that has immortalized the old house.
The J. Foster Smith House
THE J. FOSTER SMITH HOUSE
In Old Salem at Christmas-time a charming custom prevails of decking entrance-door and porch with greens and garlands.
A typical enclosed porch, with the favorite oval side-lights, fluted Tuscan pilasters, and triangular pediment adorned with a hand-tooled wooden wreath, is shown, with the Christmas greens gracefully draped about it. This is the residence of J. Foster Smith, at 132 Federal Street, and is about a hundred and fifty years old.
The Grace Machado House
THE GRACE MACHADO HOUSE
Most of the old-time houses in Salem stood bare and unadorned, except for the beauty of their architectural embellishments. In a few cases, however, vines and creepers have been encouraged to embower the porch, or even to cling to the façade itself. Examples of this are: the Hosmer-Townsend-Waters house on Washington Square; the Studio at 2-4 Chestnut Street; the Mansfield-Bolles house at 8 Chestnut Street; the Baldwin-Lyman house at 92 Washington Square; the Mack and Stone house at 21 and 23 Chestnut Street; and the home of Miss Grace Machado at 5 Carpenter Street, where a gorgeous wistaria covers the entire front of the building with its clusters of purple bloom.
The Stearns House
THE STEARNS HOUSE
Houses of the period following the gambrel-roofed type were in shape commonly either square or rectangular. Almost always the third-story windows were nearly square, as compared with the taller ones of the first and second floors—an architectural device by means of which the building appeared lower than it actually was. This was called ‘foreshortening.’ The severity of outline presented by these simple structures was relieved by various devices—sometimes by quoined corner-boards, an ornamental cornice, a balustraded roof, or decorative lintels above the windows; very rarely by rusticated front-boards in imitation of stone blocks. The chief glory of the house as one viewed it from the outside was of necessity the entrance, with its porch, open or enclosed; and it was hither that the loving attention of architect and wood-carver was most assiduously directed.
The Stearns house, built in 1776, stands at 384 Essex Street, and presents a notable example of the Revolutionary style.
As was very often the case with Salem houses, the plain character of the original structure of the Stearns homestead was later relieved by the addition of a porch of most artistic design, again from the hand of Samuel McIntire, regarding whom one is continually led to wonder that in the short period of his activity he could achieve so much. This new porch was put in place in 1785, and is of especial dignity due to the use of flanking pilasters in addition to the engaged columns at the rear of the structure. The order is Doric and the effect is one of strength and permanence.
At the North Bridge affair in February, 1775, when Colonel Leslie’s troops met armed resistance from the Salem citizens, one of the leading spirits on the patriot side was ‘Major’ Joseph Sprague. It was for him that this house was erected, later passing into the hands of the Stearns family, connections of the Major by marriage. Colonel Sprague, as he later became, died in 1808, since which time this has been known as the Stearns house.
The Timothy Orne House
Belonging to the same period as the Stearns house, but a few years earlier in origin, having been built in 1761, the Timothy Orne house at 266 Essex Street makes a somewhat more painstaking attempt at decoration than most of those of the time.
It has balustraded roof, quoined corners, and ornamental cornice; its chimney-stacks taper at the top; while the handsome porch presents a center toward which the eye naturally reverts as the keynote of the whole.
The activities of the Committee of Safety just prior to the Revolution are well-known, as is the fate which commonly befell those persons who were suspected of Royalist leanings. Tarring and feathering was the usual method of exhibiting patriotic distaste for such proclivities; and Timothy Orne, owner of the house in question, seems to have fallen under the ban, inasmuch as some old-time correspondence relates that he narrowly escaped this humiliating ordeal, being released on condition of good behavior.
The Orne house possessed a ‘decked’ roof—the original purpose of which was to afford the Salem merchant an elevated platform from which through his glass he might scan the horizon for his incoming ships. This type of roof is found upon many of the houses of that period. The ‘belvedere,’ a small balustraded platform at the center of the roof at the summit, was a variation of the cupola idea, both of these as found upon Salem houses having their origin in utility—a lookout-place rather than an architectural feature. Nevertheless, as on the Baldwin-Lyman and Pickman-Shreve-Little houses and others, a gratifying decorative effect was secured.
The Crowninshield-Devereux-Waters House
Crowninshield, in early days pronounced ‘Grounsell’—was a great name in Old Salem. The house of George Crowninshield stood on the present location of the Custom-House, its cupola surmounted by a weather vane in shape of a man with a telescope. This George, a famous ship-owner, was the father of three sons, Benjamin, member of Congress and Secretary of the Navy under Presidents Madison and Monroe; Jacob, also a Congressman; and Captain George, owner of Cleopatra’s Barge, one of the first pleasure yachts ever built in America.
Clifford Crowninshield in 1805 erected a house after designs by McIntire at 72 Washington Square, East. This building was square, with a long L at the side, an enclosed porch being placed in the angle formed by the two buildings.
Clifford Crowninshield might be called a ‘merchant plunger.’ He amassed great wealth by fortunate ventures. His ship Minerva was the first Salem vessel to carry the flag around the world. In 1809 he died, and his house was occupied by his brother-in-law, Captain James Devereux.
Devereux was of the same type as Crowninshield. As captain of the ship Franklin, of Boston, he traded with Japan half a century before Admiral Perry opened the door to American commerce. In 1808 he paid $26,618.25 customs duties on a single cargo of coffee. Dying in 1846, he left the house to Captain William Dean Waters, his son-in-law. Waters died in 1880, and in 1892 the property passed out of the family.
The entrance of this huge homestead, with its elliptical porch surmounted by a handsome balustrade, its solid Tuscan columns, spreading fanlight, and paneled door, is in scale with the rest of the building. The tiny square windows on the third floor add a quaint touch to the whole.
The Mansfield-Bolles House
THE MANSFIELD-BOLLES HOUSE
Oblong houses in Old Salem stood sometimes with the front to the street, sometimes with the end; the latter is the case with the Mansfield-Bolles house at 8 Chestnut Street, built in 1810. The house is of brick, painted, which has spoiled the mellow effect. It is entirely covered as to the front with a close growth of ampelopsis. At the center is the handsome doorway, nearly flush with the façade, the spreading fanlight, oval-paned side-lights, and proper Colonial paneled door producing a most pleasing effect. The windows of the upper story are not foreshortened—an unusual feature in houses of this type. This is probably due to the fact that this story was a later addition, the building having previously been used for commercial purposes.
The late Reverend Dr. E. C. Bolles, professor at Tufts College, and formerly pastor of the Universalist Church in Salem, lived here for many years.
The Richard Derby House
THE RICHARD DERBY HOUSE
This is the oldest brick residence in Salem, being built in 1761 by Richard Derby, whose son, Elias Hasket Derby, became the greatest merchant of the time, owning the Grand Turk of 300 tons, originally built for a privateer, but turned to commercial uses, and one of the fastest sailing craft afloat. His ship Atlantic was the first of the famous Indiamen, trading with Calcutta and Bombay before the eighteenth century had come to a close. The house in question is said to have been built for him. It was Elias Hasket Derby who headed the popular subscription for redeeming Salem Common from its unkempt condition and converting it into Washington Square.
Richard Derby had formerly occupied a gambrel-roofed wooden house which, erected in 1738, still stands at the corner of Herbert and Derby Streets. The brick house we may imagine represented a great advance in building. There had been one attempt, as early as 1700, at a brick house, but the owner’s wife considered it unsanitary, and prevailed upon him to demolish it.
An interesting feature of the Derby house is the location of the four chimneys in pairs at either end. This was no doubt an improvement over the old style of a huge central stack, with fireplaces opening into it from all sides. The entrance is most attractive, though unpretentious. One notices the fluted pilasters with Doric capitals, the severe square-paned top-light, the elaborate paneling of the door, and the very unusual effect of the rusticated jambs.
The Hodges-Peele-West House
Beautifully shaded by huge elms, the Hodges-Peele-West house at 12 Chestnut Street affords a typical illustration of the square brick house of the early years of the nineteenth century. This was erected in 1804 for Captain Jonathan Hodges, and was remodeled in 1845 by its then owner, Willard Peele. The warm red-brick, so effective as a background for the pure white of the Colonial porch, has here been hidden by a coat of gray paint. A light and artistic iron fence encloses the yard, stables of a design harmonious with the house itself are located at the rear, and a most attractive and handsome porch invites entrance.
The Silsbee-Mott House
THE SILSBEE-MOTT HOUSE
Although fallen out of favor at the beginning, as unsanitary and damp, brick houses in Salem finally triumphantly came into their own, and the opening of the nineteenth century found them the prevailing type.
It was some time before so-called double houses, or ‘semi-detached’ houses, began to be erected; but a first attempt had already been made in 1814 and soon after we find a number of examples.
Notable among these is the Silsbee-Mott house, built for two families, at the corner of Oliver Street and Washington Square. Instead of a double house, however, we seem to have two single houses of similar design joined together.
Our plate shows the handsome porch and entrance of the Mott side of the house.