The John Ward House in Salem is a First Period house built in 1684. John Ward was a currier (leather finisher), who is believed to have fled the plague in England around 1660. The house originally stood at 38 St. Peter Street and consisted of one room over one room. At some point around the time of Ward’s death in 1732, the house was expanded with a matching set of rooms. The house went through various changes over the years, with the original front gables being removed. The building‘s eighteenth-century ell was once used for a cent shop and for a time, Sarah W. Symonds, a Salem artist, had her studio and gallery in the home. In 1910, the house was acquired by the Essex Institute and moved to its current location on Brown Street. It was restored under the direction of preservationist George Francis Dow, with period rooms containing seventeenth-century furnishings. Today, the house is a museum owned by the Peabody Essex Museum.