Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

Peletiah Morse’s Tavern (1748)

by Dan/February 17, 2012February 28, 2012/Colonial, Natick, Taverns

Peletiah Morse’s Tavern, at 33 Eliot Street in South Natick, was built in 1748 to serve as a residence, tavern and stage stop on the Old Hartford Road. Located not far from the 1730 house of Morse’s father, David Morse, it was one of the oldest taverns in Natick and the last to survive from the colonial era, although its center chimney was later removed. According to tradition, an acre of land on the property had been a gift from the Natick Praying Indians to John Eliot. The planned construction of new buildings on the property around the house by a Montessori School has recently caused controversy in town. In 2008, the school was fined for improperly removing trees from the land.

Clarence S. Clark House (1894)

by Dan/February 10, 2012/Colonial Revival, Houses, Salem

The Colonial Revival house at 376 Essex Street in Salem was built around 1894 for businessman Clarence S. Clark, a Morocco manufacturer. The house stands on the site of the Sprague-White House, built c. 1796 and demolished c. 1893, which may have been the work of Samuel McIntire. The Clark House‘s Federal-style two-story carriage house survives to the rear of the property.

Jonathan Hodges House (1805)

by Dan/February 8, 2012February 8, 2012/Federal, Houses, Salem

Samuel McIntire designed and built the house at 12 Chestnut Street in Salem for sea captain Jonathan Hodges. It is the only documented McIntire-built house on Chestnut Street. Built as a double house with three doors and three staircases in 1805, it was altered to a single house with a Greek Revival door and entrance porch by new owner J. Willard Peele in 1845. The summerhouse in the rear of the property was photographed for the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1940.

Benjamin Ireson House (1808)

by Dan/February 6, 2012/Houses, Marblehead, Vernacular

The house at 19 Circle Street in Marblehead, built before 1808 and perhaps as early as 1758, is famous for being the home of Benjamin “Flood” Ireson, subject of the 1857 poem, “Skipper Ireson’s Ride,” by John Greenleaf Whittier. Captain Ireson, of the fishing vessel Betty, had supposedly refused to assist the sinking schooner Active during a gale in 1808. In retribution, a group of sailors and boys had tarred and feathered him. Whittier later heard the story, by which time the name of the captain had been corrupted to “Floyd Ireson” and he elaborated the story so that the tarring and feathering was perpetrated by the women of Marblehead. In his book, The History and Traditions of Marblehead (1881), author Samuel Roads defended Ireson, who had actually been innocent of the crime for which he was tarred and feathered. Whittier sent a letter to Roads expressing that he was pleased the true facts had come out, but the poem’s success perpetuated the Whittier version in the public imagination. The Ireson House would remain a notable Marblehead landmark and be the subject of postcards well into the twentieth century.

Capt. Thomas Mason House (1750)

by Dan/February 6, 2012February 6, 2012/Colonial, Houses, Salem

Built around 1750 and later altered to its present appearance, the Capt. Thomas Mason House is at 1 Cambridge Street, off Essex Street, in Salem.

Herreshoff Castle (1926)

by Dan/January 28, 2012January 27, 2012/Gothic, Houses, Marblehead

There are a number of interesting castles in Massachusetts. Herreshoff Castle, at 2 Crocker Park in Marblehead, was built in 1926 by artist Waldo Ballard and his wife. Ballard restored many old houses in Marblehead. The castle was originally called Castle Brattahlid and was intended to recreate Erik the Red‘s castle at Brattahlíð (“Steep Slope”), in Greenland. In 1945, the Ballards sold the castle to L. Francis Herreshoff, son the yacht designer Nathanael Herreshoff. After Herreshoff died in 1972, he left the castle to a longtime assistant. The present owners bought it in 1990 and operate the castle‘s similarly Gothic-style attached carriage house as a one-unit bed & breakfast.

J. Stebbins Lathrop House (1848)

by Dan/January 27, 2012January 26, 2012/Greek Revival, Houses, Northampton

Jere Stebbins Lathrop, from West Springfield, became a merchant in Northampton and then in Savannah, Georgia, where he remained until the start of the Civil War. He spent summers in his house at 57 Bridge Street in Northampton, which was built in the 1840s from plans in a book of southern architecture brought north by his wife, Elizabeth. The plans for the house (also known as the Lathrop-Butler House) were executed by architect W.F. Pratt, who would design a similar house using the same plans in 1855 for lawyer Osmyn Baker at 78 Pomeroy Terrace. Not wanting to fight a brother in the Confederate army, Lathrop and his family spent the Civil War in Canada, where he was suspected of supplying goods to Southern blockade runners. The Federal government confiscated his house, which was then bought at public auction by Osmyn Baker, who returned it to Lathrop after the war. J. Stebbins Lathrop continued as a business man in Northampton until his death in 1894.