Category: Salem

Loring-Emmerton House (1818)

by Dan//Colonial Revival, Federal, Houses, Salem

The Pickman-Loring-Emmerton House, at 328 Essex Street in Salem, was built in 1818 as a Federal style house. In the mid-nineteenth century, it was the residence of George B. Loring (1817-1891), who served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1877-1881), as United States Commissioner of Agriculture (1881-1885) and as Minister to Portugal (1889-1890). The house was later owned by George R. Emmerton, a merchant and president of the Merchant’s National Bank. In 1885, he hired architect Arthur Little to expand and remodel the house in the Colonial Revival style. Emmerton was the father of Caroline O. Emmerton, the philanthropist and preservationist who established the House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association.

Gregg-Stone House (1829)

by Dan//Federal, Houses, Salem

The house at 8 Chestnut Street in Salem began as a one-story brick store, built by Daniel Gregg in 1805. In 1825, the property was acquired by Deacon John Stone, who added two additional stories. Stone, who was a wealthy distiller, built the houses at 5 and 7 Chestnut Street as rooming houses, while he resided at 8 Chestnut Street. As described by Frank Cousins and Phil M. Riley in The Colonial Architecture of Salem (1919), “Its chief distinctions lie in its doorway of graceful simplicity and the unusual gambrel-roofed wing of wood at the rear end. Unlike most brick houses of importance in Salem […] its windows boast no lintels, but have molded architrave frames of wood let into the reveals of the brickwork.” The house was later the residence of Capt. Daniel H. Mansfield, Rev. Edwin C. Bolles and architect William G. Rantoul. The garden next to the house was once the site of South Church, built in 1803-1804 and designed by Samuel McIntire. It was destroyed in a fire in 1903 and was replaced by a Gothic Revival-style church, which was lost in the mid-twentieth century.

Salem Five Cents Savings Bank (1892)

by Dan//Banks, Colonial Revival, Salem

The Salem Five Cents Savings Bank, known as the “Nickel Bank,” because deposits started at 5 cents, was founded in 1855. The bank’s building at 210 Essex Street in Salem, designed by an unknown architect, was built in 1892, with later modifications. The bank is now known as Salem Five. The bank building was constructed to complement the Ezekiel Hersey Derby House, which once stood next door. That c. 1800 house, later known as the Maynes Block, was planned by Charles Bulfinch with interior work by Samuel McIntire. The house was removed in the early 1970s and replaced by the bank’s modern wing, designed by Oscar Padjen. Architectural elements from the house’s interior are now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Thompson/West Double House (1845)

by Dan//Federal, Greek Revival, Houses, Salem

The double house at at 38-40 Chestnut Street in Salem was built in about 1845 and architecturally represents the transition from the Federal to the Greek Revival style. The original resident of the west half of the house (until 1859) was Rev. James W. Thompson, while the other half was the residence of Captain Nathaniel West, Sr. As described in History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts, Now Called the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. 1637-1888, Vol. III.-1822-1865 (1898), by Olver Ayer Roberts:

Rev. James W. Thompson, D. D., of Salem, delivered the Artillery Election sermon of 1833. He was a son of Rev. James Thompson, D. D., of Barre, Mass., and was born in that town Dec. 13, 1805. He graduated at Brown University in 1827, and at the Theological School of Harvard University in 1831. Prior to his graduation he was ordained to the Christian ministry. He settled first in Natick. An invitation to settle over the Independent Congregation Society, in Barton Square, Salem, was accepted by him, and he was installed March 7, 1832. He remained in this ministry twenty-seven years, and resigned March 7, 1859. He left Salem, and accepted an invitation to the Third or Jamaica Plain Parish Church, in 1859, where he continued as sole or senior pastor until his decease, which occurred Sept. 24, 1881. The funeral services were held in the Unitarian Church at Jamaica Plain, and his remains were buried in Salem.

The eastern half of the double house was later home to Joseph B. Andrews, mayor of Salem in 1854-1856. As described in Historical Sketch of Salem, 1626-1879 (1879), by Charles S. Osgood and H.M. Batchelder:

Joseph Andrews served as mayor in 1854-55. He was born in Salem Dec. 10, 1808, and died in Boston Feb. 8, 1869. He was captain of the Salem Light Infantry and brigadier-general of tho State militia, which position he held in 1861, at the opening of the Rebellion. He commanded at Fort Warren, in Boston harbor, and had charge of the State troops sent to that station prior to their departure for the seat of war, and until it ceased to be used for that purpose. He was a bank official.

Captain John B. Silsbee owned the western half of the house in the late 1850’s and 1860’s. The bay window above the left entrance is an early twentieth-century addition.

White-Silsbee/Hodges-Mott House (1811)

by Dan//Federal, Houses, Salem

A double house with an unusual layout, the White-Silsbee/Hodges-Mott House is at 33-35 Washington Square North in Salem, between Oliver and Winter Streets. The section on the west, or left, side was built first, c.1811, by Joshua Upham for Joseph White, Jr., whose brother Stephen lived next door. The house was sold by Joseph’s widow, Eliza, to the Silsbee family, whom owned it until 1880. The attached house on the east, or right, side was built c. 1840 for the Misses Hannah and Betsy Hodges and was purchased by John N. Mott in 1871. Both halves of the house were later owned by the Clark family in the twentieth century.