The William Goodwin House, a Federal-style residence built in 1808, is located at the intersection of Pearl and Washington streets in Marblehead. William Goodwin was a carpenter and the house was divided among his heirs after his death, remaining in the family for a century. For many years, the house’s first floor was used as a store. In more recent times, the house was renovated and made into a two family house.
The brick Federal-style house of Captain Stephen Phillips, at 17 Chestnut Street in Salem, was built in 1804-1805, the construction being supervised by Parley Putnam. Capt. Phillips was a merchant who helped to create the neighborhood on Chestnut Street. Salem mayor and U.S. Representative Stephen C. Phillips later resided in the house, which remained in the Phillips family until 1883. It was next owned by Benjamin D. Shreve. His descendants still reside there.
At 90 Brattle Street in Cambridge is a house, built in 1882-1883, that is considered to be the masterpiece of the Shingle style of architecture. With little exterior ornament and covered with wood shingles, it was designed by H. H. Richardson for Mary Fiske Stoughton, the mother of John Fiske, a philosopher and historian who later lived in the house. Although additions were made to the house in 1900 and 1925, it remains an icon of American architecture.
The Old Brick Path is the traditional name of an historic eighteenth-century house in Marblehead, which for many years in modern times contained a gift shop called the Brick Path. Built in 1729, it is one of the few brick colonial houses in town. It was the home and shop of Thomas Robie, a loyalist merchant, who held secret Tory meetings there during the Revolution. Robie was eventually forced to flee with his family to Nova Scotia in 1777. As explained by Samuel Roads, Jr. in his History and Traditions of Marblehead (1880):
In later years the house became the residence of Major Joseph W. Green, who for nearly thirty years was one of the most enterprising merchants in the town. A few years after the close of the War of 1812, he engaged in business with Benjamin Porter, under the firm name of Porter & Green. In a short time this firm employed fourteen vessels in the fishing trade, besides brigs and packets which were sent to New York and the West Indies. Their wharves and ware-rooms were filled with every commodity used in fitting out vessels for sea, and it is said that at one time they furnished seventy-five vessels with stores, anchors, cables, wood, and supplies of every kind necessary for a long voyage to the Banks. Through the influence of Major Green, the Grand Bank was established, and he was its first president
Built around 1729, replacing and reusing timbers from a previous house at the same location that had burned, the Clark-Morgan-Benson House is one of the oldest surviving buildings on Essex Street in Salem. Built by Joseph Neal, the house has been enlarged over time and has two substantial ells, forming a U-shape, the ell on the western elevation having a gambrel roof like the front facade. In the nineteenth century, the dwelling was divided between the Clark and Morgan families and was later owned, undivided, for much of the twentieth century by the Benson family.
Typical of houses of its period, including in its entryway, is the Josiah Woodbury House, on Broad Street in Salem, built around 1774. Woodbury was a mason and the house stayed in his family until 1815. The house has a rear ell of a type known as a Beverly Jog.
The Buffington-Goodhue-Wheatland House, at 374 Essex Street in Salem, was built around 1785 or earlier for Capt. Nehemiah Buffington, who died in 1832. It soon passed to Benjamin Goodhue, who moved the house forward to be closer to Essex Street. He also added the Greek Revival-style entrance. The house was in the Wheatland family from 1849 to early in the twentieth century.
