Gloucester – Page 3 – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

Samuel Gilbert House (1750)

by Dan/February 21, 2020/Federal, Gloucester, Houses

The house at the corner of Angle Street and 1 Western Avenue in Gloucester was built in 1750 by Nathaniel Ellery. In the 1780s it became the home of Samuel Gilbert (1782-1860), a wealthy merchant, and was raised to three stories early in the nineteenth century. After his death, the house was occupied by his widow, his second wife Mary Hayes Gilbert, who died in 1887 at the age of 101, and by his son, Addison Gilbert (1808-1888). A merchant, banker, and civic leader, Addison Gilbert had no children. Upon his death, he left $100,000 to build the Addison Gilbert Hospital, which opened in 1897. He also left $75,000 to convert his home into the Addison Gilbert Home for the Aged. In 1981, the trustees of the Gilbert estate sold the house to the law firm that is now known as Orlando & Associates.

Gloucester Safe Deposit and Trust Company (1880)

by Dan/January 30, 2020/Banks, Gloucester, Neoclassical

The building at 189-191 Main Street, at the corner of Duncan Street, in Gloucester was erected circa 1870-1880 and was originally the First National Bank. It was later home to the Gloucester Safe Deposit and Trust Company, incorporated in 1891, around which time the building was remodeled with a “Pigeon Cove” granite Classical Revival facade. In 2013, the former bank building was renovated with first floor space for an art gallery and a jewelry store, and office and apartment space above.

Joseph Foster House (1760)

by Dan/January 27, 2020/Colonial, Gloucester, Houses

Erected circa 1760, the gambrel roof house at 75 Middle Street in Gloucester was the home of a merchant and Revolutionary War patriot named Joseph Foster (1730-1804). Originally from Ipswich, he became a ship captain, trading with the West Indies. He commanded privateers during the war and was a member of the Committee of Correspondence and the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1779-1780.

At the start of the Revolutionary War, Foster was a hero of the Battle of Gloucester. On August 8, 1775, the Bristish sloop HMS Falcon, commanded by Capt. John Linzee, attacked two American schooners heading for Salem. He captured one, but the other escaped to Gloucester harbor and was grounded near Five Pound Island. Capt. Linzee sent barges with men to seize the grounded vessel, but local defenders, Joseph Foster playing a conspicuous part among them, fired on the British and effectively trapped them. In an attempt to distract the townspeople and relieve pressure on his men, Linzee fired Falcon‘s guns on the town of Gloucester, hitting the steeple of the First Church meeting house. He also sent a landing party to set fire to the town, but his men were captured by the locals. He then sent in his captured schooner, but its crewmen revolted and seized the ship. Linzee sailed off on the Falcon.

As related in The grandchildren of Col. Joseph Foster (1885), quoting from Babson’s History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann:

It was in 1779, a “period of great poverty” in Gloucester, when paper money had “depreciated to about one-seventieth of its nominal value,” and “about one-sixth of the whole population were” “living chiefly upon charity,” “that a large troop of women, in want of the necessaries of life, marched to Col. Foster’s store, and made known their determination to supply themselves with provisions and groceries from his stock, in spite of all resistance. Some of the number were prepared to take an exact account of the articles delivered to each person, with reference to payment, if they should ever he able to pay; but, pay or no pay, they would have them, and proceeded to help themselves accordingly. This merchant was one of the most ardent patriots of the town; and it is related of him, that his conduct on this occasion proved him to be one of the most benevolent: for the tale of suffering and destitution that the women had to tell so touched his feelings, that he liberally supplied their wants, and dismissed them with words of the utmost kindness and sympathy ”

After the war, Capt. Foster returned to his farm. The house in town remained in the family until 1859. Since then it has had a number of owners and gone through alterations, serving at different times as a dry goods store, a piano and sweing machine shop, a confectionery shop, the Trust Department of the Cape Ann Bank & Trust Company, and now as offices.

Puritan House (1810)

by Dan/January 22, 2020/Federal, Gloucester, Hotels

The oldest brick building in the town of Gloucester is a former hotel at 1-3 Washington Street and 2 Main Street that was built in 1810. It was constructed by Col. James Tappan, a New Hampshire schoolteacher who once taught Daniel Webster. An addition in 1840 doubled the size of the building. As related in The Gloucester Book (1921), by Frank Lucius Cox, “It has been known successively as the Tappan Hotel, Gloucester House, Mason House and Puritan House, but during recent years it has not been used as a hotel. During the middle of the nineteenth century all the important social functions of the town were held at this hotel.” Winslow Homer stayed at the hotel in 1873. Today it has a sign put up in 1978 that says “Blackburn Tavern” for a former restaurant located in the building. Currently Tono Restaurant occupies the building on the Main Street side, while GAP Promo is on the Washington Street side.