Burrill House, on Essex Street in Salem, was built around 1806 as a residence. Known as the Ebenezer Smith House, it is unusual for its period in Salem in having brick end walls. In 1926, the house was acquired by the neighboring Grace Church for use as a parish house. Three years later, it was remodeled and physically connected to the church by architect Woldemar H. Ritter.
One of Chestnut Street in Salem‘s most celebrated architectural achievements is the Dodge-Shreve House. Sometimes dated to 1817, but also to 1822-1825, the house, at 29 Chestnut Street, was built for merchant Pickering Dodge by master builder David Lord. It is similar in size and layout to the nearby Pickman-Shreve-Little House, but is a later example of the Federal-style with a greater variety of decorative details. The Dodge-Shreve House has been owned by the Phillips, Peirce, Allen, Cabot and Shreve families.
Upper Essex Street in Salem’s most impressive three-story brick Federal-style house is the Sprague-Peabody-Silsbee House at 380 Essex Street. It was built about 1807 by Joseph Sprague, Jr.; was sold to Joseph Peabody in 1822 and occupied by his son Francis; and was owned by the Silsbee family from 1840 to 1901. The house, which has been enlarged and remodeled over the years, has interior carving attributed to Samuel McIntire.
One of Salem‘s best examples of Federal-style architecture is the Pickman-Shreve-Little House at 27 Chestnut Street. It was constructed about 1819 by master builder Jabez Smith for Dudley L. Pickman. One of Salem’s wealthiest merchants, Pickman was a partner in the firm Devereux, Pickman & Silsbee and served as a state senator. The house was in his family until 1865 and was then owned, from 1872 to 1898, by Benjamin Shreve, a founder of the Boston jewelers Shreve, Crump, & Low, which is still in business. After Shreve‘s death, the house was then home to David Mason Little, a naval architect and photographer. He published a collection of his yacht photography in 1883 called Instantaneous Marine Studies. David M. Little also served as mayor of Salem in 1900 and was the last Collector of Customs at Salem, from 1903 until the office was abolished in 1913.
The house at 37 Chestnut Street in Salem was erected by master builder Jabez Smith in 1816-1817 for sea captain and merchant George Nichols. The house was also owned, from 1827 to 1845, by David Pingree and William A. Landers.
In 1780, Colonel Elijah Dickinson of Amherst married Jerusha Smith. Jerusha’s grandfather, Dr. Nathaniel Smith, had moved from Hadley about 1730 to become the first physician to practice in Amherst. He built a log cabin, next to what would later become College Hill, and eventually replaced the cabin with a new house, painted yellow. This house was moved to South Pleasant Street to make way for a new Federal-style house, built by Col. Dickinson in 1810. Dickinson gave the land on which Amherst College would be built. The house was later owned by John White. Known as the White Homestead, it was purchased by Amherst College from the White Family in 1924. It served as the College’s Faculty Club and was later converted to become the Wilson Admission Center, named for former Dean of Admission Eugene S. Wilson.
Duckett House is a dorm on the campus of Smith College in Northampton. The house, located at the corner of Elm Street and Bedford Terrance, was built as a private residence for the Clark family about 1810. It was sold to Mary L. Southwick in 1886, who ran a boarding house for Smith students in the building until 1918. It was next owned by the Alumnae Association and in 1921 became part of the Burnham School for girls. The building was acquired by the college in 1968. As a dormitory, it was named for Eleanor Shipley Duckett, philologist and medieval historian, who was a Smith College professor and author of such books as Alfred the Great and his England (1957) and The Wandering Saints of the Early Middle Ages (1959). Additions to Duckett House were constructed in 1973 and the mid-1990s. Both of these modifications included connecting Duckett to neighboring Chase House, another c. 1810 residence (with later mansard roof) that is now a Smith College dorm. Chase House was named for Duckett’s lifelong companion, Smith College professor and novelist Mary Ellen Chase. Chase House had also served as the main building of the Burnham School and was known as Burnham House.
