Category: Houses

Thomas Saunders House (1764)

by Dan//Colonial Revival, Gloucester, Houses, Libraries

The house at the corner of Middle Street and Dale Avenue in Gloucester was built in 1764 by Thomas Saunders, a merchant, utilizing plans probably brought over from England. The house has been much altered over the years. A later owner, Capt. John Beach, an emigrant from England, added a third story and an octagonal cupola to the house after a neighbor across Middle Street blocked his view of the harbor. The cupola was removed in 1827 due to issues with leaking. Sadly, there are no images of what the cupola looked like. The house’s seventh owner, William A. Pew, moved the structure 13 feet to the west and added an Italianate tower to the front of the house, which he remodeled as a fine Victorian mansion. All but the base of the tower was lost in 1934 when it was altered to become the building’s entry porch. Samuel E. Sawyer bought the house in 1884 in order to donate it to become the home of the Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Public Library. The Lyceum had been established in 1830 and its library, with support from Sawyer, was first established by 1854 and became a free library by 1871. The library lacked a permanent home until Sawyer donated the Saunders House in 1884. The building would have a new wing added in 1913 and a modern library extension was added to the north of the house in 1975-1976. The Library is also home to a series of WPA murals painted in the 1930s by Frederick L. Stoddard. Continue reading “Thomas Saunders House (1764)”

Mark Dewey Hat Shop (1816)

by Dan//Commercial, Greek Revival, Houses, Sheffield, Vernacular

On the grounds of the Sheffield Historical Society is a building, constructed about 1816, that once served as a hat and cap manufactory for Mark Dewey and his three apprentices. While conducting his business in the building, Dewey lived next door, in the Dan Raymond House, which is also owned by the Historical Society. He sold his hatter’s shop in 1828. In the 1980s, the building was restored by the Society to house the Mark Dewey Research Center, a collection of historical materials relating to Sheffield and surrounding towns. Continue reading “Mark Dewey Hat Shop (1816)”

Capt. Samuel Somes House (1796)

by Dan//Federal, Gloucester, Houses

The house at 29-31 Pleasant Street in Gloucester was built in 1796 for Abigail, the widow of Capt. Samuel Somes. They had a son who was also Capt. Samuel Somes. There is some confusion between different sources about who built the house. It is associated in the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System with local housewright Col. Jacob Smith, originally from Ipswich, who also designed the Capt. Elias Davis House, which is located just across Federal Street and is part of the Cape Ann Museum. The Museum’s website says that the Somes House was a copy of the Davis House and was designed by Jacob Smith’s younger brother. Both brothers, Jacob and John Smith, designed houses for Gloucester ship owners and merchants, as well as a number of churches in the area. The “Images of America” series book on Gloucester and Rockport says (on page 25) that John designed the Somes House and then Jacob added modified corner coins to the Davis House “in an act of one-upsmanship” that prompted dissension between them.

87 Middle Street, Gloucester (1785)

by Dan//Colonial, Gloucester, Houses

The house at 87 Middle Street in Gloucester (on the right in the image above) was built c. 1785 (or as early as 1718?). In this vicinity in colonial times (possibly where the building on the left, 18 Pleasant Street, stands today) was the well-known barber shop of Rebecca Broome Ingersoll. Her father, James Broome, was also a barber and ran a tavern in the 1750s and 1760s. As related in The Gloucester Book (1921), by Frank L. Cox,

In connection with the tavern he kept a barber shop and his daughter, Rebecca, who became an expert barber carried on the business in a shop at the corner of Pleasant and Middle streets. Her shop was for years the gathering place of all the wits and story tellers in the town. The tavern originally stood at 79 Middle street.

Rebecca Broome married Andrew Ingersoll. Their daughter Rebecca would eventually take over the business from her mother. As related by John J. Babson in his History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann (1860):

She was intelligent and lively; and through her intercourse from childhood with all classes of people, seamen and landmen, acquired a fund of information which made her a very agreeable talker. She last occupied an old house which stood on a lane leading from Front Street to the water-side; and many of our middle-aged people remember the attractions of pictures, birds, and anecdotes, which made the shop of “Aunt Becky” a place of the highest enjoyment in their youthful days.

According to an essay on the “Essex County Dialect” by Helen Mansfield that appeared in the Bulletin of the Essex Institute, Vol. 26, Nos. 7-12 (July-December 1894):

L and n were interchangeable, (m with them, to some extent; Tomlinson, Tumpleson, Tumblesome). Ingersoll was long Inkerson on Gloucester records, and seventy years ago the two forms were co-existent. “Aunt Becky Ingersoll,” a barber with a famous parrot, used to say, “Between Capt. Jack Ingersoll’ and the Inkersons about, there’s a difference.” (They were all of the same stock.) Any man now would sit on the capson of the wharf, instead of the capsill.