Isaac Damon, a prominent builder based in Northampton in the early nineteenth century, built his own house on Bridge Street in 1813. Today the house contains the administrative offices of Historic Northampton, with a modern addition housing a museum and gift shop.
In the 1940s, historical novelist Anya Seton‘s research into her ancestry led her to Marblehead, and she based her 1948 novel, The Hearth and Eagle, on the history of the seaside town. She set the novel in the Hearth and Eagle Inn, based on the house at 30 Franklin Street in Marblehead. The house was built c. 1715-1721 by the father of Elbridge Gerry and was enlarged in 1750. It was owned by the captain in command of Fort Sewall during the War of 1812 and soldiers were billeted in the house.
The house at 102 Federal Street in Salem was built in 1800 for George Whitefield Martin (1771-1810). A cabinetmaker, Martin was born in Marblehead and worked in Concord, New Hampshire from 1794 to 1796. In 1797, he married Sally Bullock and moved to Salem, acquiring land for his home and shop on Federal Street through his wife’s family. In more recent times, the house was converted into three condominiums. The house’s owners caused a stir in the neighborhood when they painted the house a reddish-orange color called “Clementine” (manufactured by California Paints), which contrasts with the more muted hues of neighboring houses on Federal Street. Although Clementine is a historic color developed by Historic New England and approved by the Salem Historical Commission, some neighbors sued the condo owners in 2003, complaining about the orange glow from the house! The house still retains the Clementine paint.
The Howard-Downing House, at 8 Brown Street in Salem, was built about 1808 by Joseph Howard, a merchant born in 1780 who was engaged in the South American trade. The house’s Greek Revival doorway is a later addition. The building now houses condominiums.
The Pliny Freeman Farmhouse at Old Sturbridge Village was built elsewhere in Sturbridge by Chester Belknap between 1812 and 1815. It is named for Pliny Freeman, who bought the property in 1828 (his third in town) and spent 23 years there. He and his wife Delia Marsh had seven children, most of whom were grown by 1828 and most of whom eventually migrated westward. He sold the farm in 1851 and went to live with his daughter Delia until his death in 1855. The Freeman House was condemned by the Massachusetts highway department and moved to Old Sturbridge Village in 1950 (and relocated again in the Village in 1956). Today, it is surrounded by farm fields and historic outbuildings which collectively depict the life and work on an early-nineteenth century New England farm.
The house at 65 Washington Street in Marblehead was home to members of the Trevett family, a prominent Marblehead shipping dynasty. The sign on the house states that it was built in 1717 for Capt. Benjamin Trevett and his wife, Elizabeth Russell Trevett, as a gift from her brother, the merchant Samuel Russell. They had married in 1710 and their son, Russell Trevett, had been born in 1714. Russell was the father of Capt. Samuel Russell Trevett, who was born in 1751 in the house (the house is named for him, although in the past it was mistakenly called the Capt. Richard Trevett House). Capt. Samuel Trevett led the Marblehead artillery company at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
The house at 28 Pomeroy Terrace in Northampton was built in 1885-1886 by C.H. Jones of Springfield for E.F. Crooks. C.H. Jones was a painter, artist and architect who designed other buildings in Northampton, including the Lilly Library in Florence. Edgar F. Crooks was the superintendent of the factory in Northampton of Belding Brothers & Co., silk manufacturers.