Category: Houses

Elbridge Gerry House (1742)

by Dan//Colonial, Houses, Marblehead

At 44 Washington Street in Marblehead, opposite the Old North Church, is a house, built sometime between 1730 and 1742, where Elbridge Gerry was born and spent his early years. Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), a statesman and diplomat, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and was one of three men who refused to sign the Constitution because it did not contain a Bill of Rights. Gerry later served as Governor of Massachusetts (1810-1812) and Vice-President (1813-1814) under James Madison. The process of gerrymandering, or drawing electoral districts to favor a particular party, is named for him due to a redrawing of districts in Massachusetts during his term as governor. In the 1820s, a third floor and Greek Revival entrance were added to the house.

Pillsbury House (1843)

by Dan//Danvers, Greek Revival, Houses

The house at 18 Park Street in Danvers was built in 1843 for Elias Putnam, a shoe manufacturer and first president of the Danvers Village Bank. After his death in 1847, his daughter lived on in the house. It was later purchased by Harvey Hughes Pillsbury, who operated a harness factory in town. In 1901, a corporation was formed to establish the “Danvers Home for the Aged.” In 1905, Harvey Pillsbury’s will provided an endowment and left his residence on Park Street to the Home, which was a favorite cause of his wife Clara. Over the years, the Home’s policy changed from providing full care for residents to operating as a boarding house, which by the start of the current century was empty for several years. Eventually, the Pillsbury Foundation successfully appealed to the courts to sell the house, with the proceeds going into the Foundation to support various programs for the elderly. Structural changes to the house in the twentieth century have included the addition of a front porch with an attached belvedere/gazebo.

Cabot-Endicott-Low House (1744)

by Dan//Colonial, Houses, Salem

Thought to have been built sometime between 1744 and 1748, the Cabot-Endicott-Low House, at 365 Essex Street in Salem, is an important example of a high-style gambrel roof Georgian colonial residence. The house was built for Joseph Cabot, a merchant, and remained in his family until purchased by William C. Endicott in 1870. Endicott was a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1873-1882) and Secretary of War under Grover Cleveland (1885-1889). His daughter, Mary, married British prime minister Joseph Chamberlain in 1888. Endicott‘s friend, merchant and silversmith Daniel Low, owned the house from 1894 to 1919. Continue reading “Cabot-Endicott-Low House (1744)”

Daniel Bancroft, Jr. House (1806)

by Dan//Federal, Houses, Salem

Daniel Bancroft was a Salem architect-builder who worked with Samuel McIntire. According to an article in The Essex Antiquarian, Vol. VI, no. 4 (October, 1902):

Daniel Bancroft, house-carpenter, lived first in Reading, and removed, in 1770, to Worcester, and then, in 1775, removed from Worcester to Salem, having married Hannah, daughter of Benjamin Symonds of Salem, chairmaker, Aug. 14, 1770. They were living in Salem in 1791.— Registry of deeds, and Salem town records.

The same article lists that “Daniel Bancroft, Jr., married Sally Cloutman, both of Salem, Aug. 5, 1794.” The Daniel Bancroft, Jr. House, built in 1806, is at 4 River Street in Salem. According to the plaque on the house, Daniel Bancroft, Jnr. was also a housewright.

Forrester-Peabody House (1818)

by Dan//Federal, Houses, Salem

The Forrester-Peabody House, on Washington Square North, bordering Salem Common, is an ornate Federal mansion built in 1818-1819 for John Forrester, son of the merchant, Simon Forrester. The Mason-Roberts-Colby House is believed to have originally stood on the site until it was moved to Federal Street by a team of sixty oxen. In 1834, the Forrester House was purchased by Col. George Peabody, son of Capt. Joseph Peabody, who added a one-story ballroom wing. Peabody lived in the house until 1892 and the building later housed the Salem Club, a men’s social organization, and then the Bertram Home for Aged Men, which had been founded by the wealthy merchant and philanthropist, Captain John Bertram, in 1877. The building, also known as the Bertram House, was restored in 1989 and reopened in 1990 as an assisted living facility for both men and women.

Jeremiah Page House (1754)

by Dan//Colonial, Danvers, Houses

The Page House in Danvers was built in 1754 by Jeremiah Page, a brick maker, who also fought in the Revolutionary War. During the tea embargo in 1770, Page declared that “no tea would be drunk in his house.” As related in Lucy Larcom‘s poem, “A Gambrel Roof,” Page’s wife invited her lady friends to gather for tea on the roof, since it was “Upon a house is not within it.” In 1774, a room in the house was used as an office by General Thomas Gage, who was then the British military governor of Massachusetts. Jeremiah’s son, John Page, and then his granddaughter, Ann Lemist Page, later lived in the house. In 1850, a grandson of Jeremiah Page attempted to break into the Village Bank next to the house and was shot and killed by a night guard. Various additions were made in the nineteenth century. The building, as explained by Mary H. Northend in Colonial Homes and their Furnishings (1912), originally “consisted of four rooms, but these were later moved back and a new front added, the ell being replaced by a larger one.” Ann Lemist Page, who lived in the home until her death in 1913, was a pioneer in the kindergarten movement and, for a time, she ran a school in her home. In her will, she requested that the house be demolished to prevent its falling into disrepair. The Danvers Historical Society challenged the will in court and was able to purchase the property and move it from Elm Street to Page Street to serve as their headquarters.