Tag: Gambrel

Old Strong House (1744)

by Dan//Amherst, Colonial, Houses

The gambrel-roofed dwelling known as the Old Strong House, at 67 Amity Street in Amherst, was built in 1744 by Nehemiah Strong. As related by Alice M. Walker in Historic Homes of Amherst (1905):

Samuel Strong, the ancestor of the Strongs in Amherst […], married Esther Clapp, and soon after her death took for his second wife, Mrs. Ruth Sheldon Wright. He had twelve children, most of whom settled on farms in Hadley and South Hadley. His third son Nehemiah, married about 1728 Hannah Edwards, the daughter of Jonathan French of Northampton, and widow of Nathaniel Edwards, who was killed by Indians. Unwilling for some reason to settle permanently in Northampton, Nehemiah Strong took council with his brothers, living across the river, as to the most desirable location for a home, and settled upon Hadley third precinct, where land was cheap and plentiful. He purchased a tract at the junction of the west highway and the road leading to Hadley, with the intent of building a mansion of the latest style and most approved design.

Nehemiah’s son, Simeon, a lawyer, inherited the house. Quoting again from Walker:

Young Simeon erected for himself an office on the west side of his dwelling, and it is possible made some changes in the back part of the mansion, as tradition hints that once the roof sloped to the ground.

During the Revolution:

Most prominent among the loyalists was Simeon Strong, and the old Strong house became the headquarters of the Tory faction. […] The learned advocate, honest in his convictions, in spite of his Tory principles, kept the respect of his fellow townsmen, maintained his standing at the bar and accumulated wealth. The small addition to the rear of the family mansion held his law library and pamphlets, and served him as an office. Here he interviewed his clients and pursued those studies in theology and metaphysics which were his delight to the close of his life. In 1787 Simeon Strong was appointed a member of a committee to build a new meeting house on the hill. Having served the town acceptably in the General Court, he was elected to the Senate, and in 1800 was appointed Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

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Jonathan Neal House (1767)

by Dan//Colonial, Houses, Salem

The Jonathan Neal House, at 12 Broad Street in Salem, was long believed to have been built in 1767 for Jonathan Neal, a carpenter, who ran a waterfront warehouse. More recent research has indicated that the earliest parts of the house may actually go back to 1652. An early barn on the lot was enlarged by Neal’s father, also named Jonathan, with the central chimney being constructed in 1680 and other work being done later, as attested in deeds from 1720 and 1767, when the gambrel roof was added to the home.

Ropes Mansion (1727)

by Dan//Colonial, Houses, Salem

Built on Essex Street in Salem around 1727, the Ropes Mansion has been open to the public since 1912. It was built by merchant Samuel Barnard of Deerfield and sold by Barnard’s heirs to Judge Nathaniel Ropes II in 1768. He was a loyalist and died of smallpox as his house was being attacked by a mob of Patriots in 1774. His family went into exile, but reclaimed the house after the Revolutionary War. It remained in the Ropes family until 1907, when sisters Mary and Eliza Ropes bequeathed it as the Ropes Memorial. Various alterations have been made to the interior of the house over the years, most dramatically in 1894, when Colonial Revival modifications were made and the structure was moved back from the street. The building‘s current entryway dates to the 1830s and was inspired by Asher Benjamin‘s American Builder’s Companion (1827). The house also has formal gardens dating to 1912. The house has had several fires: Abigail Ropes burned to death after her dress caught fire in 1839; a disgruntled worker is believed to have started a fire which gutted an addition in 1894; and the third floor attic was damaged in a fire in 2009. Today, the Ropes Mansion is owned by the Peabody Essex Museum.

General John Glover House (1762)

by Dan//Colonial, Houses, Marblehead

John Glover was a Marblehead fisherman and merchant who rose to the rank of general in the Revolutionary War. His schooner Hannah was the first of many privateers authorized by George Washington to raid British shipping. Glover‘s Marblehead militia became the 14th Continental Regiment, known as the “Amphibious Regiment,” which evacuated Washington’s Continental Army after it lost the Battle of Long Island. His seafaring men would again man the boats for Washington’s Crossing of the Delaware in 1776. John Glover’s gambrel-roofed house at 11 Glover Street in Marblehead was built in 1762.

Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead (1911)

by Dan//Churches, Colonial Revival, Marblehead

In 1716, parishioners of Marblehead’s Congregational Church who favored the liberal minister, Rev. Edward Holyoke, broke away to form the town’s Second Congregational Church. A church was soon built on New Meetinghouse Lane, now called Mugford Street. The church embraced Unitarianism in 1820, under the leadership of Rev. John Bartlett. A new church was built in 1831-1832, but it was destroyed in a fire in 1910. The current gambrel-roofed Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead was built in 1911 and was expanded to the rear in the 1960s, after the ancient graves immediately behind the church had been moved to new locations in the old graveyard.

Capt. Evans House (1730)

by Dan//Colonial, Houses, Marblehead

On State Street in Marblehead is a house built around 1730 for Samuel Nichols of Reading, a bricklayer. The house was later owned by Capt. Samuel Hooper, a ship-master and merchant. The house is traditionally called the Capt. Evans House, for Capt. Ebenezer Giles Evans, a noted Sea Captain. According to Old Marblehead Sea Captains and the Ships in Which They Sailed (1915), “Capt. Evans was lost in the “Corinna” on his passage from Cape Haytien to Boston in 1825.”