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17 Bentley Street
Salem
According to available evidence, this house was built for George Bowditch
Jr., Salem mason, in 1843.
On 18 July 1840, George Bowditch Jr., Salem bricklayer, for $393.75 purchased a
piece of land that fronted westerly 35' on "the way recently laid open," and
bounded southerly 80' on J.D. Green's land, easterly 35' on Hardy Street, and
northerly 80' on land of J.D. Green "now occupied by George Bowditch Sr." (ED
319:236). The seller of the land was James Diman Green of Cambridge, a
grandson of Rev. James Diman, who had owned the land in the 1700s. Mr.
Bowditch's lot was but a piece of Mr. Green's property in this vicinity. Mr.
Bowditch had this house built in 1843.
On 26 June 1843 for $500 George Bowditch Jr., Salem mason, mortgaged the
property to Epes Cogswell, a Salem carpenter (ED 337:280). Mr. Cogswell may
have been the building contractor for this house, whose foundation and chimneys
were almost certainly the work of Mr. Bowditch himself. In the mortgage deed,
Mr. Bowditch recited that it was the same land that he had purchased on 18 July
1840 but with the addition since then of "the new building thereon." This
mortgage would be discharged in January, 1852 (ED 337:280, margin).
George Bowditch Jr. was born in Salem on 20 June 1812, the son of a mariner,
George Bowditch, and Sarah (Stodder) Bowditch. The Bowditch family had deep
roots in Salem, being descended from William Bowditch, a West-of-England man
who came to Salem in the 1630s. George Bowditch Sr., who evidently resided on
Hardy Street, was a first cousin of Nathaniel Bowditch, the mathematical genius.
At the time of George Jr. 's birth, the War of 1812 was just beginning. Later,
George Sr. would become a grocer ("trader") and superintendent of Salem's
hearses.
George Jr. had five siblings. When he reached the age of 12 or so, in 1824, he
was evidently apprenticed to learn the trade of a mason or bricklayer. Typically,
he would have gone to live in his master's house, with another apprentice or two;
and for several years he would work in exchange for room, board, clothing, and
knowledge of his trade. At a certain point, he would be paid somewhat for his
work, and by the age of twenty or so he would become a journeyman, free to
work for himself or whomever he chose. A bricklayer built foundations and
chimneys, while a mason did the same but also plastered walls. He probably
became a journeyman in 1832. He would remain a bachelor for another 11 years,
residing in the family home on Hardy Street.
�In 1832, Salem was losing its luster as a great seaport. After the War of 1812,
Salem merchants had rebuilt their merchant fleet and prosecuted a worldwide
trade, to great effect. A new custom house was built in 1819, at the head of Derby
Wharf. Through the 1820s the foreign trade continued prosperous; but at the end
of that decade, Salem's maritime commerce sank rapidly.
The new railroads and canals in the 1830s diverted both capital and trade away
from the coast. American goods were now being produced at a level where
imports were not so much needed as in the past, and the interior of the country
was being opened for settlement. People moved west, including some from
Salem, and the economic attention of the merchants turned westward with them.
Manufacturing and the railroads now attracted Salem's capital, and many of the
more notable merchants moved to Boston, the center of investment in these nonmaritime industries. The Eastern Rail Road (a Salem-based enterprise) began
operating between Salem and Boston in 1838; the tracks ran right over the middle
of the Mill Pond. Salem did engage in some manufacturing-leather, shoes,
textiles--but not on the scale of the factory towns of Lowell, Lawrence, and
Haverhill, with their mills driven by the powerful waters of the Merrimack.
George Bowditch Jr. evidently found plenty of work in the "declining" Salem of
his adulthood. Factories and shops were being built, and houses as well, and all
needed chimneys and foundations. While great fortunes were no longer being
made in Salem, a contractor like Mr. Bowditch could make a good living. George
Bowditch Jr. married Margaret S. Brown in July, 1843; and, between 1844 and
1861, they would have four children, only one of whom, Thomas, born in 1849,
survived to adulthood.
The Salem Directories show George Bowditch Jr., "mason," residing on Hardy
Street in 1836 and 1842, and on Bentley Street in 1846. In the 1860s and 1870s
this house was numbered 9 Bentley; in 1888 it was renumbered 17. Bentley
Street was named for the Rev. William Bentley, the long-time beloved pastor of
Salem's North Church (in this neighborhood on Essex Street; now gone), whose
diary (published) gives a portrait of life in Salem from the 1790s into the 1820s.
In May, 1844, Mr. Bowditch purchased a strip of land to the south of the
homestead. It was 5' wide and ran from street to street.
Somewhat stubbornly, Salem's waning merchant class pursued their business on
the sea; but as the years went by the conditions of shipping changed, and Salem
was left on the ebb tide. In the late 1840s, giant clipper ships replaced the smaller
ships that Salem men had sailed around the world; and the clippers, with their
deep drafts and large holds, were usually too large for Salem and its harbor. The
town's shipping soon consisted of little more than visits from Down East coasters
with cargoes of fuel wood and building timber. By 1850 Salem was finished as a
working port; and its glory days were over. An excellent picture of Salem's
waterfront, during its period of decline from glory, is given by Hawthorne in his
�"introductory section" (really a sketch of Salem) to The Scarlet Letter, which he
began while working in the nearby Custom House and completed at home on
Mall Street off the Common.
In 1850 (per census, house 127) George Bowditch, 33 (really 37), mason, resided
here with his wife, Margaret, 28, and their son, Thomas, two. Their nearest
neighbors were families also headed by carpenters and masons.
In October, 1853, Mr. Bowditch purchased another piece of land, to the south of
the homestead. It was 16' wide and ran from street to street. On this new piece of
land, he soon built a new house (#19 Bentley) by moving in an older building and
adding a new section. He turned the new house over to his aged parents, who
lived on until 1862 (death of George) and 1867 (death of Sarah). Therefore, the
families of George Bowditch Sr. and George Bowditch Jr. lived side-by-side (see
1860 census, houses 1175 and 1176; in it, GB Jr. is mistakenly listed as "master
mariner," a slip-up for "master mason").
In the early 1860s, while the Civil War (1861-1865) was being fought, Mr.
Bowditch began instructing his only son, Thomas Bowditch, in the mason's trade.
After the Civil War, Salem fully re-tooled as an industrial center, with good
success. The symbol of its new economy was the large twin-towered granite train
station, which stood at the foot of Washington Street, where it had joined the
inner harbor. Beginning in the 1840s, the Salem capitalists had built factories that
soon filled with Irish immigrant workers as well as the native-born. Salem's
water-oriented downtown area remained intact, or nearly so, for most of the 19th
century, although no more did square-rigged ships visit the wharves along the
inner harbor (the South River, which ran from Derby Wharf to where the Post
Office now is). The railroad had been built across the middle of the beautiful Mill
Pond, which extended, from the inner harbor all the way to Loring Avenue, in a
broad sheet of water between what are now called Canal Street and Jefferson
Avenue. In the early 20th century, both of these ancient bodies of water would
vanish, as they were filled in and buried beneath streets, storage areas, junk-yards,
rail-yards, and parking lots.
As late as 1869 Thomas Bowditch, mason, resided here with his parents. By the
1870s he had moved to the old family house on Hardy Street, where he and his
family would remain for many years. George Bowditch continued in the mason
business for the rest of his life, with his mason's shop behind this house, on the
part of his land that fronted on Hardy Street (14 1h Hardy Street).
George and Margaret Bowditch grew old here. Mrs. Bowditch died in the 1880s,
evidently. Mr. Bowditch, at the very end of life, evidently moved in with his son
Thomas & family at 6 Hardy Street, where he died on June 2, 1893, in the 79th
year of life. From his obituary: "George Bowditch Jr., one of the oldest and bestknown 'down-town residents,' so called, died at his home on Hardy Street last
�evening. Mr. B. was in his 7gth year. He was a mason by trade, and had always
lived and been closely identified with the lower part of the city. He was a
thoroughly good man, straightforward in all his dealings and unusually respected
by all who knew him. His wife died some years ago." His remains were interred
at Harmony Grove cemetery with Rev. O.A. Hillard officiating and with a wreath
from the Salem Veteran Fireman's Association, of which he had doubtless been a
member.
The property was inherited by Thomas Bowditch of Hardy Street. He did not
reside here, but used this house for rental income. In 1897 it was occupied by
John Greene, a gardener, and family: wife Ellen, and sons Frank (laborer) and
David (clerk). John Greene died on 1 May 1898, aged 57 years. His wife and son
Frank continued to reside here in 1900 and beyond. The Great Fire of June, 1914,
which destroyed much of south part of the City of Salem, did not affect this
neighborhood, although it burned down everything in sight just across the canal
from Derby Wharf at the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company (now called
Shetland Park).
Thomas Bowditch died by 1916. He devised his property to his wife Annie,
daughter Mrs. May Johnson, and son George S. Bowditch. On 12 June 1916
these devisees sold the land and buildings, 17-19 Bentley Street, to Martin &
Antonina Witkos (ED 2334:65). The Witkoses resided in #17 and rented out #19.
Mr. Witkos ran a grocery store at 126 Derby Street, which he conducted until his
death in 1932. The property remained in the Witkos family until 1978, when this
house and its lot were set off as Lot E in a partition of property.
--Robert Booth, 23 Oct. 2000, for Historic Salem Inc.
���!I
·11
2 /} ().
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bentley Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
17 Bentley Street, Salem, MA 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built for George Bowditch, Jr. Salem Mason 1843
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1843, 2000
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Robert Booth
Language
A language of the resource
English
1843
2000
Booth
Bowditch
George
mason
Robert
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af28670d1c6c3784b5ef9dea61d95bfc
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Hardy Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
6 Hardy Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built for Daniel C. Bowditch, shipwright 1844
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1844, 1994
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Larry Davis
Language
A language of the resource
English
1844
1994
6
Bowditch
Daniel
Davis
Hardy
Larry
Massachusetts
Salem
Shipwright
Street
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c92f40ee2c3eb2575268d3fc6def3c5e
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Cambridge Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
1.5 Cambridge Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built c. 1740 for Samuel Curwen, Merchant
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house history
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1740, 2000
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Robert Booth
Language
A language of the resource
English
1 1/2 Cambridge
1.5
1740
Bowditch
Cambridge
Curwen
Federal
Georgian
merchant
Samuel
Samuel Curwen
wood
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Turner Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
42 Turner Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Ebenezer Bowditch, goldsmith, by 1814
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1814, 1975
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Dee
Language
A language of the resource
English
1814
1975
42
Bowditch
Dee
Ebenezer
Massachusetts
Salem
Turner