1
100
4
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/28828/archive/files/9ee4b23fb6ecba7ec1464407a75252b2.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=c2rV3BGvPyyAA77i0yFlz5oxHWx%7EH8uNYccL2l9RXo4dHM%7Eq5WYMahPWCKgFf1BCujlvOIFxIZFHM0hg5O6tVoeMKqUctE2lAgKQl-ebfny1nY8Oe7kZzV1tWhB9naYgszpNRSYYKRfyyDp1iTSrmT9nBPUWQlx205cXzl%7EwTPILR-nvGv8OKYDjcHXoL0fv62t%7Eq6nWL-j029SL6MKcbFztyDNVStfVtcZFn81bP9HFA7%7E8LiYfzKMaD7a2of4VE%7EwXiOsMdVSc8tZ-8rI0XVuNOf%7Eq-8jS1g--OiLThL-QlDPrJXeiSIIOwbM4fFm%7EvMlbpnBeAm6ySs2IDQgfdA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
a9462a2900ce000d203f1490899024f2
PDF Text
Text
4-10 Central Street & 193-195 Essex Street, Salem
According to available evidence, this building was built in 1805 for the merchants
B. Herbert Hathorne and W. Shepard Gray, as a brick block that housed stores
and a residence.
Before 1805 ...
Sidney Perley, in the article "A Part of Salem in 1700" (pp.109-110, Essex
Antiquarian, vol. 11 ), writes that on the site of this building was the lot, with house,
that William Browne sold to Thomas Cromwell, tailor, in 1664. After Cromwell's
death (17 March 1686/7), in 1690 his widow, Ann, and two daughters, Mrs.
Jonathan (Jane) Pickering and Mrs. David (Ann) Phippen, sold the house and land to
Benjamin Browne, merchant (ED 8: 170), who had a stable and warehouse farther
down the street, and his shipping wharf at its foot. By 1693 he had sold the house
and its land to David Phippen, shipwright, son-in-law of the earlier owner Mr.
Cromwell. M~. Phippen died in 1703, leaving his widow Ann, son Thomas Phippen,
and daughters Abigail Fumeux, Anne Ropes, and Elizabeth Webb. In May, 1714,
John Brown, merchant, bought the house and land; and by the time of his death in
1719 the house was evidently gone.
This property was owned by Hon. Benjamin Browne at his death in 1750.
In the 1760s a Scotch sailor, Robert Rantoul, came to Salem and settled here. He
prospered as a shipmaster, and sailed against the British in the Revolution, and made
money as a privateer; and, toward the end of the Revolutionary War, Capt. Rantoul,
on 5 December 1782 for 850 Ii purchased from the heirs of Hon. Benjamin Browne
(John & Martha Browne and Timothy & Eunice Fitch) a lot and buildings at the
westerly corner of the "main street" (Essex) and "the lane leading to the water"
(Central), about 20 poles of land fronting 50' northerly on the street, and 120'
easterly on the lane. There was "a warehouse or small building standing on the
northeast comer thereof." Capt. Rantoul intended to build his residence thereon, and
on Dec. 20th contracted with Eleazer Lindsey to supply the rocks for a cellar 40'
square and 6.5' deep. Unfortunately, Capt. Rantoul was lost at sea on his next
voyage (see EIHC 5:147).
At that time, Central Street--"the lane leading to the water," also known as "the
street leading from the Sun tavern to the South River"-terminated in a public
�landing on the inner harbor (South River), at a point just south of its present
intersection with Charter and Front Streets. The "lane" became Market Street as of
1794, when, at the foot of the street, a new market building was erected for the sale
of fish, shellfish, meat, and produce from the countryside. Later it would be renamed Central Street, probably c.1816, when a new Market Building was built at
Derby Square.
The comer property remained in the ownership of the Rantoul family for many
years; and on the land stood at least one house and three shops, one of them being
the small warehouse mentioned in the 1782 deed to Capt. Rantoul. The Rantoul
family resided on Essex Street, opposite Union. Robert Rantoul (1778-1858), in a
memoir of his life and family, mentions his father's ownership of this property and
notes that it was sold in November, 1804, to W.S. Gray and B.H. Hathorne for
$8500, and that "Gray and Hathorne build a brick block of stores and houses upon
it" (EIHC 5:149). This statement is corroborated by Benjamin F. Browne, in his
Youthfitl Recollections of Salem, published in 1869 (EIHC 49:204), in which he
wrote that a house had been "removed (to Andrew Street) from Central Street to
make room for the Central building, erected by W.S. Gray and Benj. H. Hathorne, in
1805. This house belonged to "Joseph Young, hatter, and organist of St Peter's
Church, who died April 21, 1803, aged 46." In another piece, B.F. Browne wrote,
"Previous to the erection of the Central Building in 1805, there were several old
wooden buildings on this lot of land ... The western shop I principally remember as
being kept by a Mrs. Baldwin. Nathaniel Weston had a shoemaker's shop in one of
them. It (Mrs. Baldwin's) was much resorted to by the boys of that time for the
purchase of marbles and other knickknacks. The old lady came to an untimely end
(March, 1808) from eating bread in the meal of which some arsenic had been
incautiously used in the bread. Joseph Young had a hatter's shop and dwelling
house on Central Street. It was moved to Andrew Street ... " (EIHC 5: 197).
There are other records of the buildings that stood here before 1805. Samuel Webb,
silversmith, had a shop here on Central Street, pre-1805 (see B.F. Browne, 1869
Youthful Recollections of Salem, EIHC 49:204). And in his 1793 Account ofHouses
in Salem (EIHC 6:94), Benjamin Pickman mentions that, on land owned by the
widow "Rentall" (Rantoul), stood, on Essex Street, a shop owned by Mr. William
King. To the west of that shop had stood two small houses that had burned down in
1792. To the west of those houses, on Essex Street, stood the house of Dr. Edward
Augustus Holyoke (1728-1829). East of the King shop, also on land ofMrs.
Rantoul, stood a "hatter's shop, owned by Mr. Breck the hatter." Col. Pickman
identified the comer property as "formerly owned by the Brownes."
�In July, 1792, Edward Breck, Salem hatter, purchased for 15 Ii the east end of a
house that was "standing on the land ofRentall's heirs" (ED 154:265). The house
was the one that was owned by Joseph Young, hatter, who may have resided in its
westerly end, and who had mortgage the easterly end in 1787 and lost it on
foreclosure. Mr. Breck mortgaged his new homestead to Mrs. Mary Rantoul for 3 0
li, and paid off the loan by April, 1795 (ED 154:266).
Rev. William Bentley, in his diary, gives an account of the 1792 fire, on August 30th.
The fire broke out at 1 PM in Young's hatter's shop, which stood opposite the Sun
Tavern (on north side of Essex Street). Next to the shop were the small dwellings of
the widows Beckford and Manning. The season had been dry, and the firefighters
were disorganized: the fire spread westerly from the shop to the "small house" next
door, which could not be saved; and the firefighters quicldy demolished the house
next westerly, to keep the fire from spreading. Mrs. Manning in particular suffered
greatly from her losses in this fire. Mr. Bentley was one of the fire-fighters, and, in
order to get the water up to the fire, stood waist-deep in "the dock mud below the
Sun Tavern," meaning next to the wharf at the foot of Market Street.
From this, it would appear that, in the years before the present Hathorne-Gray block
was built, there was a hatter's shop at or near the comer of Essex and Market
(Central) in 1793, conducted by both Breck and Young, and that the Breck-Young
house on Market Street was removed to Andrew Street in 1805 to make way for the
building of this large new business block. Also on or near the comer was the shop
of the ill-fated Mrs. Baldwin. On Essex Street, west of the corner, also on the site of
this building, was the shop of William King; and to the south, on Market Street, was
Samuel Webb's silversmith shop, along with the shoemaker's shop ofNathaniel
Weston. Too, Samuel Rantoul, son of the deceased owner, kept an apothecary shop
here. Samuel died in June, 1802, while away from Salem. Bentley noted in his
diary, 13 June 1802, "The father of S. Rantoul sustained an excellent character and
died just before I came to Salem. His widow lived in the same house in which I first
dwelt. The father left a good interest and to his heirs belongs the western comer of
Market Street in Essex Street, at which Samuel kept an apothecary's shop. Robert
keeps an apothecary's shop in Beverly." Robert, after whom Rantoul Street in
Beverly is named, became a leading man of Essex County.
Before April, 1800, the store at the comer of the two streets was operated by john
Dabney, stationer, as a post office and a book store-one of the earliest attempts at a
private lending library, which was renowned for the excellence of its volumes. On 29
April 1800 for $400 Mr. Dabney sold his building, on the Rantouls' land, to Robe1i
Rantoul (ED 168 :69).
�1805 and Afterward ...
On 3 November 1804 the Rantoul heirs sold the premises here for $8,500 to William
Shepard Gray and Benjamin Herbe1i Hathorne, Salem merchants (ED 175: 108). The
property was described as a piece of land containing about 20 poles, bounded northerly
on Essex Street, easterly on market Street, and southerly and westerly on land of Dr.
Edward A. Holyoke; and it was stipulated that the Rantouls "and others who have
placed and have buildings standing on said piece of land," had "the right to move the
same buildings and each of them from the same place of land upon paying the ground
rent ... within four months from this day." Presumably the Rantouls and the others did
clear their buildings off the land by February, 1805; certainly the Young house was
moved to Andrew Street and perhaps the shops and other buildings also found new
sites.
The new owners, Messrs. Gray & Hathorne, on the day of the purchase, took out
mortgages from Miss Polly Rantoul of Salem for $2,833.33 and from her brother,
Robert Rantoul, Beverly apothecary, for $4,666.66 (ED 175:108,109). Thus the
merchants had but $1,000 in equity invested in the property at the time of purchase.
There is little doubt that Messrs. Gray & Hathorne had big plans for the site at the time
that they bought it. Perhaps they had gone to Samuel Mcintire, the noted Salem
architect, for a design for their intended brick business block, which also included at
least one residential unit. In his study of the works of Mcintire, Fiske Kimball was
unable to uncover proof ofMcintire's involvement in the project, but, due to the
carving of the eagle for one of the new tenants, the U.S. Custom House, and due to the
building's similarity to a known Mcintire composition (the Steams & Waldo block,
now gone, once at the n01iheast coiner of Essex & Washington), he felt that Samuel
Mcintire was likely the designer (see Kimball's Mr. Samuel Mcintire, Carver, The
Architect of Salem). Kimball also traces the whereabouts of some of the building's
interior fittings, which were dispersed to various houses over the years.
For Mr. Gray, the building was evidently an investment and an income-producer; for
Mr. Hathorne, it was also the new home of his import dry-goods business. Benjamin H.
Hathorne (1773-1824) dealt in British textiles-blankets and cloths-in the days when
there were virtually no textiles manufactured in America. On Oct. 2, 1805, he
submitted an adve1iisement to the Salem Register newspaper. The notice began, "Benj.
H. Hathorne Has Removed to the New Brick STORE, corner of Essex and Market
Street, near the Banks, and has ready for sale, a great variety of Fall and Winter
Goods," which are enumerated. The building was completed and occupied, then, by
�September of 1805. It was not at first called the Central Building, but was given that
name by 1808.
Another early tenant was the firm of Derby & Cross, tailors, whose store was here by
Nov. 28, 1805. Their advertisement (sample: Salem Register, 6 Jan. 1806) ran "Derby
& Cross, Tailors, respectfully inform their friends and the public, that they have
removed from their former stand to the chamber fronting Market and Essex Streets, of
the new brick building, where they will be happy to receive orders in their line, and
every favor gratefully acknowledged. Wanted: Two Journeymen at the above."
A major tenant of the new brick building was the U.S. Custom House, for which
Samuel Mcintire carved the eagle with the date 1805. At that time, Market Street was
the major thoroughfare to the waterside of the inner harbor (South River), which ran
past the market place; and the area was thick with the masts of vessels tied up alongside
wharves and warehouses. Froin the foot of Market Street, Front Street ran westerly
along the waterfront, while Fish Street and Water Streets ran past the buildings whose
yards backed against the wall of the Burying Point graveyard. These salty streets had
houses, wharves, stores, lofts, shops, and distilleries. Market Street made the transition
from the hurly-burly of the waterfront to the residences and stores of Essex Street. On
the lower part of Market Street, between the new Hathorne-Gray building and Front
Street, were houses; and across the street were fine houses (including some marching up
Charter Street), a tavern, and a bank building and insurance office. At the moment that
the new building was built, one of the houses across the street was the double residence
of Nathaniel Bowditch, the navigator and author (and new president of an insurance
company) and Col. William Raymond Lee, formerly of Marblehead, whom Jefferson
had in 1802 appointed Collector of the Port of Salem & Beverly, and at whose direction
the U.S. Custom House was moved to the new brick building of Hathorne & Gray.
Bowditch moved in the year 1805 to Summer Street, but Col. Lee remained a resident
of Market Street.
The colonial (royal) Custom House in Salem had been situated in a house on Gedney
Court, off High Street, and later on Essex Street in a building that was demolished to
prevent the spread of the great fire of October, 1774. In 1776 Warwick Palfrey was
appointed the first Collector of U.S. Customs in Salem; and his office was located at or
near the Curwen house (now called the "Witch House"), corner of Essex and North
Streets. lvir. Palfrey was succeeded in 1784 by Maj. Joseph Hiller. Major Hiller served
ably for 18 years, during the last 13 of which the Custom House offices were kept in a
building across the street from the site of this one. How many rooms here were devoted
to the federal Customs operations in 1805 is not known; certainly not the whole
building. In those days, Salem was one of the leading ports of the nation, and the value
�of Salem cargoes accounted for about one-twentieth of all federal revenues, which were
largely derived from tariffs on foreign imports. At that time, Salem's merchants owned
a total of 54 ships, 18 barks, and 72 brigs (there were 86 schooners as well, probably
engaged in fishing and coasting for wood).
In 1807, per D.M. Little's article, the Custom House offices were moved to the house of
Mr. Bentley's great friend Dr. Moses Little at 131 Essex Street, and in 1811 to the
Archer Building (site of Hawthorne Hotel); however, I believe this could not be
completely true, for in May, 1809, just after the Embargo was lifted, the Custom House
offices were evidently on the second or third floor of the Central (Hathorne-Gray)
Building (see 1809 Peter Lander advertisement below). In 1813, per the article, the
Custom House offices were moved back into the Central Building here; and evidently
Col. William R. Lee, the Collector, also had his residence here. The Central Building
here remained the home of the Custom House until the opening of the new building at
the head of Derby Wharf, the handsome brick U.S. Custom House, now part of the
federal maritime park. (For information about the Custom House and Collectors, see
R.S. Rantoul's article, The Port of Salem, EIHC 10:62; see also EIHC 67:11, David M.
Little's article, History of the Salem Custom House)).
Of the owners of the building, their careers were in full swing as of 1805.
Benjamin Herbert Hathorne (1773-1824) was born on 9 Sept 1773, the son of Col. John
Hathorne and his wife Susannah Herbert, the daughter of Capt. Benjamin Herbert, after
whom Herbert Street was named. His father was a prominent merchant in Salem, with
a large brick house built in 1774-1775 in Essex Street west of Washington Street, which
is where Benjamin grew up, the eldest of 14 children. In the house was Col. Hathome's
dry-goods store (EIHC 6:108). By early manhood, Benjamin H. was known as Herbert
Hathorne. His brothers John and William were merchants as well, and his eccentric
younger brother Ebenezer (1789-1858) would become a mariner and adventurer who
went west but finally settled down in Salem as a farmer and nurseryman. The Colonel,
a prominent local Jeffersonian politician, had his town house and a farmhouse on Salem
Neck, around where the power plant complex now is. In 1809 he moved permanently
to the farmhouse (where he would die in 1835), and sold the town house to his son
William, who rented it to Joshua Dodge in 1809. Like all Salem Hathornes of that time,
Benjamin's father was descended from Col. John Hathorne, one of the justices of the
witchcraft trials in 1692. The Hathorne family had been prominent in early Salem
history, but by 1800 they were of varying fortunes. Col. John's branch was foremost.
One of Benjamin Herbert Hathorne's first cousins was Capt. Nathaniel Hathorne (17751808), of Union Street, whose son, Nathaniel Jr., born in 1804, would grow up to
�become Hawthorne, the writer. Hawthorne changed the spelling of the name because
he did not like the way that "Hathorne" was pronounced, especially in Salem, where it
was invariably pronounced "Har-thorne."
On 31 July 1799, "Herbert Harthorne married Miss Hall", per the diary of Miss Susann
Holyoke (1779-1860) (see Holyoke Diaries, p.175). This is the only record of this
marriage. Miss Hall was Rebecca Hall, evidently from Boston. The couple would not
have children, but would adopt a daughter, Rebecca Hathorne Hall, born in 1813,
evidently a daughter of Mrs. Hall's brother James. As has been noted, B. Herbert
Hathorne went into business as a dry goods merchant, importing English textiles and
selling them here in his shop, which faced on Essex Street. In March, 1808, for $5,000
he mortgaged his half-interest in the land and the "large brick tenement thereon ...
known by the name of Central building" (ED 182:233).
Wm. Shepard Gray (1773-1824), the other owner of the building, was born in Salem on
30 July 1773, the son of a house-painter, William Gray, and his wife Susannah Shepard.
His father owned a house on the north side of Charter Street, not far from Central
Street. The son changed his name by an act of the legislature in 1798, from William to
William Shepard Gray, because there were five other William Grays in Salem at the
time, including William "Billy" Gray, the eminent merchant, to whom this Gray was
not related. Wm. Shepard Gray married Ann Knight Morland in Newburyport in 1798.
In August, 1800, he was described as "a scribe" when he purchased a piece of land and
a house on upper Federal Street. In 1805 it seems that he worked for the Essex Bank,
preparing loan documents and other instruments. He would later become a ship-owner
and merchant while maintaining his position with the Essex Bank.
In 1805 a bridge was built across the South River, extending Market Street across the
water and connecting it with a new roadway (now known as Lafayette Street) through
the South Fields. The new bridge, which was proposed by the Derby family as a
convenience and in order to help develop their South Salem holdings, was opposed by
the Crowninshields and by William Orne, Joshua Ward, and others who owned wharves
west of it on the South River. At the time of the building of the bridge, evidently, the
market house was moved away.
On 3 November 1807 William Bentley made his first visit to the Hathorne-Gray
building, which now housed the Essex Lodge of Masons. The Lodge, he noted, "has a
new hall in the new brick building, comer of Essex & Market Streets, on the west side
entering Market Street. It was handsomely decorated, the officers enthroned and the
floors spread with carpets and the officers supplied with badges and the apartment with
furniture far above the ancient style. I had never seen the place before. We had a full
�company, an initiation lecture, and a good supper, and parted apparently well pleased
with each other."
On 12 December 1808, Rev. William Bentley composed a letter to William Logan of
Charleston, in which he wrote, "Were you to visit Salem, you would discover great
changes in this town, since your last tarry with us. The encouragement given to brick
buildings has added much to the appearance of Salem. A large block of buildings forms
the comer of1'farket Street, and the market house is removed, and a bridge passes over
South River ... " (EIHC 82:381). This was the period of the Embargo, in which all
foreign commerce was prohibited by the federal government, in an effort to cut off
England from needed supplies, and force the English to stop preying on American
shipping. The Embargo, which was a policy failure and which was disastrous in
bringing all of Salem's commerce to a halt, and throwing all of the mariners out of
work, was removed early in 1809; and foreign commerce resumed.
In May, 1809, Peter Lander, a financial broker, moved into the building, which was
then known as the Central Building. On 10 May 1809 (in the Essex Register
newspaper), a notice ran as follows:
"Insurance, Stock & Exchange Office. Peter Lander informs his friends and the
public that he has taken an office in Central Building, under the Custom House,
and offers his services in the Insurance Stock & Exchange business, where
insurance may be made against all risks, a premium always named proportioned
to the nature of the risk, and the terms and conditions of insurance known upon
application. Likewise, (he) advances money on goods deposited for sale,
purchases and sells public stocks, bills of exchange, shares of any bank and
insurance companies, and negotiable notes, and transacts any other business in
the broker's line."
He also noted "8,000 or 10,000 weight heft green Martinique coffee in casks, for sale
by said Lander."
In the same issue William Hathorne, Jr., ran advertisements offering his father's former
brick house and two stores for sale, and hawking
"Cotton Yam, cheap as can be had at the Manufactory. American, water-spun,
cotton warp & filling, directly from the Smithfield Cotton Manufactory, for sale
at the sign of the subscriber, William Hathorne, Jr., also a small quantity of first
quality knitting yam."
From this, it is apparent that William dealt (sometimes, anyway) in the new Americanmade cotton yams manufactured in Rhode Island; and he had a store here. In 1810,
�another tenant was the Salem Athenaeum, whose library of books and reading rooms
were located here.
In June, 1810, Mr. W. Shepard Gray was owner of the 113-ton brig Mary, Capt.
William Scallon, engaged in foreign trade; and in October, 1810, .Nir. Gray and Robert
.Nforland (his brother-in-law perhaps) were owners of the same vessel, now commanded
by Capt. William Lander (EIHC 41 :144). In December, 1810, he and two others owned
the 133-ton schooner Eliza, registered for foreign trade under Capt. Nathaniel Archer
(EIHC 40:72). In February, 1811, Mr. Gray was one of five owners of the 128-ton
schooner Rising States, Capt. Samuel Lamson, engaged in foreign trade (EIHC 41 :329).
In March, 1812, he was sole owner of the Rising States, Capt. Peter Lander, registered
for overseas trade (EIHC 41 :329). And in September, 1812, he was owner of the brig
Mary, registered for trade under Capt. Benjamin Archer (EIHC 41: 144).
Messrs. Hathorne and Gray owned the building jointly until 16 January 1811, when
they made a division of the property, with Gray receiving the largest portion (ED
192:198). To Hathorne went $500 and the northern end of the lot, with the buildings on
and cellar under, fronting 33' on Market Street, the running 40' westerly through the
northerly partition wall, then running another 10' on a piece of land left in common,
then running northerly 29' by land of Edward A. Holyoke Esq., then running easterly
50' on Essex Street, together with a right of the eaves droppings at the south side of the
southwesterly comer of the buildings (probably for a supply of fresh water). The
partition wall separated the two parts of the building, but did not extend through the
roof; if it were to be so extended, the two parties agreed to bear equal expense. To Gray
went $10 and the southern part of the premises, on which stood the "dwelling house,
stores, and other buildings, and the cellars under the same," and the land fronting
easterly 87' on Market Street, southerly 50' and westerly 82' on land of Edward A.
Holyoke Esq., then running easterly 1O' on the land left in common, then running
northerly 9' to the northerly partition wall, then easterly through the wall to Market
Street. From this, it would seem that part of the southerly part of the building was used
as a residence. Mr. Gray evidently did not live there, but resided in a new house that he
had built on Federal Street. As the son of a house-painter, he had made an
extraordinary leap upward in socio-economic rank.
Salem had resumed its seafaring commerce for three years, but still the British
preyed on American shipping; and in June, 1812, war was declared against Britain.
Although Salem had opposed the war as being potentially ruinous and primarily
for the benefit of the southern and western war-hawk states, yet when it came,
Salem swiftly fitted out 40 privateers manned by Marblehead and Salem crews,
who also served on U.S. Navy vessels, including the Constitution. Many more
�could have been sent against the British, but some of the Federalist merchants held
their vessels back. In addition, Salem fielded companies of infantry and artillery.
Salem and Marblehead privateers were largely successful in making prizes of
British supply vessels. While many of the town's men were wounded in
engagements, and some were killed, the possible riches of privateering kept the
men returning to sea as often as possible. The first prizes were captured by a 30ton converted fishing schooner, the Fame, and by a 14-ton luxury yacht fitted with
one gun, the Jefferson. Of all Salem privateers, the Crowninshields' 350-ton ship
America was the most successful. She would capture 30-plus prizes worth more
than $1,100,000.
Salem erected forts and batteries on its Neck, to discourage the British warships
that cruised these waters. In June, 1813, off Marblehead Neck, the British frigate
Shannon defeated the U.S. Navy frigate Chesapeake. Salem's Federalists, some
of whom continued to oppose ..the war bitterly, would not allow their churches to be
used for the funeral of the Chesapeake's slain commander, James Lawrence
("Don't give up the ship!").
In the fall of 1813, Cushing & Appleton evidently had a bookstore in the comer
store in Mr. Hathome's part of the building. On 12 October 1813 in the Salem
Gazette, Cushing & Appleton advertised the sale of Spanish cigars and of Oliver
vVelch's new book, American Arithmetic, "adapted to the currency of the U.S.,
to which is added a concise treatise on the mensuration of planes and solids ... "
At the same store was a subscription list for those who wished to sign up for Mr.
Vincent Masi's new "school for dancing." John Fermo, broker, probably with
offices in the Central Building at the time, placed this ad (Gazette, 12 Oct. 1813):
"For Sale. Shares in Mercantile Bank. Shares in Salem Bank. Shares in
Beverly Bank. Apply to John W. Fermo, Broker, who buys and sells bills of
all incorporated banks in the Union. U.S. Treasury Notes negotiated. Also,
approved endorsed Notes, at Bank discount. Wanted: shares in Salem
Turnpike, and a Mass. State Note for $1000 or $1200. Exchange on
Baltimore for sale as above."
In April, 1814, the people gathered along the shores of Salem Neck as three sails
appeared on the horizon and came sailing on for Salem Bay. These vessels proved
to be the mighty Constitution in the lead, pursued by the smaller British frigates
Tenedos and Endymion. The breeze was light, and the British vessels gained, but
Old Ironsides made it safely into Marblehead Harbor, to the cheers of thousands.
�In June, 1814, at the meeting of the Essex Guards militia company, W. Shepard
Gray was elected lieutenant, but he declined to serve (EIHC 57:257). On 4 July
1814 the Essex Guards paraded through Salem, and Mr. Gray served as one of
the four Marshals of the Day, with an oration delivered by Leverett Saltonstall
(EIHC 57:268).
On land, the war went poorly for the United States, as the British captured
Washington, DC, and burned the Capitol and the White House. At sea, as time
wore on, Salem's vessels often were captured, and its men imprisoned or killed.
After almost three years, the war was bleeding the town dry, and the menfolk were
disappearing. Hundreds of Salem men and boys were in British prison-ships and at
Dartmoor Prison in England. At the Hartford Convention in 1814, New England
Federalist delegates met to consider what they could do to bring the war to a. close
and to restore the region's commerce. Sen. Timothy Pickering of Salem led the
extreme Federalists in proposing an ultimatum threatening New England's
seceding from the United States; but the Pickering faction was countered by
Harrison G. Otis of Boston and the moderate Federalists, who prevailed in sending
a more reasonable message to Congress.
At last, in February, 1815, peace was restored. Post-war, the Salem merchants
rebuilt their fleets and resumed their worldwide trade, slowly at first, and then to
great effect. A new U.S. Custom House would be built in 1819, on the site of the
George Crowninshield mansion, at the head of Derby Wharf.
In the spring of 1815, Jonathan P. Saunders, auctioneer, town clerk (later if not then),
and map-maker, had his office at the Central Building. On 19 April 1815 in the Essex
Register he advertised for sale "at J.P. Saunders' Store, Central Building, Market Street,
the sale of the library of the late Rev. Thomas Barnard (appended to this report). In
1820 he would publish his "Plan of the Town of Salem," an excellent chart of the city,
its streets, and landmarks.
In the fall of 1815, one of the major tenants of the building was R. F. Cloutman,
who dealt in glass, crockery, and hard-ware (see appended advertisement, 25 Oct.
1815, Essex Register). His stock consisted of everything from fish-hooks to
spectacles to shovels to elegant tea-trays, decanters, tumblers, dinner-ware. He
was still running his ads in November, 1816: "at his old stand, Central Building,"
he offered "a full assortment of crockery, china, glass, and hardware," including
tea sets, Canton and London dining sets, sickles, cutlery, pins, viol strings, Dutch
brushes, coffee mills, English shovels, etc. (appended to this report).
�The pre-war partisan politics of the town were not resumed post-war, as the
middle-class "mechanics" (artisans) became more powerful. and brought about
civic harmony, largely through the Salem Charitable Mechanic Association
(founded 1817). Salem men continued to hold high places in the federal
government: Benjamin W. Crowninshield was formerly Secretary of the Navy,
among other things. It was he who arranged for Rev. William Bentley to have his
portrait painted by James Frothingham, who was then residing in Salem. In his
diary, Bentley noted that on 20 Nov. 1818 Mr. Crowninshield escorted him to "the
apartments of a painter named Frothingham, from Charlestown," where they saw
several fine portraits and some paper profiles. Bentley, evidently impressed,
agreed to sit for Frothingham. On Nov. 23 he recorded that he went "to Mr.
Frothingham' s at the Central buildings ... and had my first sitting" that evening.
The result was a famous portrait (now displayed in East India Marine Hall at the
Peabody Essex Museum) of Mr. Bentley, one of the most extraordinary men of his
time. Later, James Frothingham had his studio on Essex Street; and in 1825 or so
he moved to Boston, and then to New York City.
In 1818 there was still good money to be made in Salem's maritime trade, but it
required a higher level of skill and perspicacity than it had in 1805. As Bentley
wrote in his diary in 1811, "While we (in Salem) went before the wind, credit was
boundless and success followed every adventurer. Since the wind has changed,
few have skill enough to navigate the troubled seas." Evidently Mr. Hathorne had
the right stuff; but Mr. Gray's skills were of a different sort.
W. Shepard Gray, as cashier of the Essex Bank for many years, was in a position
of high trust in Salem: he was, in effect, the manager of the Bank, and had access
to all of its assets, some of which were in the form of coins and specie put on
deposit by merchants and shipmasters. One depositor was Maj. Israel Foster of
Marblehead, a prominent merchant and relative of Col. W.R. Lee, the Collector of
Customs in Salem (and possibly the inhabitant of the residential part of the central
Building). Maj. Foster had deposited a large barrel of specie with the Essex Bank.
In the summer of 1818, W. Shepard Gray took an extended vacation away from
Salem. Eventually, the Bank directors became suspicious. Early in September,
1818, they concluded that the Bank had been robbed. At the time, Bentley wrote
in his diary (Sept. 5), "every inquiry detects the most fraudulent practices. A
deposit of doubloons by Foster of Marblehead has been violated, false contracts
made, and fraud practiced not only in its most artful but most shameful forms. Yet
not one word has appeared as yet, but Gust) a notice that the Cashier, who has long
�been away, has been removed. Suspicions rise in every form, and Salem lays
under the worst imputations."
In fact, Shepard Gray, the Bank's Cashier, and James King, the Bank's Clerk, had
embezzled a great deal of money from the Bank. Gray, who had left Salem, and
King, who had resigned but stayed in town, had offered the Bank's directors
$20,000, when the losses evidently amounted to about $200,000 (see Bentley,
Sept. 11 ). It would appear that Gray, King, and their partner Capt. Joseph
Moseley, a Virginian who had settled in Salem (see B.F. Browne, 1869 Youthful
Recollections of Salem, EIHC 49:200), had invested in highly speculative ventures,
and had lost much of their money, which they replaced with money deposited at
the bank. In Foster's barrel of specie, they had placed ballast stones, leaving an
inch or two of coins at the top. All the rest of the Foster money, $40,000 allegedly,
was gone (the matter would later go to court, in a famous case about the liability of
banks).
In November, 1818, the Grand Jury found against Gray and King "for a conspiracy
to defraud the Bank and for violation of trust and the depredations made on the
deposits and bank interest" (per Bentley, Nov. 6). The Essex Bank directors had
handled most of the matters in secrecy, including a negotiation with Gray and
King, in which terms were given and accepted. The whole matter caused much
alarm and discontent in Salem, many of whose people had money deposited there.
Some were distraught, and one died of the shock (Bentley, ibid): "the widow of
Edward Pulling, Esq., was buried this day, an undoubted victim to her feelings
upon the loss of her property in the Essex Bank. Most of the stock-holders are
widows and orphans."
In June, 1819, Mr. Bentley reflected on the dissension among the shareholders of
the Essex Bank, which was, in fact, about to fold. "The subscribers are disposed to
make their richer members pay the loss. The President declined his office
repeatedly and undertook not to be obliged to issue any money in his signature.
But the offenders had kindred and associates in the board. To whomsoever it may
extend, it was one of the most deliberate, persevering, and complete frauds that
ever was in any country accomplished--and among a people distinguished by their
close attention, we might almost say avarice, in money matters. The business,
when it becomes a public investigation, threatens great divisions and warm
contentions."
Mr. W.S. Gray evidently never returned to Salem, but would die in Cambridge, on 27
May 1824, aged about 51 years.
�At the time ( 1819) that Mr. Gray disappeared and the Custom House offices were
moved to their new quarters, B.H. Hathorne resided in the brick Hathorne house on
Essex Street (evidently 243-5, south side, just west of Washington), probably with a
tenant, Dr. Nathaniel Peabody, and family (1820 census, p. 71). Earlier, Dr. Peabody
had lived in the house ofB.H.H. 's brother William, on Essex Street at the south comer
of Cambridge (see EIHC 21 :219). Dr. Peabody was then the father of 7 children, of
whom one, Sophia, an artist, would grow up and become the wife of Nathaniel
Hawthorne (BHH's first cousin, once removed), while another, Elizabeth P. Peabody, a
teacher, became one of the most important education theorists and reformers in
America. In the household of Mr. B.H. Hathorne in 1820 were himself, a boy, his wife,
two girls, and one young woman.
Augustus J. Archer, a dry goods merchant, wrote a series of articles for the Salem
Gazette in the early months of 1890, on the subject of Essex Street in 1820. In this
series, he related the history of "the brick building built by Benjamin H. Hathorne and
vVilliam Gray, extending into Central Street, and there occupied by the custom house
until 1819, when the U.S. Custom House was built. On the comer of Essex Street,
Cushing & Appleton, succeeded by James R. Buffum, as a book store, were located.
vVm. Hathorne had the western one; he was an Importer of broadcloths and dry goods.
The Salem Register was then established in its present quarters, Warwick Palfrey, Jr.,
the sole editor. From this, it would seem that in 1820 the comer store ofHathome's
paii of the building was occupied by Cushing & Appleton, the store next westerly was
occupied as a dry goods store by William Hathorne, and the upstairs rooms were used
as the office of the Salem Register newspaper (as they would be for decades).
In 1820 the part of the building that fronted on Central Street, and had belonged to Mr.
Gray, was sold to Samuel Tucker, a Salem merchant, for $5825.75, by John Morland,
Roxbury merchant ($800 in May), who was probably W.S. Gray's brother-in-law and
may have held a mortgage on the property, and by Joseph S. Cabot, Salem gentleman
($5025.75 in September), who had foreclosed a mortgage on W.S. Gray on 2 July 1819
(ED 222:266, 225:114). In Mr. Cabot's deed, it is specified that the property consisted
of "the dwelling house in which Samuel Tucker now resides and of the other apartments
in Central Building, so-called;" and in Mr. Morland's deed it mentions the "dwelling
house, stores, other buildings, and cellar under". So there is little doubt but that Mr.
Gray's part of the building contained a portion that had been reserved (perhaps since
1805) as a residence. Samuel Tucker, the new owner, resided here in 1820.
Of this same time (c.1820) Mr. A.J. Archer reminisced as follows. "On Central Street,
Dana & Fenno had an office for the sale of lottery tickets and a general brokerage
�business, having a Boston connection. E H. Payson had charge of this office and tells
me he was the person who built the first coal fire in Salem. Mr. Dana had seen them ir
Boston and employed John Chamberlain, mason, to set a grate in his office; Mr. Pays(
built the fire, and says people used to come in by the dozens to see it. One evening he
went to bed leaving the blower up, having forgot to remove it; of course it became red
hot, and so alarmed the passers-by that they rushed in hot haste to tell him his office
was on fire. The Insurance offices next adopted the grate, and it spread rapidly into
general use. The first furnace in the city was put in by Mr. Chamberlain at his brother'2:.
B. Porter Chamberlain, who owned and occupied the old assembly house on Federal
street. The chambers and offices on Central Street were occupied by the Salem Saving
Bank, incorporated 1818; when first organized, Willard Peele was president, and Danie
Bray treasurer. Capt. Peter Lander and his son, Peter Jr., had a private insurance office
for underwriters. Henry Pickering Esq. had a law office. The Salem Courier, Charles
A. Andrew, was started here Sept. 7, 1828; it was short lived. In 1830 the Salem Light
Infantry had two rooms in the second story for their armory."
In The Salem Gazette of 1 Feb. 1820, Cushing & Appleton advertised "Gold Leaf' and
"Almanacks for 1820," and the Salem Brewery announced that "strong and table beer,
porter, ale, yeast, porter bottles, corks, hops, malt, bottled cider, and a complete
assortment of cordials" were available at the Salem Brewery, and at the store, comer of
Essex and Cambridge Streets, also from 11 to half past 1 at the Central Building."
In 1824, B. Herbert Hathorne died (as did W.S. Gray). Mr. Hathorne owned his part of
the building outright, and owned a very large stock of dry goods, which were
enumerated in the inventory of his estate (appended to this report). By his 1823 last
will, he devised to his wife Rebecca cash, personal effects, and lifetime use of some real
estate which was to devolve to his nephew B.H. Hathorne (Jr.) after the deaths of his
wife and adopted daughter. His "land at the comer of Central Street and Essex Street
with the buildings thereon, called the Central building," he devised in trust to his
brother William Hathorne for the benefit of his sons; and upon his death it was to go the
same nephew, B.H. Hathorne (Jr.). He devised $1000 in trust for his adopted daughter,
and left generous cash bequests to other relatives. The property here would remain in
the ownership of Hathomes throughout the rest of the 19th century.
The 1820s was a decade of challenges for Salem. It struggled successfully to
maintain its overseas commerce and to open new markets for its shipping, in
Madagascar (1820), which supplied tallow and ivory, and Zanzibar (1825), whence
came gum copal, used to make varnish. This opened a huge and lucrative trade in
which Salem dominated, and its vessels thus gained access to all of the east
African ports. From 1827 to 1870, there were 189 arrivals in Salem from
�Zanzibar, carrying ivory, gum copal, and coffee. But in the 1820s Salem's national
influence slipped, and it was unable to develop a manufacturing base. Salem's
general maritime foreign commerce fell off sharply in the late 1820s. Imports,
which were the cargoes in Salem ships, were supplanted by American goods, now
being produced in great quantities. The interior of the country was being opened
for settlement, and many Salemites moved away to these new lands of opportunity.
To the north, the falls of the Merrimack River powered large new textile mills
(Lowell was founded in 1823 ), which created great wealth for their investors; and
in general it seemed that the tide of opportunity was ebbing away from Salem.
In an ingenious attempt to stem the flow of talent from the town and to harness its
potential water power for manufacturing, Salem's merchants and capitalists
focused on damming the North River. The project, which began with much
promise, was suspended (before construction began) in 1827, which demoralized
the town even more, and caused several leading citizens to move to Boston, the
hub of investment in the new economy. In November, 1826, Joseph H. Prince,
counselor at law, advertised in the Salem Gazette his "removal" from "from his
late office, in Central Building, to the office formerly occupied by Hon. John
Pickering, in Court Street." This event, seemingly so obscure, points to a sad
fact: John Pickering VI, the ultimate Salem citizen, had decided to take his family
and his talents to Boston, where they were settled by the spring of 1827.
In 1830 occurred a horrifying crime that brought disgrace to Salem. Old Capt.
Joseph White, a wealthy merchant, owned and resided in the house now called the
Gardner-Pingree house, on Essex Street. One night, intruders broke into his
mansion and stabbed him to death. All of Salem buzzed with the news of
murderous thugs; but the killer was a Crowninshield (a local crime-boss who killed
himself at the Salem Jail), hired by his friends, Capt. White's own relatives, Capt.
Joseph Knapp and his brother Frank (they were executed by hanging). The results
of the investigation and trial uncovered much that was lurid about Salem, and more
of the respectable families quit the notorious town.
Salem's remaining merchants had to move quickly to take their equity out of
wharves and warehouses and ships and put it into manufacturing and
transportation, as the advent of railroads and canals in the 183 Os diverted both
capital and trade away from the coast. Some merchants did not make the
transition, and were ruined. Old-line areas of work, like rope-making, sail-making,
and ship chandleries, gradually declined and disappeared. Well into the 1830s,
Salem slumped badly.
�Despite all, Salem was chartered as a city in 1836. City Hall was built 1837-8 and
the city seal was adopted with an already-anachronistic Latin motto of "to the
farthest port of the rich East"-a far cry from "Go West, young man!" The Panic
of 183 7, a brief, sharp, nationwide economic depression, caused even more Salem
families to head west in search of fortune and a better future. Salem had not
prepared for the industrial age, and had few natural advantages. The North River
served not to power factories but mainly to flush the waste from the many
tanneries (23 by 1832) that had set up along its banks. Throughout the 1830s, the
leaders of Salem scrambled to re-invent an economy for their fellow citizens, many
of whom were mariners without much sea-faring to do. Ingenuity, ambition, and
hard work would have to carry the day.
One inspiration was the Salem Laboratory, Salem's first science-based
manufacturing enterprise, founded in 1813 to produce chemicals. At the plant built
in 1818 in North Salem on the North River, the production of alum and blue vitriol
was a specialty; and it proved a very successful business. Salem's whale-fishery,
active for many years in the early 1800s, led, in the 1830s, to the manufacturing of
high-quality candles at Stage Point, along with machine oils. The candles proved
very popular. Lead-manufacturing began in the 1820s, and grew large after 1830,
when Wyman's gristmills on the Forest River were retooled for making highquality white lead and sheet lead (the approach to Marblehead is still called Lead
Mills Hill, although the empty mill buildings burned down in 1960s).
These enterprises were a start toward taking Salem in a new direction. In 183 8
the Eastern Rail Road began operating between Boston and Salem, which gave
the people of Salem and environs a direct route to the region's largest market.
The new railroad tracks ran right over the middle of the Mill Pond; the tunnel
under Washington Street was built in 1839; and the line was extended to
Newburyport in 1840.
The occupants of this building in the 183 Os were the Salem Light Infantry
(armory here in 1830), newspapers, banks, etc.
Rev. Benjamin Herbert Hathorne (Jr.), a Lynn bachelor clergyman (nephew of the first
BHH), the owner of the Hathorne part of the property (worth $6,000 in 1837), died in
1837, having willed all of his property to his father, William, two sisters, and three
brothers, with the survivor to inherit the full ownership.
�In 1836 (per the Essex Memorial, published in that year), the "Central Building" tenants
included two newspaper offices: that of the Essex Register and that of the Commercial
Advertiser. The Register in 1836 was published by Palfray and Chapman twice a week
and was Whig in politics; the Advertiser, founded in 1832 and edited by Palfray &
Cook, was published weekly and was Democrat in politics. In those days, the Whigs
and the Democrats maintained their own reading rooms: the former was in Holyoke
Place, off Essex Street, while the latter was located here at the "Central Building."
Also here in 183 6 (per the 183 7 Salem Directory) were the offices of the Bank of
General Interest, 4 Central Street, $400,000 in capital, William H. Russell, cashier;
directors John Russell (President), Putnam I. Farnham, Caleb Foote, John W. Fenno,
Jonathan Holman. (p.118). Also headquartered here was the Institution for Savings in
the City of Salem and Its Vicinity, 4 Central, Joseph Peabody, President; Daniel Bray,
Treasurer; Francis H. Silsbee, Secretary (p.119). The bankers who actually came to
work here each day were Daniel Bray (Institution for Savings), of 104 Essex Street, and
John Russell (Bank of General Interest), of 22 Lafayette St., and his son Wm. H.
Russell (ditto) of 2 Lafayette Street. No doubt there were clerks and tellers too.
In the 1830s, James R. Buffum "kept a book and stationery store for himself on the
western comer of Essex and Central Street ... (and) then kept a tavern at Ome's Point,
North Salem. He married Susan Mansfield ... and died 14 Feb. 1863, aged 68 years."
(see EIHC 6:212, Benja. F. Browne, Memorials of the Washington Rangers).
In the 1840s, Mr. Buffum moved out of the comer store, and Stephen Osborne took it
over. He ran a retail business in hats, caps, and furs; and Henry Osborne worked there
as a hatter (hat-maker). Stephen resided in 1841-1845 at 17 Oliver Street, while Henry
resided on "Mechanic Street" (near the Laboratory in North Salem) in 1841 and in 1845
on Federal (Marlborough) Street, near Washington. In the Salem Directory for 1850
was an advertisement for "Osborne's Fashionable Hat, Cap & Fur Establishment, 183
Essex Street, comer of Central Street" (p. 221 ). This store would be operated
throughout the 1860s (see ad, p. 88, 1864 Salem Directory).
The Essex Register newspaper, which was founded by the Crowninshield-HathomeWhite families to represent the Jeffersonian point of view c.1800, and which had been
edited at one point by Rev. William Bentley (a major contributor for years), would be
published from this location throughout the rest of its history. In 1842, the co-editor,
Charles vV. Palfray, resided at 47 Federal Street, while co-editor John Chapman resided
at 33 Federal and served on the Board of Advisers of the Salem Children's Friend
Society. In addition, Edward Palfray, of 2 Hamilton Street, was a printer at 4 Central
Street in 1842. (info from 1842 Salem Directory).
�Samuel Dudley Tucker (1782-1857), the owner of the Central Street part of the Central
Building as of 1820, was a merchant. He was born in Salem on 25 January 1782, one c
the sons of John and Lydia Tucker. Among his older brothers were Andrew Tucker
(born 1773) and Gideon Tucker (b. 1778, married 1804 Martha Goodhue). l\llr. Andre\
Tucker ( 1773-1820), who married l\lfartha Mansfield, had several children, including
Jonathan, Samuel (2d) and Gideon (2d); he was subject to melancholy, and took his
own life in February, 1820, aged 47 years.
In 1830, Samuel D. Tucker added to his holdings hereabouts by purchasing for $1950
from the heirs of Dr. Holyoke some shops on Central Street, with land, just south of the
dwelling house part of the Central Building (ED 258:215). At the same time, the
Holyoke heirs sold him, for $4500, the land to the west of the Hathorne parcel, with a
printing office thereon (ED 258:215). By 1836 Mr. Tucker had moved to 293 Essex
Street, and later he resided at the Essex House hotel. He died in the 1857 (#55777),
having devised the premises by will to Gideon Tucker, who was the president of the
Exchange Bank. Gideon Tucker died in or before 1862, leaving many heirs. In July,
1862, some of the Tucker heirs, having purchased the interests of other of the heirs, sold
the premises for $4572.46 to one of their own, Edward Tucker, of Saco, Maine (ED
642:145, also 639:22,24, 638:126, etc.). In September, 1862, Edward Tucker sold half
of the property to Jonathan Tucker and half of it to Jonathan's son, James T. Tucker. In
September, 1865, Jonathan Tucker for $3,000 sold his half-interest to his son, James T.
Tucker, who granted his father a life estate in the property (ED 688:281,287).
Through the 1860s and 1870s, Salem continued to pursue a manufacturing course.
The managers and capitalists tended to build their new, grand houses along
Lafayette Street (these houses may still be seen, south of Roslyn Street). For the
workers, they built more and more tenements near the mills of Stage Point. A
second, larger, factory building for the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company would
be added in 1859, and a third in 1865; and by 1879 the mills would employ 1200
people and produce annually 14, 700,000 yards of cloth. Shoe-manufacturing also
continued to expand, and by 1880 Salem would have 40 shoe factories employing
600-plus operatives. More factories and more people required more space for
buildings, more roads, and more storage areas.
Maj. Jam es T. Tucker predeceased his father, whose life estate would come to an
end with his death in 1877. Jonathan Tucker ( 1799-1877) had been a merchant for
most of his career. He left business in 1849, became a City Assessor for awhile, and
by 1860 he was working as a Measurer at the Custom House. In 1872 he was still at
the Custom House, residing at 29 Andrew Street. He purchased 82 Washington
�Square East in 1874, and moved in. To the Salem Gazette in 1875-6 he contributed
an interesting series called "Our Old Houses," in which he jotted down his memories
of who had inhabited the buildings of Essex Street 1807-1810. By 1876 he was
again working as an assessor at City Hall. On the last day of July, 1877, Mr. Tucker
took his own life.
The obituary of Mr. Tucker ran in the Gazette on 3 August 1877. "The death of
Jonathan Tucker, which took place very suddenly on Tuesday morning last, takes
from amongst us one of our most respected citizens ... His character was as sturdy as
his frame. Upright, conscientious, clear-headed, and intelligent, his services on the
board of our City Assessors were never surpassed in value by any who have been
called to the office. His independence and plainness of speech undoubtedly made
him enemies; but, as an honest man, a good citizen, exemplary in purity of morals
and in every relation of life, he will be held in respectful remembrance by all who
knew him. Mr. Tucker retired-from active mercantile business in 1849, when he was
elected one of the Assessors of the City. This office he continued to hold until
March 28, 1853. He was again elected Assessor in 1869, and held the office until
January 11, 1875, when he retired to private life. During most of his term of service,
he was chairman of the board; and there never was a man who paid more strict,
scrupulous, and faithful attention to the duties of his office. A native of Salem, and
blessed with powers of keen observation and a retentive memory, his knowledge of
our local history of the present century-of persons, events, metes and bounds-was
unequalled, and nothing gave him greater pleasure than to impart from his
inexhaustible stores. He leaves a widow (a sister of Prof. Alpheus Packard of
Bowdoin College), three sons-Joseph F. and Horace, both holding responsible
positions in the Illinois Central Railroad Company, and Rev. William P., who has
recently accepted a call to a rectorship in Pawtucket, R.I.; and two daughters, Mrs. J.
M. Hagar of Salem, and Mrs. Hanson of Chicago. Two sons, Alpheus Packard and
Col. James T., died before their father."
Joseph F. Tucker, the railroad man, became the new owner of the property. As early as
1881, and perhaps before, much of his part of the Central Building was occupied by
John J. Perkins' notable furniture and upholstering store (some photographs show the
building at that time, with the Perkins signs out front). Mr. Perkins, a resident of Bridge
Street, ran the business for many years. The dwelling part of the building, numbered 10
central, was evidently occupied Mrs. Sarah B. Safford, who had a store at 16-18 central.
She died before 1900, in which year the premises at 4-6 Central Street were occupied
by the Salem Press Company, which had its presses and other machinery there, and by
A.N. Webb & Co., printers. At 8-10 were E.F. McClellan, hairdresser, and the offices
�of Cawley & Trow, plumbers. Alphonse Bouin and family resided in the end unit. (info
from Salem Directory, 1899/1900)
Regarding the Hathorne part of the building, by then known as The Hathorne Building:
in 1878 Henry G. Hathorne, of Lynn, sold his interest in the Central Building to
\iVilliam W. Hathorne, of Lynn, his brother (ED 1000:189). On 2 January 1886 William
W. Hathorne leased the first floor and cellar of his part of the building to Herebert D.
Rice of Boston, who opened The Shawmut Hat Store here. The lease was to run for ten
years at $1500 rent per annum. At the same time, Mr. Rice was to pay the cost of a
major remodeling of this part of the building, and agreed not to sell any liquor here.
The remodeling involved removing the stone front, removing brick piers and windows,
and putting in a new front on Essex Street and part of the building on Central Street.
Large new plate glass windows were to be installed, along with iron girders to support
the upper stories.
Mr. Wm. W. Hathorne died in 1893, whereupon the property was conveyed to his
brothers Henry G. and Charles F. Hathorne (ED1401:109). They continued to lease out
the property as commercial space to Herbert D. Rice, who was the proprietor of the
Shawmut Hat Store at 191-193 Essex Street (see adv. p.1194 Salem Directory 1897-8;
ED 1991:66, etc.).
In 1900, the occupants of "the Hathorne Building" were The Shawmut Hat Store (hats,
furs, etc.) at 191-193 Essex Street, and, at 195 Essex Street, J.M. O'Connell and Mrs.
Kate F. Dean, hairdressers, dentist John W. Patch, A.C. Mackintire, photographer, and
B.L. Pervier, jobber.
Salem kept building infrastructure; and new businesses arose, and established
businesses expanded. Retail stores prospered, and machinists, carpenters,
millwrights, and other specialists all thrived. In the 1870s, French-Canadian
families began coming to work in Salem's mills and factories, and more houses
and tenements filled were built in what had been open areas of the city. The
Canadians were followed in the early 20th century by large numbers of Polish and
Ukrainian families, who settled primarily in the Derby Street neighborhood. By
the eve of World War One, Salem was a bustling, polyglot city that supported large
department stores and large factories of every description. Its politics were lively,
and its economy was strong.
On June 25, 1914, in the morning, in Blubber Hollow (Boston Street opposite
Federal), a fire started in one of Salem's fire-prone wooden tanneries. This fire
soon consumed the building and raced out of control, for the west wind was high
�and the season had been dry. The next building caught fire, and the next, and out
of Blubber Hollow the fire roared easterly, a monstrous front of flame and smoke,
wiping out the houses of Boston Street, Essex Street, and upper Broad Street, and
then sweeping through Hathorne, Winthrop, Endicott, and other residential streets.
Men and machines could not stop it: the enormous fire crossed over into South
Salem and destroyed the neighborhoods west of Lafayette Street, then devoured
the mansions of Lafayette Street itself, and raged onward into the tenement district.
Despite the combined efforts of heroic fire crews from many towns and cities, the
fire overwhelmed everything in its path: it smashed into the large factory buildings
of the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company (Congress Street), which exploded in an
inferno; and it rolled down Lafayette Street and across the water to Derby Street.
There, just beyond Union Street, after a 13-hour rampage, the monster died, having
consumed 25 0 acres, 1600 houses, and 41 factories, and leaving three dead and
thousands homeless. Some people· had insurance, some did not; all received much
support and generous donations from all over the country and the world. It was
one of the greatest urban disasters in the history of the United States, and the
people of Salem would take years to recover from it. Eventually, they did, and
many of the former houses and businesses were rebuilt; and several urban-renewal
projects (including Hawthorne Boulevard, which involved removing old houses
and widening old streets) were put into effect.
Mr. Herbert D. Rice, owner of The Shawmut Hat Store here, and lessee since
1886, purchased the Hathorne Building from the Hathornes on 1 Nov. 1920 (ED
2469:90). The premises had been in Hathorne ownership for more than 115
years.
By the 1920s, Salem was once again a thriving city; and its tercentenary in 1926
was a time of great celebration. From that time forward, Salem boomed right
through to the 1960s, but the arrival of suburban shopping malls and the relocation
of manufacturing businesses took their toll, as they have with many other cities.
More than most, Salem has navigated its way forward into the present with
success, trading on its share of notoriety arising from the witch trials, but also from
its history as a great seaport and as the home of Bowditch, Mcintire, Bentley,
Story, and Hawthorne. Most of all, it remains a city where the homes of the oldtime merchants, mariners, and mill-operatives-and the commercial buildings that
Salem's prosperity produced and sustained--are all honored as a large part of what
makes Salem different from any other place.
--10 Feb. 2002, Robert Booth for Historic Salem Inc.
�I
f~-,
--;\ '
"i(
1
~
0-<IJJ..::._~..&'-(1
.
\;~v\
(
rv-cv·--
\. v'\.c-'\'Y\.A..-vV:-.
··,
c~
\r\-c v'--
.') ••
\ r--\ Ii ¢,~~l.-l
'~~
-
(F
\
.
t
Cu../\-
\'l"w\...\,A.-...
v~~
' \..,'-. ~ \ \-C."--'·'.-L'-·\ f\.
.C
l
r
.
BOOKSELLERS AND BOOKBINDERS
"
(.
'-·
~,J...-<-
\ !7"./('
I
···" / ' I
6't-J 1A..C.~C\\v\i
Cevv .
c:: \
\..
"\._(..
~
1-,~~-·
I
I
I
BOOKSHOP OF ClTSHI:'.'\G AJ":D APPLETON..
Essex Strec·t.
'.
l
'":\ I
,. •r
'-cv.:tv\c.l<.. \:).eel..:~·
{ '
------·····--·······--··c· .......
~-
"c~,1
. 1
'
CFSHIXG AXD APPLETOX-BIBLE AXD REA.RT BOOK SHOP.
~f)'\~&A/ir-i.-~
.
"
177
Soon after Dabney established his book shop, Thomas C.
Cushing and \'Villiam Carlton, the latter a young man just
reaching his majority, were associated in the 'Bible and Heart'
book shop. Carlton's advertisement in 1791 reYeals the location of his business as 'opposite Rev. :Mr. Prince's meeting
house,' where he had for sale all the principal books and pamphlets, as v.-ell as mariner's compasses, log books, scales and
dividers, backgammon and Hadley's quadrants, and 'Harry
VIII and HighlancJs Playing Cards.' 67 In 1793 he added a
circulating library. J\1r. Streeter says: 'The Bible and Heart
book-store was in the lo·wer story of the building oecupied by ·
the printing office, the same ·which is now (1856) kept by
D. B. Brooks and Brother. There were formerly wooden figures of a Bible ancl a heart suspended over the door, which
during .the last war were torn down in the night by some
mischievous persons and thrown into the harbor. It was upon
the occasion of a list of privateers in our harbor being published in the Gazette by the foreman of the office.' In 1794
Carlton's 'new book store' was 'a few doors west of the Sun
Tavern, Essex st.Teet.' 08 In 1797 Carlton's connection with
Cushing ceased, and in 1801 John S. Appleton associated
himself with this book shop, the firm of Cushing and Appleton
being a well-known and successful Salem concern, at the 'Sign
of the Bible,' until the death of both in 1824.
In 1803 their shop was at the corner of Court and Essex
streets, 'lately occupied as an insurance office.'c 9 In 1808 they
removed to the store under the Gazette office, lately occupied
by John Russell, one door west of the Central Building, 70
having purchased Russell's stock of several thousand volumes,
which were sold at auction by Jacob Peabody. A side-light
oil the importance to trade of court business and attendance
at the sittings is manifest in an advertisement which appeared
at this time, after the sale had opened, to the effect that 'the
Salem
Salem
6 9 Salem
10 Salem
67
<1s
Gazette,
Gazette,
Gazette,
Gazette,
November 8, 1791, .January 3 and 12, 1793.
September, 1794.
December 3-0, 1803.
April 5, 1808.
�_
,.~..
----~-·-_:.:·-.!;_.,_~.
-.
---..····-v'"
::- .:
~ ·~
~-.
.
.......
··~
;....
A_.
.
- . .... •. . .
·..•
.
L·E.M.
... '
.
.
~7··
,.
.
!
.
.
.
.
.
- .:
'
-..-:· .·-E..r-:N.
-: :
.
.·. ·:·. ·-y··._
.:, .·
·•.
.
..
:·. ... . .; . . !. . /
-.i
:
'
.
l
-
-
I
•••
·-·
'l'an, Snuff, Maple, B11sset, Qoldan
make represented in large quanttes
Bats. A full l'tne of genuine lmp!>rl·
to· suit all requirements a11 to pric
\.
biaok,~d,;Pn·
l-wool,
:ig, $1.
>elted,
back,
]3oy~'
-
•
·-
-
OUS·
them
seour
--
- -
-•
-••-••••-•
-·
•••
---·-
- -
: ts in
Ha:ts.
ga~
>rder,
1:call·
l..
to
1...--.L.
St:ree1:.
'·'-.:.
Is 25 Cents a Bottle. "A."Bottle /Contai~ing··.
.
J
every
·and
'and
The ·Large&~ Hat Store in ·this .~action
an.d. l..93' :gsse=ar, oo:r. C
LUSCOlVIB ~s -$ARSA PARILLA.
~ylish'
....
.
to.o
D~S~~
O~(
e l~igh pric~cf Sarlap ·
""'
FOR
4
~-
....
....
-
- - ,
••
•
-
•
n
••
••
,,_}
••
•
••••
-
.
F~1AL INDECISION•.
A. JI
'"M:
A.n Editor's . Wife Instantl;r
Brown, every fashionable Cf)lor and.
Killed at Nel'l'tonville.
at the Shawmut. Hamiiock and So'ft
ed French Bats, rare colors; kinda $he Attempted· to Cross
· ~the Tracks
.,.
and use.
SHAWMUT "H AT STORE, H .. D.. RICE, -Prop.
>ef01;e 19:1
npare
.
~.--
SS., 'THURSDAY~ -¥:AY 3, 18~8
-
We
~
c_
/
---;-----:--F-- - -
----
.The lowest price for good goods.is whai we aimlat in every Una of Bats
~·:ffJDlf{{[~\
1. the
shown to buy, poor quality in this line above aQ others, is wney thrown
· 191 &183 £5S·f;XST"
. fash· ·away. The slh.wmnt is the largest bu Pricv liat Stere in 'sew England. Bew lines df lobby rteckwear, 25
.
.
!
.
,most cents. .New styles ltQien Collars, Tru I nks, Bags, DreH and Working Gloves.
.t are
.
- .,-,-ats.- l-
-··-•••••n••••-rn••---~
n~rbYI
•
' -
-
-
-;o.,g~····.
~ :!-~~;
L·~ --'.o.:
~:1·;: . .
' .:_ :;:n:;.
<,"t
-
I .
'.
~ :~ SALEM,
), 1880.
•
E
----_---- ------·-12------ -.
.
'1·.
.I
lt will do all that th
. rillas Iwill ·. ,an·d "·) t
costs yo·u b.ut half . a$. 11TlJ.Ch. Try It.. Pr~D ared b
1
ces
ence
the
met:
eel!;
i;chc
thei1
papj
the]
Mr.
ed f<
AfLer the Gates Had ,, Been
Lowere(}.
Mrs. Lury H. Estey, wife ofWillia.m H.
. Estey of the Boston Herald sta..IT; we.e
sfrn<'k by the 7 o'cloo::k inwa.rd pa.ese~r
t ra•n:on:thejBost-on'& Alba.nyrailroaa:a tbe
Walnut street crossing, Newtonville, ast
evrDing, and instantly .k:illed. The unfortunate lady, in .comps.Dy with her youngest
son, atttmpted to cro.ss the. track after
tl'e gates had been lowered. She crol!Sed
the Na. 1 track. just ahead of a.
fteight traiJ!, and passed oyer the No. 2
and No. 3 tracks, when she e"w th".'e Inward
·passenger train approaching. Hesitating
for a moment, she turnP.d as though to go
,. back, taking a.few steps, but again turned
nnd stepped in front of:the engine or the
r.assenger train, which was then running
into the station and moving slowly, and
was struck and thrown upon the platform.
The boy stood between the tracks and thus
escaped injury. Therliotheraudson were on
their way to the depot to take the train
to Newton, to attend a Bible convention
which is being held there. Yr. Estey was
just about to start forWaltham to attend
a camp fire, t.o. whicp the members of h~
poet had been invited. B:e was notified of
'the accident, and the body was· removed
to his home o'.n Brooks avenue, where it
wes -v:iewed by lfedieoal ]!lxaminer Meade.
Tbe derea8€d was 41 years of age; and,
beside her husband, five SOD,B survive her,
th_e youngest Of whulll is 12 years of age!!
.,
¢~N'I'S.
:i\
30
tem·
1ist'
GENERAL. ORDER NO. I;
iRe~ruite
;
1
&iid :necr-.,ittmg
Too
·A 1
bEE"n
Corf•
tttrn
ti on
foot•
an o:
thee
tO tli
HAI'
-.
~.s...'-Set-
tlug'-UP. Exercises l:Q '1& ~acti,eecL, · .
.
. . Col. F. A: Osgood has isSu~. <I!'i~iaLO.r
i!e:r Ne~} t<i. tli~ ~ili,,~JjJ.~t.;_·8-S'_:fol:_
'Jows: -,.;ominan~e'hi q~ colllfe.nt~Jt~.a:u- ·
·1:_1'!!ized.,...t.o plll'llde
tl.tei1,t,_..$iiin:ill.li~.i:for
��-~'-\~ '." ~. '\1t1.~,
~
:101.\~~'.
.
,)
}\.1\.t\.\\\O\'l'<\,V
�.
\\\\~~q •'~"'" \\\
-·1"
.
~
Q\\\u,\:\\~h\i.,11 ,, \\u. ~~~~·-7
'""'t: ....,... io·t.......... ·' ''l..u..u...Juu....kulJ.
1
.
.b
\. \"llli
~~
~~\u'~\U.....~lS.lll\r .t'-""-~--\'.A.\.\LU-\\-U.U.,·i\\\\1.._/.U\.IS ~~~ . 2.~~~_j;'
~tt,,d~~,~~-~~~"S\\\.)'..."l.\"TJl.~1.~.::li.. .'.\\~F1i..JAM.iL~r·-w.wr~
· -"~~\\.'l::..U.U''.L.~\:.... li.\.\'..l>..4~-\\.U.tl.-~~~
\"s.\l\'\o..'..."'
~in m
,.
uuu•..i;,H.,,....Mtl.u:\\•--1.~......,.-
, \......
q,IM~.l.\M.i}.~1~1lPU_i~a\.&n. ~~~-~'Jh.u.w· ~o..w_~~.........~
'W.<!.t~iM.~. -~~~1'.h1>.:.'v\.'~--~\.\)..'J·-~\.\__ toill:\~\!...x\.\\'~i;,\.u\l\t...t_\\~~~~~ill_t\M..~~~.l.""\...
ti..~1.~~-~~'L\-u:~~.1~.\lli~ n.i."'"F'MJi.jtw\.~u~~~~)'.\1..~1.. ·
·-··-·- . ·fil~~-S\.s..Y~w~--~ll~~-~ 11n~~''-l}.~~~1--~~W.t'-4..~~~_t.
Cll_~~-n~'--\o.....°\M.( .)_\.fil\.1~.i\\\'.\.\l.\:\\~,W:L ~~\.~u\.~~·~~...\i.\\~~\_ ~ t.\.\
'
.~..\\.\)\W.t\ ~ ul1 -\~.....£1.&.uLIJi.h~ _1,\1.\..'--nL\,(\.~ti.~....~u .)l\\l\_t\\ay\W.'C
_
\lill:LI~u c~~~...~~~s\_~~\l~~1,.9. N ~c.ll~~~(\>\n..Jtt~~""
~
.
tjs
~~-li'\..~-~\l)n\\lt\.)Lt.o.~.'!\&L~~~ ~-~ ~~~r~~_lll/\.~~
··--·
... _ '~uil
tJio~L\\~\ll~~~~~k~-1\~~l\.~-~~~il~,,.._,,.,.-
a..i..wc1-
W_~\M(.1. '.'\~'ll\.'M..~.MJ.u\t\'.\~.lt~~\_2~~..Y1..\:\\.l'.\"\ W1,~-~\{~·1r
.. fo. ~'tl.1.i:;'i.l..fu......6._~-~)<L11L°"'M'.1.~t.l'-'-J.~16 ..lfu(.d~\'.IM).. _i_M_tO"W\..~"''rll\ .
_··
.
.
~~-kM~~fc\.w.1,ml Jh ~-~tCV:~~»~_Dl\._'A~'-~ ~\.~\M.~.-°-~
~t\Mt\ :\\~-~~f· ~~\\SCI;~'\\"\.\.\ V...\A.~~'.,&j)JAM.4~
.s.~ \l\\ lmtt ~yl\'",~l- hvX '\nM\)o\M\n b~w ~ 1 w~~.JJ.Y~11.;..,,,,
- Tuilii!)~I\
.
- . ~,- ~
(Ny..~" \.\........ ~ ~U.ti.......lli...u\.o· \Mt
. b
\M,M'4
•
.
• '
\oG~\\' W\\\n ~u,l \t\
·:t~JLrh.~~i' IM~t.~~~-~k~~~n\&:r....4\\~J. -
..\~-.~~\tU,lli.Ll.\..:'ii).\\~'i:l
>\\i\t\....'s.\.\~~Ji%~~nc.....h~\ ............
·"'"'-+-
t\~'.l.~~y,,dfilt.iU...1..v1M\JlU.w~.J:~~~ ~,-ww~~~lli~s.\
. . ~:~\.l\.Lliu_\ n....s...::u.i...\·\-°ilJ~.....l\"'-~~W~~~Q.XL~~-tO\H,\.~~ . '
w\Tu St\ t
l\...o,,~,-'~.m::1.~.1<.J.~~""A. tq~uv"" \fuu.t k1,.L\r".~'H Lµ<.>o"""""lo
.
~.\f"~{.
....9.L\hk!
v
~o\·~~-~S.\..il~J..l..'s.\W~LI.\~~~~ l.Mu.,~y~~~.m.ru:
t
.
a
.
_\\'-~~lo_ ~~L1M1..tl....t~~.\)t.~~~__j~.11.™\'.lA.~-~U.
.
.. ~~-WAIA-~ ~~~.t.~1~\1.....1Mil\~..il.rmll.Y5:'>~M.il-w.~i:.n:~\M
-~~"~i;,.k~t....\t\.l~\ 1h@.~~~-~~-suu..M~,.-.~11<11"1
.
~~~...~~!}. \,.~S.~~\~~.>~j\~.\.~--~-'t.~
__ w1\v
\JI.
• ,
)~\1.·~\ f-\'!i,._\~~-i.'l!L.....~9.).1..l.~~\~\Jh_nL.ll.b.L.ll.u~ 14t,; u \)"
-~
l
)<>
i ,\ 1\~~
~~Jf-.......WY-.£.~~1lt.2.11\M ""-1:-x'~-~~~lb.2.~~\&i. . . .~l ~~
ti,J.uil~..'.:kt~~n,11., (,vi.A~\ \~\L.~~,~~',·-'-~....\·~"l\\.\..1QJlo\vt': ~.\ 'k.e..~~\J.~. . 1-~1 ·
\1-0·t""'"'\.~n.~. . J~~~sL ..lr.\.~_~\.. ~-~k"'!I-'~~·
•
'}\. '5<\\\'v,~..."\'.\.~.-~ tOV\~~4'-~xt~Q.'l'.'_iJ~.
.
.'iln
\~U~Li '-~-~\ -~~\?..'}. \\~~·vn\\ _c\ot~_\!'n .\'\lU:c;.\_~_11~.....it\.\~.W~li~~i..'...... • ..,_,..,'tit
·...,_,
'ian~\i~ .u.«V\M~!).t~(\,..,\.,l1,..\\, t,.~°\.')>.\).._~~~\,'J. t\u'\\\ ~ 1
.nn
Q..
•
\in
'& e__,
"-'.Q I ·
'
.... O•' •
.·.1
~UJ..5-U.~Y'-A} .W.' _t.U~l".'-l\ \l.'C\~ ~-~' ··f\\~ ....'::'...._li\\.~):1.~~-'sl...S\~_Hl~ht.-"M WI. )t\!!!.._
)\9-M,o'".w.~ -"~~~~\)~~v \.\t\~\'~!..w~ \'"""I\ \\t\. \w. ~ur t\/1"·"- fih1o°l2. ..;..._ ~
IU.i.~. ·~Q~:X~t\'"Y\ \\I..'-\'"\ \\J..,'-1.. ~\l\lS.~)t.\'-\i'\-t\. ~Y\.\A"\~~t.\ \,u\~,,~~\.~ u.~ .~\\_t,,\\l~ , . - :
~VM."~~~J t\\_~.. ~ ~u11v\\--'-t\.)\_.!..~"'<"'-t<'r. 'N-!.no\.JJ_\0nM:Ki.\· $ln\-t \V...v..\ ·
t1
\'0,1t._ }t~~\~•. -1-.Y)i':.nQ\-~
\~~~u~-~
J 1
xt\ \;\)\.\.\\~~"'~ 'So',\\\'\~v\~
l,W\
-'\~~- o\, ~Q.wt~.~~\ •. .:l\ •.Jl\)tr>V\~ ~
·
..
-:\&\!.~<,,\l.\.\.~-1-~9.Y~~~-\ill.\'IM.~~-- \\)~~~ ~~ )\\..~.1.\JL:iLiu~,t~ ..-il(ll\t\,utL1
Swu ~tt~\_\\\1,;v-.1...\ . . n>.n"'""""I.\ lv.-)Ct"Y\11 \\,~\.t~. ~C\"11\"\~\~:-..t\ .. -~\Si~t.\-\\l o\\ h\M..i:Lrui.u ~
�~}1··-~ ,¥.a .\~'O'~]l.n~s.\. ,\riMM·'"'~ l\i\\)~b'm~'I MW.l¥:~ ..~ '·'.·' ':.· ,··:.,.: :
•.
'
•
""''"'
I.I.~·•'"
"""""'l.Ul..c.Ilo'iOnM!\M!'.\ fl '!-< n
H14J!Q•f_),~.· .
.
-.
.
6
'
·: •
~~~W.i \\) ~~i~.1\'1.\~'~\.-~,..\~'\~~~-b\~wYui :~~~ ~u.~''\ '>wSMF'""'~t:11M.... Q. \i.t\'INV\ ~\-~"~---~r•.\,~ \r.11"')" -:St'Ul:vJ
6
~'v.,\.,.~'l).\Vl.~.1\u.xlll~!.:·t\Mc.\.. \Jv...1.. u.X.t~\X~ ~?i-.J.-x.\\t..J. .)\\'\~hc~.0.~(,\.~ -·
rn
•
•
'
'
'
NII\~ \\1\\C>\~1 \\.\.'-·~~~'I.Us.\,~ ~'!(.\.\~ ~ .~!.-\.~:L:i\Mt\..~Ui~~Lh_~ ~-
a~~\:.1.4.~~W~-~tL\\\..L \!..'l.(~J1~~~~lu;"".i~-
....
.
~~ -\.:~\.S.\:i.\.U.'tL\.~I.\.. \\l.\.,'W\.\.\,:._~\'l.\t~\"(, Qv~_t-\)\)W\.l.\IYl.\..W.~L~t.\.~1)..-~\"\i.'} -·
\,~_Llt\.~'ti--~~\.~...... t,i\.'\I.\.\. ~s..\.,~:-·\t.\..f\\- !~~"1.~~~· n~'r.t..~\ul
\'n\M·'-~R~~u~ t>.tc.t.~1.\. \-~\.\_ l.M.~\\vJiX~\l\.!..t.}_,.~.L!.u: k~tl1U~--.
: 't\.t.\~'Lrc~di.
'
Q.M.c.\. Ul~\lt\j ~~ ~tvl.'l.'\'l.. \o \~\\~\ ~n\11, ~...~:U.~t...\'.\\.u..u~\_:~"-'°-.
.
.
\.~'- ~~ ~\l.\.i:,.\'i...\:\.v..i\. J.\U..'l.\\\\'\~1Wt\.\Q'l'5 ~\.uU.\., 11111.\\"Xl.~.tvv..~~~~
~l:.\.~'.l.:U-Xll °\N\.L..~\.l.l.\\. ~"-tu.I ~- \\U.-\-\
d_O..\.'W\ I. .t.\.~~
tv.,.,.Q. t.~\.~'\li~n\l!IY, ..tl..~t.\~~\.1\,u.lt.\.w~\.\:
.t~l.\.'1.~~--~,/Jx 'Jl..\'>OY<~, ltVIA.!.\.J\i;.iJc\W,_1..;~\Jil.~.-;-.-··
~"~ru...:.~~~~~~---'k )r;iv..i.. 0..1:1~!.\:~: \u.1..U.\. ~!.\6.•lt\.l.o... ~·
rJIV'_~-\).'lrvu..nu.i:t~t_...
.
•t
l
~\\\ '>\.t\ .~V.. '- .~l~\\,..,\ri.-,,1·•W\\ .t~"\~u.w fo.\. ~~ ..d.c\\, \uJ.·\},;~ . \" ~~>t. :\u. 1~ul. :~~~j.....
. t\i\lu.\ ~\~\ _µ,.~_~\°t~.t>SJJ-"\.t\ \o..0.0'\\)Vf \.'l.\~-:-t.. ~\;~U\)'- c.\.t.U/\"v\>t~ )Wt.\Mi\.l~· ..
. .iw.t\.~~\._°t\~\.~--UM.U..w~~- ~~\. l.\.~Y..lu.\., U.\l\.i.\. ~ -~\.'.\W~ ~~...:.
~.~:l.!.\M.~-1.\.\A.\.\... ..~.i:.tw~IA \L~i:\~l.\\'hu ~\.\u::~rtt..._u.t ~«.. \\IJ'\~~-\'twi .
\.lli1fn..\..\;\1.\.Ll\. ti H be_ \;,,,,t_-\A,\-Kl\\1,.U, y t\,11\d, ."Yl..'\.L\.\.64.(U-AMJ..cJ..J.11 ~ ~--·- ..
~\'-1:~.4~--·~u.x!\i.L_l.V.L\.Q.. \);\~\'> U.\!.·\~'\\ 1..t1.~~\~"?-\.U"- \u\-cl~-ll.~uiL____
..
h~_tu..t.~~'l~wu. u'-l;-\.\\'-\\vr O~\~~ .'.lM:t X:O\:l\.t\\\.\i...&""~~u~T±l'\.L. ~\.(..\'"- -
°\
't~~\)--~\u..ll.._ \,U\.X:l.\M.\\.:\~~- .l)V>.1. \\.\.'\: 1.J.\.~u,~~\."t.~..U;\.~\J°\u._.,_.
__ ,._4', ~"<t.\."j
~\.,t,\ ~t.\\\,\l,}'(\t'\~- c.l.u).u.'>.~\)- tl.).\\t.llA~ ,l..O.~'\...W\~'.\K\2.. o\\'.l.i:..l"-~
M\..... \\\..\.~- t\.\.uL ~~,~~'\' _r;,\ tt\.1.\1 _o.t\.. . t\', \\\\1.\ \..~ ~\;;u._t,\,\<>.l,\ ..n-u:~~_1r11~
--~~ IJ,...,.,\\ ~v.1,~\rnH w.tJJ..w.....Lh"uhJ-\lt.~)~1.~-1. \~. k\luU-t., . -·
\.J.i..l\.U.\.\.- lei ~v._r,\A.t,\ '(~tLtx.M.tl. ~\t\\.U,'1..
~'.. ll'.\t\~_t\.'11'.1.'\.L.!ti..h:~.t,\.) _ _:
W,lh'\ t.\l\At\
\>\ \
~,.-~:u..~~~1.'(~~-1\,\,\'\.V..._-~\\'I.\,: />.l..\~I}. -';':1.:·~-i.;~~'i~"-"-~~-tu:--··.
·
'li\~J.~t-L~ \M.i.\x..:\:t.~\\.t~\l.:l'I..
\AL\IY\ t.\.'11\ll
~~> ...I.lo t1.·\l-L\/\\.\Mk..).l..,1~ ..
.o.i.~~ .Ii\\\~~:~ \\.\.t-.:n.)\\Lt\1.1.it- .\\.1.\.\-t U.."'~ ~"~'"'-~~.l.'u.1..\r. ~\,\U;'!"r~.J.~.\a!._
'V"\.l:\.1.J\ '.'U,'l..\'..tuM.u,__,.'\'.\.UU1.w'v--..~'Cv.\ ~t,\_0\1 ~tu il ~~~liAu..~~u.
0
u.,\.,.U.\\.Hl.\.'1>.1\D~\J'\-.t.Ltu.,\'\t1.-'.\'\.1.JJ.. ~.Wt.'1' ~!-\\\1.\.\v..
'M ..l~'ll\~"""o....._
lu'VIA.Lalil-3.<L__
,.l.UJ .'"~i.\.1\.\\~'1.11"<.r.1..VW..~. . J.,,.\,~'"'-t.\.""(.. c1.)_,\l)\'I.~. _ ~'ii\ \:\:'ii\v~~ ·\\J°\:u.ra~1'tu...
b:'""' "'f'.'"""~<~
. ui.x _t\Aiw1. \.\l'(,\\t,"
\1 ~u < hmw.-\, KX \),"" \. '-<'-''~' ·"'"' ~ ><;b-l.> ~"-'..i.., lh
..
. . .
/W, ~\A~t\\·~ ~{~"':}·-·.-:.s.w./
..
. }v.'I.\\ ~.. ~'\"\>.~
~"'"'"/'·"~ l · h'IW, i. ~"'':fr .I\ R\t,;u,.,"'
s,
0-n.i.~...ll.l\.tW.&tW.~\lWtcl :w..\'"O"'"~~ ,v.~
~0,t\\.,,,,:~_l.\\'Uf lv~: \u-\J\,~t":-U'.:t~
+~t-i.-.., ~~ti~ w~·~v.i.., t~ .1''1~""''~ 1,,
i --~t\\~\1
J\.il".'1
lA\t.X
'}{,
•
--~ --~'4' .
~~~uy~,~ .• iw,f
~ .Ji..&,._.,,, __ ~ ioi.
~\. ~C\.M,.l('-IAIY~
l{. Wl\._:
idL~11t ,)\l.\\t\~~lfiJiut.\.\.onu.b .A'Wv\ 1"-~"j"<--•i· } 'JV.""' •\I./":', J.. ~q-v.~ ~J. J>J}I.
--J~\.1.-\\\.ox\'\c
k~u.
.-'><L\)t Yt--U')
.,(," 1."."\~-~t\.
l.l.2!.'-.c/Jl::.~~.J'i.tc..;1:.U&\l\.t.\.'r1J
C\i:.V,\.'\.ow Lttll\:i.1
\\u.
~O'-l'l. ~\.'<1\.-.:w:\"'V.n.t \:a.tit..'~,,.~ .. (
t~\\)'·~ ~H. ~\)~" ~,<. . .~y-.-r1--1 a>u~~
\1' .lQll._l"ftlll\"~\<.)
ij.Q.'k.<M.A<o•
~J ./kn<,•/ Chuct~1t:i>
�
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
Essex Street
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
193-195 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built in 1805 for the Merchants B. Herbert Hathorne and W. Shepard Gray
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
1805, 2002
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Robert Booth
Language
A language of the resource
English
1805
193
195
2002
B.
Essex
Gray
Hathorne
Herbert
History
House
Massachusetts
Salem
Shepard
Street
W.
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/28828/archive/files/7d3fed17f48466d6fc39d1b9bcc66f60.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=XCu1l-cDbwKr6Er8fwFZ1Txy%7ED9ro9oTG7q9rByEIcsP-cLvzBzxp9qdFjdjTIIF7n15THGaEsUnT4sewxARhG7BhW3q0pA6zX-eD%7EWqoGo1Gx0KYE9yKsSl38cn-1jnMAM63PJhO4Sl7y7nWR8XyzJSoLFkBKjbw179kkBLy%7ELILbgl3mo9JxoxEGABn0auuQIg7l3gI7WAqMtz%7E5RFyCTt-bSjcYQ4BLooP2soKH-0T%7EBWZucJ8mZBWn%7E%7E%7EsNGeNrBOJC6%7ESaAkYGtmhhH5N1a6EwD42JwYnDCdwwgdJ7QVf1HW%7EY8yEYg4JhCVYDLVPsqQGbesyFsYn4193oQkw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
e85422505b08dffc032b01e3071168b5
PDF Text
Text
25 Beach Avenue
Built for
Harriet F. Perkins
Widow of
Salem City Alderman
Fitz W. Perkins
1896
Researched & written by
Amy Kellett
May 2019
Historic Salem, Inc.
9 North Street, Salem, MA 01970
978.745.0799 | HistoricSalem.org
© 2019
�House History Report
25 Beach Avenue
Salem, Massachusetts
The Perkins Family Summer Cottage
1896-1937
The Poulter Home
1938-1953
Research & Report by
Amy E. Kellett
2019
Researcher’s Note:
The contents of this report are based on research done
through the Southern Essex County Registry of Deeds, the
Salem City Directory archives, Salem Street Books, Tax
Assessment Records, and other primary sources. (Where
secondary sources have been quoted or otherwise referred
to, there are corresponding citation footnotes.) This report is
completed to the best of my knowledge at the time of its
publication. However, I reserve the right to update, revise,
and otherwise edit this report if and/or when new
information is discovered.
This report is published and copyrighted by Historic Salem,
Inc., Feb. 2019.
Amy E. Kellett
Researcher & Author
�Historic Salem Inc. | House History Report
Part I: A History of the Land before 1896
The earliest official records regarding the land at Salem Neck, including Winter Island and
Juniper Point, date to November 1792 when the Supreme Judicial Court held at Salem granted
the peninsula of Salem Neck to Edward Allen, Sr. as an estate including the wharves and
warehouses thereupon. In 1801 Allen divided his estate with his son and namesake, Edward Allen
Jr., recorded in the Southern Essex Co. Registry of Deeds, Book 176 Leaf 196.
1801 Land Deed | Edward Allen, Sr. to Edward Allen, Jr.
Nine years later, in 1810 Edward Allen, Jr. sold a portion of the estate left to him by his father to
Salem merchant Josiah Orne, the deed for which describes the ‘parcel of land’:
…called Allen’s farm with all the buildings thereon standing being situated
partly on the Neck so called, and partly on Winter Island so called and
containing about forty five acres more or less, being bounded by the stone wall
as the same now stands, together with all the walls adjoining…
Orne was in possession of the property at Winter Island for only a half dozen years, after which
the property once again transferred hands in 1816 to Danvers native, Jonathan Dustin.
According to the 1816 Deed from Josiah Orne, Jonathan Dustin’s profession is noted as
‘Victualler’, meaning the Dustin’s family fortune was made in the licensed trade of alcoholic
liquor (and other provisions). The property would remain in the Dustin family for the next halfcentury and in subsequent records, including the 1874 Salem City Atlas, the portion of land
known as ‘Juniper Point’ of the Salem Neck is recorded as belonging to the ‘Heirs of Dustin’,
1
�25 Beach Avenue | Salem, Mass.
which included Dustin’s two adult daughters, Eliza Sutton and Serena Ayers. Just one year after
the publication of the 1874 Salem Atlas, the entire forty-five acres of the Dustin estate was sold to
Daniel B. Gardner for $21,000:
…we, Eliza Sutton and Serena Ayer of Peabody in the County of Essex… in
consideration of twenty one thousand dollars to us paid by Daniel B. Gardner,
Jr. of Salem… a parcel of land formerly called Allen’s Farm situated in Said
Salem partly on the Neck so called and partly on Winter Island so called and
containing about forty five acres more or less… Easterly by the sea shore and
Northerly North Westerly, Southwesterly and Southerly by land of the City of
Salem as the same to now enclosed by the stone walls and boundaries being
more particularly shown on a plan entitled “Plan of the Dustin Farm on Salem
Neck, 1854… Being the same premises that Josiah Orne conveyed to Jonathan
Dustin the father of said Eliza and Serena… [who] inherited the same.
1874 Salem City Atlas | Salem Neck & Winter Island
2
�Historic Salem Inc. | House History Report
Immediately after purchasing the property from the Heirs of Dustin, in October of 1875 Gardner
commissioned the land to be officially surveyed and divided by local surveyor, Charles A.
Putnam, the result of which was a plan to subdivide the Juniper Point peninsula, entitled ‘Plan of
Cottage Lots at Juniper Point Salem Neck’. Gardner, one of the wealthiest land owners in Salem
during the 19th century, planned to subsequently sell the individual parcels for others to build
summer homes along the Juniper Cove waterfront (see images on page 4).
The following Spring, in April of 1876, Daniel B. Gardner, Jr. sold two parcels (numbered 32 and
33 on the Putnam plan) to Horatio D. Allen for $500. The deed between Gardner and Allen
includes a specific condition that further confirms Gardner’s vision for the Juniper Point
development:
This conveyance is made on condition that no shop, public house, boarding
house, saloon or stable shall ever be erected on said lot, nor any building
thereon used for any of said purposes… and further that a strip of land ten feet
wide next to high water mark shall forever be kept open free and unobstructed
as a public ride walk and promenade.
1876 Land Deed | Daniel B. Gardner to Horatio B. Allen
3
�25 Beach Avenue | Salem, Mass.
1875 Plan of Cottage Lots at Juniper Point Salem Neck
(top) Overview of Cottage Lots at Juniper Point as subdivided and surveyed by Charles A. Putnam,
surveyor, who divided Gardner’s land into 73 individual lots to be sold.
(Bottom) Denoted by the bold line on the top picture, a closer view of the neighborhood of Juniper
point, including Beach, Central, and Cheval Avenues, lots 23-37.
4
�Historic Salem Inc. | House History Report
Salem in the 1870s was in flux; the maritime industry that had held up Salem’s economy for
decades had crumbled in the 1820s and 30s, and by the middle of the 19th century the entire
industry had changed from seafaring to an international capitol of cloth and shoe manufacturing.
Salem continued to prosper in the 1870s, carried forward by the leather-making business. In
1874 the city was visited by a tornado and shaken by a minor earthquake. In the following year,
the large Pennsylvania Pier (site of the present harbor-side electrical plant) was completed to
begin receiving large shipments of coal.
1876 Alexander Graham Bell demonstrating his telephone invention at the Lyceum in Salem, Mass.
In the U.S. centennial year, 1876, A.G. Bell of Salem announced that he had discovered a way to
transmit voices over telegraph wires. In this decade, French-Canadian families began coming to
work in Salem’s mills and factories, and more houses and tenements were built. The better-off
workers bought portions of older houses or built small homes for their families in the outlying
sections of the city; and by 1879 the Naumkeag Steam Cotton mills would employ 1200 people
and annually produce nearly 15 million yards of cloth. Shoe-manufacturing businesses expanded
in the 1870s, and 40 shoe factories were employing 600-plus operatives. Tanning, in both Salem
and Peabody, remained a very important industry, and employed hundreds of breadwinners.
5
�25 Beach Avenue | Salem, Mass.
1883 Salem, Mass. Lithograph | The Willows
On Juniper point, the Allen family continued to use the land for farming and working purposes.
In 1883 Horatio D. Allen sold the property to his son, Joseph P. Allen (whose name again appears
in this report on the 1897 Salem Atlas as the neighboring house to 25 Beach Avenue) — Allen in
turn decided to sell half of the property, the lot numbered 33 on the Plan of Cottage Lots at
Juniper Point.
1897 Salem Atlas | Juniper Point at Salem Neck
6
�Historic Salem Inc. | House History Report
The 1891 Deed details the sale between Joseph P. Allen and Frank A. Wendell who purchased the
lot for $800, and includes the stipulation that a “strip of land thirty two (32) feet in width
extending from Central Avenue to the Sea shall be kept open and used in common by the owners
of said adjoining Estates.” Wendell then sold the land at Lot 33 in March 1896 to Samuel Shaw
from Newton, Mass. for “one dollar and other valuable considerations” (a common price for land
exchanges in 19th and early 20th century Essex County). One year prior in 1895, two brand new
streets were approved to be developed on Juniper Point: Central and Beach Avenues. Shaw
commenced work immediately on building the Queen Anne home at the intersection of Beach,
Central, and Cheval Avenues. By the end of the Spring 1896 the waterfront home was completed,
and Shaw sold the new home to the widow Harriet F. Perkins for $4,100. Just one year later, a
new official Atlas was published (presumably surveyed in 1896-7), the page showing Juniper
Point notes Mrs. Perkins at the new home, next door to J. P. Allen.
1896 Land Deed | Frank A. Wendell to Samuel Shaw
7
�25 Beach Avenue | Salem, Mass.
Part II: The Perkins Family
Mrs. Harriet F. Perkins was given the name Mary Elizabeth at birth, but someone in the Bingham
family decided better of it shortly after she was born on February 26th of 1845, and changed her
name to Harriet F. Bingham.
1845 Mass. Birth Records
Harriet F Bingham born
Feb. 26 on Central
Street in Manchester.
She was born to Mary Jane and Henry Tuck Bingham, a cabinetmaker, on Central Street in
Manchester, Massachusetts. Harriet was the third born of four Bingham children born to Mary
Jane and Henry, and their only daughter.
1850 US Federal Census | Essex Co. Massachusetts | Manchester | The Bingham Family
8
�Historic Salem Inc. | House History Report
22 February 1868 Massachusetts Marriage Record of Fitz W. Perkins & Harriet F. Bingham
At the age of 22 Harriet was married to 23 year-old Fitz W. Perkins, a grocer and Gloucester,
Mass. native on the 22nd of February, 1868. Eighteen months later Harriet gave birth to the one
and only child born to the couple; Fitz and Harriet welcomed their son, Charles F. Perkins on
July 15th of 1869. The family spent the first few years of their marriage living in Gloucester while
Fitz worked as a grocer, as neighbors to Mr. Perkins’ parents, Jacob and Margaret, until 1874
when they relocated to Central Street in Salem, Mass.
1870 US Federal Census | Manchester, Essex Co. | Fitz & Harriet (Hattie) Perkins, et al.
9
�25 Beach Avenue | Salem, Mass.
During this decade in Salem, hordes of French-Canadian families began coming to work in
Salem’s mills and factories, and more houses and tenements were built. The better-off workers
bought portions of older houses or built small homes for their families in the outlying sections of
the city; and by 1879 the Naumkeag Steam Cotton mills would employ 1200 people and produce
annually nearly 15 million yards of cloth. Shoe-manufacturing businesses expanded in the 1870s,
and 40 shoe factories were employing 600-plus operatives.
1883 Salem, Mass. Lithograph | The Point & the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Co. neighborhood
Fitz W. Perkins established a successful business with a Mr. Leroy Philbrick soon after he and his
family arrived in Salem. The partners created L. B. Philbrick & Perkins and dealt in ‘oils, paints,
and papers.’ Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, along with their son Charles, lived at several addresses
throughout the City, according to concurrent directories: in 1874 the family lived at 7 Central
Street, while Mr. Perkins’ business was located at 16 Central; then, by 1878 the business of
Philbrick & Perkins is at 229 Derby Street, and the Perkins’ home at 23 Pickman; in 1880 the
business had relocated to 36-38 Central Street, and the Perkins family to 91 Essex, in 1888 they
are at 13 Orne Sq, after which the family moved to 2 Pickman Street by 1890, and then 19 Winter
Street by 1893. Evidently, Fitz was also deeply involved in the politics of Salem, and by the age of
fifty he had gotten himself elected to the City Board of Alderman. It was 1894 when Mr. and Mrs.
Perkins took a trip to Washington, D. C. Fitz W. Perkins became gravely ill and died at the Hotel
Oxford. His obituary, published in the Salem Evening News on October 1st, details the
extraordinary man’s life (and a bit of 1894 Salem politics):
10
�Historic Salem Inc. | House History Report
Alderman Perkins Dies at Washington
cords of the neck. The G. A. R. Post of
Washington had in the meantime been
communicated with by the local post, and they
visited the sick man at about that time. The
attending physician stated the seriousness of the
case, and the post immediately ordered the
department physician to attend. That gentleman
was one of Garfield’s physicians.
A consultation was held, and the
doctors decided that in order to combat with the
disease it was absolutely necessary to open the
growth at the back of the neck. That operation
was successfully performed, and a large amount
of poisonous matter removed.
The poison accumulated so rapidly,
however, that the skill of the best physicians in
the country was of no avail and Mr. Perkins soon
after passed away.
The disease so rapidly enveloped his
system that his mind was unbalanced on several
occasions during the first three weeks of his
sickness. Sunday morning it was evident that the
end was near. He lapsed into unconsciousness
and remained in that state until death ensued.
He was unconscious some little time
before his final attack, and failed to recognize his
brothers, who had gone on to see him.
The attending physicians stated
yesterday that they had Mr. Perkins started for
home upon the first attack of illness, it was
exceedingly doubtful if he would have made the
journey alive. During his unconscious spells his
mind continually preyed upon city affairs, and
repeatedly he would rise and ask to be taken
home, as he must get there and vote on the
Longham meadow matter. The doctors were of
the opinion aided materially in the progress of
the disease, as it was impossible to keep him,
while suffering so frightfully from these
deliriums.
Mrs. Perkins, accompanied by her two
brothers, left Washington last evening, arriving
home this forenoon. The son, Charles F., will
leave Washington today with the body. It was the
intention of the Washington post, to send a
member with the son.
Second Death in Board This Year.
Has a Very Important Political Aspect.
Leaves Longham Supporters a Clear Majority.
Opponents Will Petition to Have Both Seats
Filled.
Fitz W Perkins died at Hotel Oxford,
Washington, at 1.08 Sunday afternoon, after an
illness dating from the national encampment of
the G. A. R. At Pittsburg, a month ago.
Three weeks ago the deceased was
taken to the hotel ad Washington, upon the
advice of physicians, he having developed
alarming symptoms for typhoid fever. Mrs.
Perkins, his wife, was with him and remained by
his side until death ensued.
Soon after his admittance to the hotel ,
typhoid fever set in. The attuning physicians did
everything within their power to allay the ravages
of the disease, and were successful in
counteracting its influence on the system. He
rallied slightly, only to be attached by erysipelas.
A growth was soon noticeable upon the
11
�25 Beach Avenue | Salem, Mass.
condition was such that he was unable to
withstand the ravages of the disease.
Its Political Significance.
If VacancyIs Not Filled Longham Meadow Basin
Is Assured.
The death of Alderman Perkins is the
sole topic of conversation in political circles. It
means considerable to the citizens. If his
successor is not elected Messrs. Knight, Gove
and Stickney would form a majority of the board
and the Longham meadow scheme would go
through with a rush.
That movement will be checkmated by
the opponents to the measure, however, by a
petition for an election to fill the vacancies in the
board. That means two new aldermen.
The canvass for the offices would be
bitterly contested by the men favoring Longham
meadow, as, unless they win a victory their
scheme for furnishing water to the citizens can
never pass.
The opponents will not work so hard,
but will endeavor to induce gentlemen to run for
offices that the citizens can rely upon, the men
who will thoroughly investigate matters before
rushing a scheme of any description through the
board.
The Dead Alderman.
It Was His First Political Office — A Good
Record as a Soldier, Extending Over 26 Years.
Fitz W. Perkins was born in
Gloucester, Aug. 20, 1844. He was educated in
the public schools, and after finishing his
education entered the grocery business. After
concluding his career as a groceryman he entered
the paint and oil business. He associated himself
with L. B. Philbrick & Perkins, dealers in oils,
paints and paper, with headquarters in this city.
The firm has enjoyed prosperity and run teams to
all portions of the county and this section of the
state.
Mr. Perkins has a long military record
with some 26 years continuous service. When the
war broke out he enlisted as a private in Co. G,
Eighth Regiment, and after serving nine months
was discharged. He re-enlisted June 4, 1863, as
sergeant in the Second Massachusetts Heavy
artillery and refined in service until June 27, 1865.
In August, 1863, he enlisted as a
member of Co. . Eighth Regiment. M. V. M. He
served time as a corporal and sergeant, and on
May 15, 1868, was elected second lieutenant.
April 20, 1869, he was promoted to the first
lieutenancy, and August 18, 1869, was
discharged.
He again mustered into service March
15, 1875, as quartermaster sergeant of the Eight
Regiment, Aug. 11, 1879, he was appointed
quartermaster, and held that office for a number
of years.
He was a member of the G. A. R. Royal
Arcanum and one of the leaders in the Pilgrim
Fathers, having occupied many offices in that
order.
Mr. Perkins was originally a member of
Allen post 45, G. A. R., of Gloucester, and was a
past commander of that organization. He was a
past president of the Eighth Regiment Veteran
association. He was a deputy supreme governor
of several Pilgrim Father lodges. When the Salem
Board of Trade was formed he became a member
and has since taken great interest in its work.
He was elected to the board of
aldermen last December, that being the first
Was on a Pleasure Trip.
Succumbed to Illness In Washington About Two
Weeks Ago
The death of Alderman Perkins is the
second to be recorded among the members of the
board of aldermen of this city for the year of 1894,
Alderman Fabens having been the first to pass
away.
Death was the result of an attack of
erysipelas, with other complications.
Alderman Perkins left Salem a few
weeks ago to attend the national G. A. R.
Encampment at Pittsburg. He was not feeling
very well at the time, but insisted upon making
the trip.
At Pittsburg he partially succumbed to
an attack of illness, but rallied an insisted on
starting for the battle field of Newburn, N. C.
With a large party. He got as far as Washington,
where he was forced to take to his bed. Here he
remained ever since, attended by the best
physicians in the Capitol city. His physical
12
�Historic Salem Inc. | House History Report
political office he had ever held. He was an
opponent to the Longham meadow scheme, and
it was his illness that brought about the present
condition of affairs.
He was married and leaves a widow, and
one son, Charles F., of the firm of Odell &
Perkins.
through him that in 1882 I severed my connection
with the Cadets and joined the Eighth Regiment.
Our social relations were pleasant and friendly.
We visited at each other’s homes, and the
friendship extended to the other members of our
families.”
The day before he started for Pittsburg
he came into my shop and in talking over the
matter he expresses the wish that I would
accompany him. I said it would be a pleasure but
business would not permit. That evening he and
Mrs. Perkins came to my house and bid Mrs.
Stickney and myself good bye. His death removes
a friend that I shall ever deplore.”
Alderman Flynn— “My relations with
Mr. Perkins began at the Columbus Day parade,
Oct. 21, 1892, we serving together on the staff of
Wm. G. Webber, marshal of the trades’ division.
Then I found him a perfect gentleman and a
pleasant companion. Since his coming into the
board of aldermen I found he displayed the same
gentlemanly qualities. He was earnest and sincere
in all his actions, and although sometimes we
differed on the wisest courses to follow in
municipal matters, any such difference never
interfered with our personal relations. His death
is a loss to the city, which in common with all
citizens I regret, and also regard his death as a
personal loss, it being the removal of one whom I
regarded as a dear friend. By his death I am left
the only member of the committee on elections
which was originally Messrs. Fabens, Perkins and
myself.”
Alderman Sawyer— “My acquaintance
with Alderman Perkins dates back 25 years,
having first met him on the road before either of
us moved to Salem.
“The death of Mr. Perkins comes home
to me as though he was a member of the family.
He was the only member of the bard that I was
personally acquainted with, before the recent
election.
“He was as good a friend as a man could
have and if he ever gave his word you could rely
on it. He was faithful to all trusts and everything
placed in his care was always looked alert. He was
an earnest, honest and fearless worker, attending
to his duties in a thoroughly impartial manner.
“In politics, he was a Republican.
While in office, he never cared for the future,
desiring only accomplish what, in his mind was
the true solution of the problem which
confronted him.”
His Associates.
Mayor Turner and the Five Remaining Aldermen
Speak in High Terms of His Worth as a Man and
as a Public Servant.
The news of Alderman Perkins’ death,
though somewhat expected by his fellow
members, as well as by the public, was
nevertheless a great shock to them, more
especially as it was the second time within the
year that death has entered the chamber.
Regardless of political differences, Alderman
Perkins was highly regarded by all his associates.
They ever found him considerate and courteous
man, a man f honor, high minded and having the
interest of the city at heart, doing what he saw to
be his duty, and holding steadfastly to his course.
The mayor and the five remaining
aldermen each had a warm tribute to offered
when the news of his death was brought to them.
Mayor Turner expressed sorrow and
spoke in feeling terms of Mr. Perkins’ many
excellent qualities. Especially he did refer to the
genial companionship of the deceased member in
the executive sessions of the board, where they
were more manifest than at the open sessions; at
the latter, he was dignified and earnest in debate
and conscientious in action.
Alderman Knight — “I regret sincerely
the death of Mr. Perkins. My acquaintance with
him was not so lang as other members of the
board, it having begun at the city election last
year. Since meeting him in the board of aldermen
I learned to respect and esteem him highly. Our
reactions were always pleasant, differences of
opinion as to public matters not marine in the
least our personal relations. He was a pleasant
companion and conscientious public official.
Alderman Stickney— “I knew Mr.
Perkins better than any other member of the
board. Our relations began many years ago in the
militia, I being a member of the Second Corps
and he a member of the Eighth Regiment. It was
13
�25 Beach Avenue | Salem, Mass.
“His death is to be regretted by all classes.”
Alderman Gove— “It is indeed very sad
to lose another member of our board. I
considered Alderman Perkins as a most valuable
member of the board and we shall feel his loss
very much. We seem to have been singularly
unfortunate this year. Two deaths and the serious
injury to Alderman Sawyer, which compelled him
to be absent from the meetings for some time, is a
remarkable state of affairs. I trust that no other
calamity will befall us for the remainder of our
term of office.”
Mayor Turner, Aldermen Knight and
Gove were appointed a committee to draw up
resolutions on the death of Alderman Perkins.
The mayor, with full board, was
appointed a committee to make arrangements for
the funeral.
The city messenger was requested to
drape the late alderman’s chair in mourning.
It was voted not to hold any other
meeting until after the funeral. On the day of the
funeral the City hall will be closed and all the
departments of the city will be closed.
The only business done was the
drawing of jurors. Frank W. Benson, Charles W.
Read and William Sutton drawn.
Alderman Knight and Flynn will
probably go to Boston to accompany the remains
to Salem.
Second Death on Board
Alderman Fabens Passed Away Early in the Year.
It is a little singular that there should be
two deaths in the board of aldermen within eight
months, yet such is the case. Alderman Fabens
died suddenly at Bridgeport, Conn., early in the
year while on his way home from Europe whither
he had been in search of health. This death left
the board a tie on the water question, and now
that tie is broken by the second death.
Funeral Tuesday.
It Will Be Held from His Late Home on Winter
Street at 2.30.
Alderman Perkins’ brothers arrived in Salem this
morning. They announced that the funeral would
be h eld from his late home on Winter street,
Tuesday afternoon at 2,30 o’clock, and that it was
the wish of the widow to have it as private as
possible. The body will arrive in Boston about
8.30 this evening.
The G. A. R. Notified.
Local Post Has Followed the Sickness of Its
Comrade — Adjutant Goes to Meet the Remains.
The local post of the G. A. R. Has kept
constantly informed of the condition of its sick
comrade, and I. W. Stone, assistant adjutant
general of the department of the district, has
acted as the agent of the post. A message was
received from him Sunday, conveying the
intelligence of Mr. Perkins’ death, and Dr. A. M.
Dudley, the adjutant, immediately started for
New York, to meet the remains. A committee
from the post will meet the remains in Salem.
Board of Trade Meeting.
The board of trade will meet this
evening at 8 o’clock to take action on the death of
Alderman Perkins, who was a member of the
executive committee.
Aldermen Meet.
Appropriate Action Taken On the Death of Their
Fellow Member.
The board of aldermen held a special
meeting at 9 o’clock this morning. Mayor Turner
presided and all members were present.
14
�Historic Salem Inc. | House History Report
After twenty-five years of marriage, Harriet F. Perkins found herself widowed at the age of 49.
She continued to live at the couple’s last address, 19 Winter Street (until 1899), and presumably
she and her son Charles were the beneficiaries of her late husband’s Estate. Two years after Fitz
W. Perkins passing, Harriet purchased the house on Juniper Point from Samuel Shaw in June of
1896:
…in consideration of forty-one hundred dollars paid by Harriet F. Perkins,
widow, of Salem … do hereby give, grant, bargain sell and convey unto the said
Harriet F. Perkins a certain lot of land situate on Juniper Point, so called, in
said Salem being lot numbered thirty three (33) on a “Plan of Cottage Lots at
Juniper Point Salem Neck, C. A. Putnam, Surveyor Oct. 1875”…
1896 Property Deed | Samuel Shaw to Harriet F. Perkins
The design and layout of the neighborhood at Juniper Point was entirely intentional; the vision of
Daniel B. Gardner, who had bought, surveyed, and subdivided, and sold the property in the
mid-1870s was clearly intended in some of the earliest deeds granted to the residents of Juniper
Point (and Salem Neck), which included explicit language as to what the premises could (or more
accurately, could not) be used for:
15
�25 Beach Avenue | Salem, Mass.
“… no building nor any part thereof on said land shall be used as a hotel,
boarding-house, saloon, shop, livery or boarding stable, or for manufacturing
purposes, or for any purposes than for a private dwelling house, with the usual
out-buildings, including a private stable; no stable, however, to be rested within
50’ of any street, and with the further agreement that no swine shall be kept on
said land…”
1911 Salem Atlas | Mrs. Perkins at 43 Central Avenue (now 25 Beach Avenue)
By the time of Mrs. Perkins’ purchase of the home in the early Summer of 1896, much of the land
that had once been owned and parceled out by Daniel B. Gardner had been purchased and
developed into a retreat of sorts for well-to-do Salemites looking to escape the heat of Downtown
Salem in the humid New England summers. At the turn of the 20th century, Salem Willows was
being developed with amusement rides and restaurants just around the corner from the Juniper
Point summer homes along the waterfront. Apparently Mrs. Perkins enjoyed living on Salem
Neck enough that she decided to make it her permanent residence (though she retained
ownership of 19 Winter Street) and by 1900 she is listed living on Central Avenue. (The address
of the Perkins’ waterfront home changed once more in the time between 1911 and 1915, when the
current address of 25 Beach Avenue became the permanent identity of the Queen Anne home.)
16
�Historic Salem Inc. | House History Report
On the morning of June 25, 1914 in Blubber Hollow (Boston Street opposite Federal), a fire
started in one of Salem’s fire-prone wooden tanneries. This fire soon consumed the building and
raced out of control, for the west wind was high and the season had been dry. The next building
caught fire, and the next, and out of Blubber Hollow the fire roared easterly, a monstrous front of
flame and smoke, wiping out the houses of Boston Street, Essex Street, and upper Broad Street,
and then sweeping through Hathorne, Winthrop, Endicott, and other residential streets. Men
and machines could not stop it: the enormous fire crossed over into South Salem and destroyed
the neighborhoods west of Lafayette Street, then devoured the mansions of Lafayette Street
itself, and raged onward into the tenement district.
25th June 1914 | The Great Salem Fire consumes a third of the City
Despite the combined efforts of heroic fire crews from many towns and cities, the fire
overwhelmed everything in its path: it smashed into the large factory buildings of the Naumkeag
Steam Cotton Company (Congress Street), which exploded in an inferno; and it rolled down
Lafayette Street and across the water to Derby Street. There, just beyond Union Street, after a
13-hour rampage, the monster died, having consumed some 250 acres, 1600 houses, and 41
factories, and leaving three dead and thousands homeless. Some people had insurance, some did
not; all received much support and generous donations from all over the country and the world.
It was one of the greatest urban disasters in the history of the United States, and the people of
Salem would take years to recover from it; fortunately, the Perkins family did not lose anything.
17
�25 Beach Avenue | Salem, Mass.
1900 US Federal Census | Salem, Mass. | Central Avenue, Juniper Point
Harriet ‘Hattie’ F. Perkins remained living at the home until she disappears from the local
records in 1916, as she presumably passed away in 1915 at the age of 70. Documents show that
Mrs. Perkins left her estate (including both homes on Winter Street and Beach Avenue) to her
only son, Charles F. Perkins, now a married man with a career as an accountant, who is listed in
the Salem Directory as living at 25 Beach Avenue in 1916 through 1918, after which he retained
ownership but did not live at the home on Juniper Point full-time; rather it was used by the family
as a summer retreat from the sweltering heat of downtown Salem in the summertime.
1916 Salem City Directory | Charles F. & Elizabeth B. Perkins at 25 Beach Avenue
18
�Historic Salem Inc. | House History Report
1926 Survey of Salem Neck| Waterfront Homes at Juniper Point
Charles F. Perkins continued to own the home at 25 Beach Avenue and the Perkins family and
friends undoubtedly spent many a long summer evening on the shores at Juniper Point.
Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s the home is listed on the Salem Street Directories as
being the summer residence of C. F. Perkins until 1938. From the time that Charles’ widowed
mother purchased the brand new home on the waterfront of Juniper Point in 1896 until the
property was sold in 1938, the home at 25 Beach Avenue and the Perkins family were witness to a
rapidly changing city just across the Salem Sound.
After the Great Salem Fire of 1914, one of the greatest urban disasters in the history of the United
States, the people of Salem would take years to recover from it. Eventually, they did, and many of
the former houses and businesses were rebuilt; and several urban-renewal projects (including
Hawthorne Boulevard, which involved removing old houses and widening old streets) were put
into effect.
19
�25 Beach Avenue | Salem, Mass.
1926 Salem Mass. City Hall | Salem’s Tercentenary Celebration
By the 1920s, Salem was once again a thriving city; and its tercentenary in 1926 was a time of
great celebration. The Depression hit in 1929, and continued through the 1930s. Salem, the
county seat and regional retail center, gradually rebounded, and prospered after World War II
through the 1950s and into the 1960s. General Electric, Sylvania, Parker Brothers, Pequot Mills
(formerly Naumkeag Steam Cotton Co.), Almy’s department store, various other large-scale
retailers, and Beverly’s United Shoe Machinery Company were all major local employers.
20
�Historic Salem Inc. | House History Report
Early 20th Century Postcard | Salem, Mass. | The Willows
In May of 1938 Charles F. Perkins sold the property at 25 Beach Avenue to Alfred T. Poulter and
his wife, Marion E. Poulter. (Charles Perkins relocated to Los Angeles, California in the late
1930s where he would spend the rest of his life until his passing in 1943.) Evidently, according to
contemporary directories the Poulter family made 25 Beach Avenue their year-round residence.
(Researcher’s note: 25 Beach Avenue is sometimes labelled 136 Bay View Avenue in contemporary
City directories.)
21
�25 Beach Avenue | Salem, Mass.
Part III: The Poulter Family
Alfred Thomas Poulter was born in Plaistow, in Essex, England in the County Borough of West
Ham, the second youngest of the four children of Samuel James and Charlotte Poulter (née
Raisbeck): James, born in 1894, Joy Hilda born in 1895, Alfred Thomas Poulter born in 1899, and
finally Herbert born in 1901. The Poulter family emigrated through Boston, Mass. in May of 1906
from London, England when Alfred Thomas was just turning seven years old, and settled in
Connecticut. Samuel James Poulter earned a living as a painter to support his family, while the
Poulter children were educated in local schools.
Alfred Thomas Poulter remained in East Windsor, Connecticut where he lived and worked in the
Warehouse Point Village neighborhood of the city. According to the 1920 Federal Census ,
Alfred was living with his family as a single 20-year old, working as a foreman at a local cotton
mill. He had been naturalized as an American citizen just one year before in 1919.
In 1922 Alfred T. Poulter relocated to Salem, Mass. which sustained on its own booming cotton
mill industry, where he found work as a bookkeeper and a place to board at 75 Hathorne. By 1924
Alfred had found a new place to board at 116 Columbus Avenue on Juniper Point, while working
as a cashier (i.e. bookkeeper) at Swift & Co., a local beef wholesale provision market, located at
274 Bridge Street. During his time boarding on Columbus Avenue, Alfred Poulter would meet
the young woman who would eventually become his wife: Marion Elizabeth Spencer; the two
were wed in 1926.
Marion E. Spencer was born in Salem on the 22nd of September, 1899, the only child of Alfred
and Margaret E. Spencer (née Hamilton). Alfred Spencer came to Salem from England to apply
his trade as a shoemaker. Margaret E. Hamilton was born in the burgeoning industrial town of
Northbridge, Massachusetts in a neighborhood village called Whitinsville; it is no coincidence
that her family made their way to Salem in the second half of the 19th century, as Salem’s
booming industrial economy drew thousands from all over the world, especially those involved
with steam power manufacturing.
The Spencer family including Alfred, Margaret, and Marion Elizabeth lived at 12 Margin Street
with Marion’s paternal grandmother, Martha Spencer (née Crabtree). At just seven years old,
22
�Historic Salem Inc. | House History Report
Marion’s father Alfred passed away after a week-long bout of peritonitis 1 in March of 1908.
Marion and her mother continued to live at 12 Margin Street, along with Margaret Spencer’s
mother (Marion’s maternal grandmother), Isabella Hamilton, and a 66 year-old boarder from
Maine named Sarah Leighton.
Marion lived on Margin Street until she finished with her primary school education, after which
she moved (along with her mother) to a boarding house on Brown Street in 1919-20. According
to the 1920 US Federal census, Marion was one of seven ladies living at 18 Brown Street; she was
the youngest of the seven at age 20 (Marion’s mother, Margaret, worked as a housekeeper for the
boarding house.) Helen A. Sutton, the homeowner, worked for the ‘gentlemen’s home’ as a
social worker, sisters Mary and Christine Sutherland came from Canada and both worked in a
local lamp factory, Amelia MacArtie, the daughter of an Italian woman and an Irish man worked
as a bookkeeper at a general furnishing store, and Hannah Shepherd who worked as an
‘attendant’ to a private family.
1921 Salem Normal School Yearbook | Marion E. Spencer
“The secret of success is constancy to purpose.”
By 1921 Marion and her mother moved once again, this time to 15 Messervy Street while Marion
attended the Salem Normal School (now North Campus at Salem State University), where she
studied to become a teacher. She remained living on Messervy Street while working as a teacher
until she met and married Alfred Thomas Poulter in 1926.
1 peritonitis — (noun) inflammation of the peritoneum, typically caused by bacterial infection either via the
blood or after rupture of an abdominal organ
23
�25 Beach Avenue | Salem, Mass.
After the wedding, the new Mr. and Mrs. Alfred T. Poulter resided at 16 Leach Street for a short
time, just long enough to apply for naturalization as a United States citizen in 1927. In February
of 1928 the couple welcomed their first child, Marylyn Margaret Poulter. Later in the same year
the couple had relocated to Gardner, Massachusetts, and in 1931 the second Poulter child was
born: Hamilton Thomas Poulter (named for his maternal grandmother’s surname and father’s
middle name). The young Poulter family lived in several different places within Gardner, where
they remained until 1936, when the Gardner, Mass. Directory notes that the Poulter family had
relocated back to Salem.
The 1936 and 1937 Directories indicate that the Poulter family lived at 2A Willow Avenue in
Salem, and Alfred returned to working for Swift & Co. as a cashier/bookkeeper. In May of 1938
Alfred T. Poulter purchased the home at 25 Beach Avenue from Charles F. Perkins for $3,500
and the cost of back-taxes to the City of Salem. The Poulter family moved in to their newly
procured home and made the seaside home their year-round residence until 1953, when the
property was sold to the Dumas Family.
1938 Deed | Sale of 25 Beach Ave. from Charles F. Perkins to
Alfred T. & Marion E. Poulter
24
�Historic Salem Inc. | House History Report
At the end of the summer in 1953 Alfred T. Poulter sold the property to Leo H. Dumas, whose
heirs still reside at the property on Juniper Point. According to the family, the deal to sell the
home was struck during a friendly night out in Salem’s Derby Street neighborhood.
1953 Deed for 25 Beach Ave. from Alfred T. & Marion E. Poulter to Leo H. & Anastasia Dumas
Southern Essex Registry of Deeds — Book 4006 Page 410
25
�
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
Beach Avenue
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
25 Beach Avenue, Salem, MA 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built for
Harriet F. Perkins
Widow of
Salem City Alderman
Fitz W. Perkins
1896
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
1896, 2019
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Amy E. Kellett
Language
A language of the resource
English
1896
2019
25
Avenue
Beach
F.
Fitz
Harriet
History
House
Massachusetts
Perkins
Salem
W.
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/28828/archive/files/6579e491983191ea8825a6c437fbe58f.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=gMT0DPXviPN1n%7E33OlB%7E1RWcNpWQkAUVn2qsAcag7rzVxdWphuU5QXMw%7EZAXm1l0ljuv8Kyh8rEoWaBPA8CGHnZZAQSMl%7EOPbRNjPxoRBsw6shtO492Ed2vTV3dsmIYbYWGn8PCImO1DMpaPWf1w5tWDUoebdiJYVIGmyAt9pbzaKEnd3ZtS3hQoc015lNoitsVifSH6czz5dL-rWuifp5yngW2AqL7mCpJTlihkYRW0dU9U3ttjhxvUKVBhm-fr4DMFBSBwzF4lwQHomPtfDR9gm0zJL9wA3N1I7URmW5zrQU8KsTKE9gcXyuIFhHWr0W6hqC17KGp-3FV-SZHm1A__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
a9462a2900ce000d203f1490899024f2
PDF Text
Text
4-10 Central Street & 193-195 Essex Street, Salem
According to available evidence, this building was built in 1805 for the merchants
B. Herbert Hathorne and W. Shepard Gray, as a brick block that housed stores
and a residence.
Before 1805 ...
Sidney Perley, in the article "A Part of Salem in 1700" (pp.109-110, Essex
Antiquarian, vol. 11 ), writes that on the site of this building was the lot, with house,
that William Browne sold to Thomas Cromwell, tailor, in 1664. After Cromwell's
death (17 March 1686/7), in 1690 his widow, Ann, and two daughters, Mrs.
Jonathan (Jane) Pickering and Mrs. David (Ann) Phippen, sold the house and land to
Benjamin Browne, merchant (ED 8: 170), who had a stable and warehouse farther
down the street, and his shipping wharf at its foot. By 1693 he had sold the house
and its land to David Phippen, shipwright, son-in-law of the earlier owner Mr.
Cromwell. M~. Phippen died in 1703, leaving his widow Ann, son Thomas Phippen,
and daughters Abigail Fumeux, Anne Ropes, and Elizabeth Webb. In May, 1714,
John Brown, merchant, bought the house and land; and by the time of his death in
1719 the house was evidently gone.
This property was owned by Hon. Benjamin Browne at his death in 1750.
In the 1760s a Scotch sailor, Robert Rantoul, came to Salem and settled here. He
prospered as a shipmaster, and sailed against the British in the Revolution, and made
money as a privateer; and, toward the end of the Revolutionary War, Capt. Rantoul,
on 5 December 1782 for 850 Ii purchased from the heirs of Hon. Benjamin Browne
(John & Martha Browne and Timothy & Eunice Fitch) a lot and buildings at the
westerly corner of the "main street" (Essex) and "the lane leading to the water"
(Central), about 20 poles of land fronting 50' northerly on the street, and 120'
easterly on the lane. There was "a warehouse or small building standing on the
northeast comer thereof." Capt. Rantoul intended to build his residence thereon, and
on Dec. 20th contracted with Eleazer Lindsey to supply the rocks for a cellar 40'
square and 6.5' deep. Unfortunately, Capt. Rantoul was lost at sea on his next
voyage (see EIHC 5:147).
At that time, Central Street--"the lane leading to the water," also known as "the
street leading from the Sun tavern to the South River"-terminated in a public
�landing on the inner harbor (South River), at a point just south of its present
intersection with Charter and Front Streets. The "lane" became Market Street as of
1794, when, at the foot of the street, a new market building was erected for the sale
of fish, shellfish, meat, and produce from the countryside. Later it would be renamed Central Street, probably c.1816, when a new Market Building was built at
Derby Square.
The comer property remained in the ownership of the Rantoul family for many
years; and on the land stood at least one house and three shops, one of them being
the small warehouse mentioned in the 1782 deed to Capt. Rantoul. The Rantoul
family resided on Essex Street, opposite Union. Robert Rantoul (1778-1858), in a
memoir of his life and family, mentions his father's ownership of this property and
notes that it was sold in November, 1804, to W.S. Gray and B.H. Hathorne for
$8500, and that "Gray and Hathorne build a brick block of stores and houses upon
it" (EIHC 5:149). This statement is corroborated by Benjamin F. Browne, in his
Youthfitl Recollections of Salem, published in 1869 (EIHC 49:204), in which he
wrote that a house had been "removed (to Andrew Street) from Central Street to
make room for the Central building, erected by W.S. Gray and Benj. H. Hathorne, in
1805. This house belonged to "Joseph Young, hatter, and organist of St Peter's
Church, who died April 21, 1803, aged 46." In another piece, B.F. Browne wrote,
"Previous to the erection of the Central Building in 1805, there were several old
wooden buildings on this lot of land ... The western shop I principally remember as
being kept by a Mrs. Baldwin. Nathaniel Weston had a shoemaker's shop in one of
them. It (Mrs. Baldwin's) was much resorted to by the boys of that time for the
purchase of marbles and other knickknacks. The old lady came to an untimely end
(March, 1808) from eating bread in the meal of which some arsenic had been
incautiously used in the bread. Joseph Young had a hatter's shop and dwelling
house on Central Street. It was moved to Andrew Street ... " (EIHC 5: 197).
There are other records of the buildings that stood here before 1805. Samuel Webb,
silversmith, had a shop here on Central Street, pre-1805 (see B.F. Browne, 1869
Youthful Recollections of Salem, EIHC 49:204). And in his 1793 Account ofHouses
in Salem (EIHC 6:94), Benjamin Pickman mentions that, on land owned by the
widow "Rentall" (Rantoul), stood, on Essex Street, a shop owned by Mr. William
King. To the west of that shop had stood two small houses that had burned down in
1792. To the west of those houses, on Essex Street, stood the house of Dr. Edward
Augustus Holyoke (1728-1829). East of the King shop, also on land ofMrs.
Rantoul, stood a "hatter's shop, owned by Mr. Breck the hatter." Col. Pickman
identified the comer property as "formerly owned by the Brownes."
�In July, 1792, Edward Breck, Salem hatter, purchased for 15 Ii the east end of a
house that was "standing on the land ofRentall's heirs" (ED 154:265). The house
was the one that was owned by Joseph Young, hatter, who may have resided in its
westerly end, and who had mortgage the easterly end in 1787 and lost it on
foreclosure. Mr. Breck mortgaged his new homestead to Mrs. Mary Rantoul for 3 0
li, and paid off the loan by April, 1795 (ED 154:266).
Rev. William Bentley, in his diary, gives an account of the 1792 fire, on August 30th.
The fire broke out at 1 PM in Young's hatter's shop, which stood opposite the Sun
Tavern (on north side of Essex Street). Next to the shop were the small dwellings of
the widows Beckford and Manning. The season had been dry, and the firefighters
were disorganized: the fire spread westerly from the shop to the "small house" next
door, which could not be saved; and the firefighters quicldy demolished the house
next westerly, to keep the fire from spreading. Mrs. Manning in particular suffered
greatly from her losses in this fire. Mr. Bentley was one of the fire-fighters, and, in
order to get the water up to the fire, stood waist-deep in "the dock mud below the
Sun Tavern," meaning next to the wharf at the foot of Market Street.
From this, it would appear that, in the years before the present Hathorne-Gray block
was built, there was a hatter's shop at or near the comer of Essex and Market
(Central) in 1793, conducted by both Breck and Young, and that the Breck-Young
house on Market Street was removed to Andrew Street in 1805 to make way for the
building of this large new business block. Also on or near the comer was the shop
of the ill-fated Mrs. Baldwin. On Essex Street, west of the corner, also on the site of
this building, was the shop of William King; and to the south, on Market Street, was
Samuel Webb's silversmith shop, along with the shoemaker's shop ofNathaniel
Weston. Too, Samuel Rantoul, son of the deceased owner, kept an apothecary shop
here. Samuel died in June, 1802, while away from Salem. Bentley noted in his
diary, 13 June 1802, "The father of S. Rantoul sustained an excellent character and
died just before I came to Salem. His widow lived in the same house in which I first
dwelt. The father left a good interest and to his heirs belongs the western comer of
Market Street in Essex Street, at which Samuel kept an apothecary's shop. Robert
keeps an apothecary's shop in Beverly." Robert, after whom Rantoul Street in
Beverly is named, became a leading man of Essex County.
Before April, 1800, the store at the comer of the two streets was operated by john
Dabney, stationer, as a post office and a book store-one of the earliest attempts at a
private lending library, which was renowned for the excellence of its volumes. On 29
April 1800 for $400 Mr. Dabney sold his building, on the Rantouls' land, to Robe1i
Rantoul (ED 168 :69).
�1805 and Afterward ...
On 3 November 1804 the Rantoul heirs sold the premises here for $8,500 to William
Shepard Gray and Benjamin Herbe1i Hathorne, Salem merchants (ED 175: 108). The
property was described as a piece of land containing about 20 poles, bounded northerly
on Essex Street, easterly on market Street, and southerly and westerly on land of Dr.
Edward A. Holyoke; and it was stipulated that the Rantouls "and others who have
placed and have buildings standing on said piece of land," had "the right to move the
same buildings and each of them from the same place of land upon paying the ground
rent ... within four months from this day." Presumably the Rantouls and the others did
clear their buildings off the land by February, 1805; certainly the Young house was
moved to Andrew Street and perhaps the shops and other buildings also found new
sites.
The new owners, Messrs. Gray & Hathorne, on the day of the purchase, took out
mortgages from Miss Polly Rantoul of Salem for $2,833.33 and from her brother,
Robert Rantoul, Beverly apothecary, for $4,666.66 (ED 175:108,109). Thus the
merchants had but $1,000 in equity invested in the property at the time of purchase.
There is little doubt that Messrs. Gray & Hathorne had big plans for the site at the time
that they bought it. Perhaps they had gone to Samuel Mcintire, the noted Salem
architect, for a design for their intended brick business block, which also included at
least one residential unit. In his study of the works of Mcintire, Fiske Kimball was
unable to uncover proof ofMcintire's involvement in the project, but, due to the
carving of the eagle for one of the new tenants, the U.S. Custom House, and due to the
building's similarity to a known Mcintire composition (the Steams & Waldo block,
now gone, once at the n01iheast coiner of Essex & Washington), he felt that Samuel
Mcintire was likely the designer (see Kimball's Mr. Samuel Mcintire, Carver, The
Architect of Salem). Kimball also traces the whereabouts of some of the building's
interior fittings, which were dispersed to various houses over the years.
For Mr. Gray, the building was evidently an investment and an income-producer; for
Mr. Hathorne, it was also the new home of his import dry-goods business. Benjamin H.
Hathorne (1773-1824) dealt in British textiles-blankets and cloths-in the days when
there were virtually no textiles manufactured in America. On Oct. 2, 1805, he
submitted an adve1iisement to the Salem Register newspaper. The notice began, "Benj.
H. Hathorne Has Removed to the New Brick STORE, corner of Essex and Market
Street, near the Banks, and has ready for sale, a great variety of Fall and Winter
Goods," which are enumerated. The building was completed and occupied, then, by
�September of 1805. It was not at first called the Central Building, but was given that
name by 1808.
Another early tenant was the firm of Derby & Cross, tailors, whose store was here by
Nov. 28, 1805. Their advertisement (sample: Salem Register, 6 Jan. 1806) ran "Derby
& Cross, Tailors, respectfully inform their friends and the public, that they have
removed from their former stand to the chamber fronting Market and Essex Streets, of
the new brick building, where they will be happy to receive orders in their line, and
every favor gratefully acknowledged. Wanted: Two Journeymen at the above."
A major tenant of the new brick building was the U.S. Custom House, for which
Samuel Mcintire carved the eagle with the date 1805. At that time, Market Street was
the major thoroughfare to the waterside of the inner harbor (South River), which ran
past the market place; and the area was thick with the masts of vessels tied up alongside
wharves and warehouses. Froin the foot of Market Street, Front Street ran westerly
along the waterfront, while Fish Street and Water Streets ran past the buildings whose
yards backed against the wall of the Burying Point graveyard. These salty streets had
houses, wharves, stores, lofts, shops, and distilleries. Market Street made the transition
from the hurly-burly of the waterfront to the residences and stores of Essex Street. On
the lower part of Market Street, between the new Hathorne-Gray building and Front
Street, were houses; and across the street were fine houses (including some marching up
Charter Street), a tavern, and a bank building and insurance office. At the moment that
the new building was built, one of the houses across the street was the double residence
of Nathaniel Bowditch, the navigator and author (and new president of an insurance
company) and Col. William Raymond Lee, formerly of Marblehead, whom Jefferson
had in 1802 appointed Collector of the Port of Salem & Beverly, and at whose direction
the U.S. Custom House was moved to the new brick building of Hathorne & Gray.
Bowditch moved in the year 1805 to Summer Street, but Col. Lee remained a resident
of Market Street.
The colonial (royal) Custom House in Salem had been situated in a house on Gedney
Court, off High Street, and later on Essex Street in a building that was demolished to
prevent the spread of the great fire of October, 1774. In 1776 Warwick Palfrey was
appointed the first Collector of U.S. Customs in Salem; and his office was located at or
near the Curwen house (now called the "Witch House"), corner of Essex and North
Streets. lvir. Palfrey was succeeded in 1784 by Maj. Joseph Hiller. Major Hiller served
ably for 18 years, during the last 13 of which the Custom House offices were kept in a
building across the street from the site of this one. How many rooms here were devoted
to the federal Customs operations in 1805 is not known; certainly not the whole
building. In those days, Salem was one of the leading ports of the nation, and the value
�of Salem cargoes accounted for about one-twentieth of all federal revenues, which were
largely derived from tariffs on foreign imports. At that time, Salem's merchants owned
a total of 54 ships, 18 barks, and 72 brigs (there were 86 schooners as well, probably
engaged in fishing and coasting for wood).
In 1807, per D.M. Little's article, the Custom House offices were moved to the house of
Mr. Bentley's great friend Dr. Moses Little at 131 Essex Street, and in 1811 to the
Archer Building (site of Hawthorne Hotel); however, I believe this could not be
completely true, for in May, 1809, just after the Embargo was lifted, the Custom House
offices were evidently on the second or third floor of the Central (Hathorne-Gray)
Building (see 1809 Peter Lander advertisement below). In 1813, per the article, the
Custom House offices were moved back into the Central Building here; and evidently
Col. William R. Lee, the Collector, also had his residence here. The Central Building
here remained the home of the Custom House until the opening of the new building at
the head of Derby Wharf, the handsome brick U.S. Custom House, now part of the
federal maritime park. (For information about the Custom House and Collectors, see
R.S. Rantoul's article, The Port of Salem, EIHC 10:62; see also EIHC 67:11, David M.
Little's article, History of the Salem Custom House)).
Of the owners of the building, their careers were in full swing as of 1805.
Benjamin Herbert Hathorne (1773-1824) was born on 9 Sept 1773, the son of Col. John
Hathorne and his wife Susannah Herbert, the daughter of Capt. Benjamin Herbert, after
whom Herbert Street was named. His father was a prominent merchant in Salem, with
a large brick house built in 1774-1775 in Essex Street west of Washington Street, which
is where Benjamin grew up, the eldest of 14 children. In the house was Col. Hathome's
dry-goods store (EIHC 6:108). By early manhood, Benjamin H. was known as Herbert
Hathorne. His brothers John and William were merchants as well, and his eccentric
younger brother Ebenezer (1789-1858) would become a mariner and adventurer who
went west but finally settled down in Salem as a farmer and nurseryman. The Colonel,
a prominent local Jeffersonian politician, had his town house and a farmhouse on Salem
Neck, around where the power plant complex now is. In 1809 he moved permanently
to the farmhouse (where he would die in 1835), and sold the town house to his son
William, who rented it to Joshua Dodge in 1809. Like all Salem Hathornes of that time,
Benjamin's father was descended from Col. John Hathorne, one of the justices of the
witchcraft trials in 1692. The Hathorne family had been prominent in early Salem
history, but by 1800 they were of varying fortunes. Col. John's branch was foremost.
One of Benjamin Herbert Hathorne's first cousins was Capt. Nathaniel Hathorne (17751808), of Union Street, whose son, Nathaniel Jr., born in 1804, would grow up to
�become Hawthorne, the writer. Hawthorne changed the spelling of the name because
he did not like the way that "Hathorne" was pronounced, especially in Salem, where it
was invariably pronounced "Har-thorne."
On 31 July 1799, "Herbert Harthorne married Miss Hall", per the diary of Miss Susann
Holyoke (1779-1860) (see Holyoke Diaries, p.175). This is the only record of this
marriage. Miss Hall was Rebecca Hall, evidently from Boston. The couple would not
have children, but would adopt a daughter, Rebecca Hathorne Hall, born in 1813,
evidently a daughter of Mrs. Hall's brother James. As has been noted, B. Herbert
Hathorne went into business as a dry goods merchant, importing English textiles and
selling them here in his shop, which faced on Essex Street. In March, 1808, for $5,000
he mortgaged his half-interest in the land and the "large brick tenement thereon ...
known by the name of Central building" (ED 182:233).
Wm. Shepard Gray (1773-1824), the other owner of the building, was born in Salem on
30 July 1773, the son of a house-painter, William Gray, and his wife Susannah Shepard.
His father owned a house on the north side of Charter Street, not far from Central
Street. The son changed his name by an act of the legislature in 1798, from William to
William Shepard Gray, because there were five other William Grays in Salem at the
time, including William "Billy" Gray, the eminent merchant, to whom this Gray was
not related. Wm. Shepard Gray married Ann Knight Morland in Newburyport in 1798.
In August, 1800, he was described as "a scribe" when he purchased a piece of land and
a house on upper Federal Street. In 1805 it seems that he worked for the Essex Bank,
preparing loan documents and other instruments. He would later become a ship-owner
and merchant while maintaining his position with the Essex Bank.
In 1805 a bridge was built across the South River, extending Market Street across the
water and connecting it with a new roadway (now known as Lafayette Street) through
the South Fields. The new bridge, which was proposed by the Derby family as a
convenience and in order to help develop their South Salem holdings, was opposed by
the Crowninshields and by William Orne, Joshua Ward, and others who owned wharves
west of it on the South River. At the time of the building of the bridge, evidently, the
market house was moved away.
On 3 November 1807 William Bentley made his first visit to the Hathorne-Gray
building, which now housed the Essex Lodge of Masons. The Lodge, he noted, "has a
new hall in the new brick building, comer of Essex & Market Streets, on the west side
entering Market Street. It was handsomely decorated, the officers enthroned and the
floors spread with carpets and the officers supplied with badges and the apartment with
furniture far above the ancient style. I had never seen the place before. We had a full
�company, an initiation lecture, and a good supper, and parted apparently well pleased
with each other."
On 12 December 1808, Rev. William Bentley composed a letter to William Logan of
Charleston, in which he wrote, "Were you to visit Salem, you would discover great
changes in this town, since your last tarry with us. The encouragement given to brick
buildings has added much to the appearance of Salem. A large block of buildings forms
the comer of1'farket Street, and the market house is removed, and a bridge passes over
South River ... " (EIHC 82:381). This was the period of the Embargo, in which all
foreign commerce was prohibited by the federal government, in an effort to cut off
England from needed supplies, and force the English to stop preying on American
shipping. The Embargo, which was a policy failure and which was disastrous in
bringing all of Salem's commerce to a halt, and throwing all of the mariners out of
work, was removed early in 1809; and foreign commerce resumed.
In May, 1809, Peter Lander, a financial broker, moved into the building, which was
then known as the Central Building. On 10 May 1809 (in the Essex Register
newspaper), a notice ran as follows:
"Insurance, Stock & Exchange Office. Peter Lander informs his friends and the
public that he has taken an office in Central Building, under the Custom House,
and offers his services in the Insurance Stock & Exchange business, where
insurance may be made against all risks, a premium always named proportioned
to the nature of the risk, and the terms and conditions of insurance known upon
application. Likewise, (he) advances money on goods deposited for sale,
purchases and sells public stocks, bills of exchange, shares of any bank and
insurance companies, and negotiable notes, and transacts any other business in
the broker's line."
He also noted "8,000 or 10,000 weight heft green Martinique coffee in casks, for sale
by said Lander."
In the same issue William Hathorne, Jr., ran advertisements offering his father's former
brick house and two stores for sale, and hawking
"Cotton Yam, cheap as can be had at the Manufactory. American, water-spun,
cotton warp & filling, directly from the Smithfield Cotton Manufactory, for sale
at the sign of the subscriber, William Hathorne, Jr., also a small quantity of first
quality knitting yam."
From this, it is apparent that William dealt (sometimes, anyway) in the new Americanmade cotton yams manufactured in Rhode Island; and he had a store here. In 1810,
�another tenant was the Salem Athenaeum, whose library of books and reading rooms
were located here.
In June, 1810, Mr. W. Shepard Gray was owner of the 113-ton brig Mary, Capt.
William Scallon, engaged in foreign trade; and in October, 1810, .Nir. Gray and Robert
.Nforland (his brother-in-law perhaps) were owners of the same vessel, now commanded
by Capt. William Lander (EIHC 41 :144). In December, 1810, he and two others owned
the 133-ton schooner Eliza, registered for foreign trade under Capt. Nathaniel Archer
(EIHC 40:72). In February, 1811, Mr. Gray was one of five owners of the 128-ton
schooner Rising States, Capt. Samuel Lamson, engaged in foreign trade (EIHC 41 :329).
In March, 1812, he was sole owner of the Rising States, Capt. Peter Lander, registered
for overseas trade (EIHC 41 :329). And in September, 1812, he was owner of the brig
Mary, registered for trade under Capt. Benjamin Archer (EIHC 41: 144).
Messrs. Hathorne and Gray owned the building jointly until 16 January 1811, when
they made a division of the property, with Gray receiving the largest portion (ED
192:198). To Hathorne went $500 and the northern end of the lot, with the buildings on
and cellar under, fronting 33' on Market Street, the running 40' westerly through the
northerly partition wall, then running another 10' on a piece of land left in common,
then running northerly 29' by land of Edward A. Holyoke Esq., then running easterly
50' on Essex Street, together with a right of the eaves droppings at the south side of the
southwesterly comer of the buildings (probably for a supply of fresh water). The
partition wall separated the two parts of the building, but did not extend through the
roof; if it were to be so extended, the two parties agreed to bear equal expense. To Gray
went $10 and the southern part of the premises, on which stood the "dwelling house,
stores, and other buildings, and the cellars under the same," and the land fronting
easterly 87' on Market Street, southerly 50' and westerly 82' on land of Edward A.
Holyoke Esq., then running easterly 1O' on the land left in common, then running
northerly 9' to the northerly partition wall, then easterly through the wall to Market
Street. From this, it would seem that part of the southerly part of the building was used
as a residence. Mr. Gray evidently did not live there, but resided in a new house that he
had built on Federal Street. As the son of a house-painter, he had made an
extraordinary leap upward in socio-economic rank.
Salem had resumed its seafaring commerce for three years, but still the British
preyed on American shipping; and in June, 1812, war was declared against Britain.
Although Salem had opposed the war as being potentially ruinous and primarily
for the benefit of the southern and western war-hawk states, yet when it came,
Salem swiftly fitted out 40 privateers manned by Marblehead and Salem crews,
who also served on U.S. Navy vessels, including the Constitution. Many more
�could have been sent against the British, but some of the Federalist merchants held
their vessels back. In addition, Salem fielded companies of infantry and artillery.
Salem and Marblehead privateers were largely successful in making prizes of
British supply vessels. While many of the town's men were wounded in
engagements, and some were killed, the possible riches of privateering kept the
men returning to sea as often as possible. The first prizes were captured by a 30ton converted fishing schooner, the Fame, and by a 14-ton luxury yacht fitted with
one gun, the Jefferson. Of all Salem privateers, the Crowninshields' 350-ton ship
America was the most successful. She would capture 30-plus prizes worth more
than $1,100,000.
Salem erected forts and batteries on its Neck, to discourage the British warships
that cruised these waters. In June, 1813, off Marblehead Neck, the British frigate
Shannon defeated the U.S. Navy frigate Chesapeake. Salem's Federalists, some
of whom continued to oppose ..the war bitterly, would not allow their churches to be
used for the funeral of the Chesapeake's slain commander, James Lawrence
("Don't give up the ship!").
In the fall of 1813, Cushing & Appleton evidently had a bookstore in the comer
store in Mr. Hathome's part of the building. On 12 October 1813 in the Salem
Gazette, Cushing & Appleton advertised the sale of Spanish cigars and of Oliver
vVelch's new book, American Arithmetic, "adapted to the currency of the U.S.,
to which is added a concise treatise on the mensuration of planes and solids ... "
At the same store was a subscription list for those who wished to sign up for Mr.
Vincent Masi's new "school for dancing." John Fermo, broker, probably with
offices in the Central Building at the time, placed this ad (Gazette, 12 Oct. 1813):
"For Sale. Shares in Mercantile Bank. Shares in Salem Bank. Shares in
Beverly Bank. Apply to John W. Fermo, Broker, who buys and sells bills of
all incorporated banks in the Union. U.S. Treasury Notes negotiated. Also,
approved endorsed Notes, at Bank discount. Wanted: shares in Salem
Turnpike, and a Mass. State Note for $1000 or $1200. Exchange on
Baltimore for sale as above."
In April, 1814, the people gathered along the shores of Salem Neck as three sails
appeared on the horizon and came sailing on for Salem Bay. These vessels proved
to be the mighty Constitution in the lead, pursued by the smaller British frigates
Tenedos and Endymion. The breeze was light, and the British vessels gained, but
Old Ironsides made it safely into Marblehead Harbor, to the cheers of thousands.
�In June, 1814, at the meeting of the Essex Guards militia company, W. Shepard
Gray was elected lieutenant, but he declined to serve (EIHC 57:257). On 4 July
1814 the Essex Guards paraded through Salem, and Mr. Gray served as one of
the four Marshals of the Day, with an oration delivered by Leverett Saltonstall
(EIHC 57:268).
On land, the war went poorly for the United States, as the British captured
Washington, DC, and burned the Capitol and the White House. At sea, as time
wore on, Salem's vessels often were captured, and its men imprisoned or killed.
After almost three years, the war was bleeding the town dry, and the menfolk were
disappearing. Hundreds of Salem men and boys were in British prison-ships and at
Dartmoor Prison in England. At the Hartford Convention in 1814, New England
Federalist delegates met to consider what they could do to bring the war to a. close
and to restore the region's commerce. Sen. Timothy Pickering of Salem led the
extreme Federalists in proposing an ultimatum threatening New England's
seceding from the United States; but the Pickering faction was countered by
Harrison G. Otis of Boston and the moderate Federalists, who prevailed in sending
a more reasonable message to Congress.
At last, in February, 1815, peace was restored. Post-war, the Salem merchants
rebuilt their fleets and resumed their worldwide trade, slowly at first, and then to
great effect. A new U.S. Custom House would be built in 1819, on the site of the
George Crowninshield mansion, at the head of Derby Wharf.
In the spring of 1815, Jonathan P. Saunders, auctioneer, town clerk (later if not then),
and map-maker, had his office at the Central Building. On 19 April 1815 in the Essex
Register he advertised for sale "at J.P. Saunders' Store, Central Building, Market Street,
the sale of the library of the late Rev. Thomas Barnard (appended to this report). In
1820 he would publish his "Plan of the Town of Salem," an excellent chart of the city,
its streets, and landmarks.
In the fall of 1815, one of the major tenants of the building was R. F. Cloutman,
who dealt in glass, crockery, and hard-ware (see appended advertisement, 25 Oct.
1815, Essex Register). His stock consisted of everything from fish-hooks to
spectacles to shovels to elegant tea-trays, decanters, tumblers, dinner-ware. He
was still running his ads in November, 1816: "at his old stand, Central Building,"
he offered "a full assortment of crockery, china, glass, and hardware," including
tea sets, Canton and London dining sets, sickles, cutlery, pins, viol strings, Dutch
brushes, coffee mills, English shovels, etc. (appended to this report).
�The pre-war partisan politics of the town were not resumed post-war, as the
middle-class "mechanics" (artisans) became more powerful. and brought about
civic harmony, largely through the Salem Charitable Mechanic Association
(founded 1817). Salem men continued to hold high places in the federal
government: Benjamin W. Crowninshield was formerly Secretary of the Navy,
among other things. It was he who arranged for Rev. William Bentley to have his
portrait painted by James Frothingham, who was then residing in Salem. In his
diary, Bentley noted that on 20 Nov. 1818 Mr. Crowninshield escorted him to "the
apartments of a painter named Frothingham, from Charlestown," where they saw
several fine portraits and some paper profiles. Bentley, evidently impressed,
agreed to sit for Frothingham. On Nov. 23 he recorded that he went "to Mr.
Frothingham' s at the Central buildings ... and had my first sitting" that evening.
The result was a famous portrait (now displayed in East India Marine Hall at the
Peabody Essex Museum) of Mr. Bentley, one of the most extraordinary men of his
time. Later, James Frothingham had his studio on Essex Street; and in 1825 or so
he moved to Boston, and then to New York City.
In 1818 there was still good money to be made in Salem's maritime trade, but it
required a higher level of skill and perspicacity than it had in 1805. As Bentley
wrote in his diary in 1811, "While we (in Salem) went before the wind, credit was
boundless and success followed every adventurer. Since the wind has changed,
few have skill enough to navigate the troubled seas." Evidently Mr. Hathorne had
the right stuff; but Mr. Gray's skills were of a different sort.
W. Shepard Gray, as cashier of the Essex Bank for many years, was in a position
of high trust in Salem: he was, in effect, the manager of the Bank, and had access
to all of its assets, some of which were in the form of coins and specie put on
deposit by merchants and shipmasters. One depositor was Maj. Israel Foster of
Marblehead, a prominent merchant and relative of Col. W.R. Lee, the Collector of
Customs in Salem (and possibly the inhabitant of the residential part of the central
Building). Maj. Foster had deposited a large barrel of specie with the Essex Bank.
In the summer of 1818, W. Shepard Gray took an extended vacation away from
Salem. Eventually, the Bank directors became suspicious. Early in September,
1818, they concluded that the Bank had been robbed. At the time, Bentley wrote
in his diary (Sept. 5), "every inquiry detects the most fraudulent practices. A
deposit of doubloons by Foster of Marblehead has been violated, false contracts
made, and fraud practiced not only in its most artful but most shameful forms. Yet
not one word has appeared as yet, but Gust) a notice that the Cashier, who has long
�been away, has been removed. Suspicions rise in every form, and Salem lays
under the worst imputations."
In fact, Shepard Gray, the Bank's Cashier, and James King, the Bank's Clerk, had
embezzled a great deal of money from the Bank. Gray, who had left Salem, and
King, who had resigned but stayed in town, had offered the Bank's directors
$20,000, when the losses evidently amounted to about $200,000 (see Bentley,
Sept. 11 ). It would appear that Gray, King, and their partner Capt. Joseph
Moseley, a Virginian who had settled in Salem (see B.F. Browne, 1869 Youthful
Recollections of Salem, EIHC 49:200), had invested in highly speculative ventures,
and had lost much of their money, which they replaced with money deposited at
the bank. In Foster's barrel of specie, they had placed ballast stones, leaving an
inch or two of coins at the top. All the rest of the Foster money, $40,000 allegedly,
was gone (the matter would later go to court, in a famous case about the liability of
banks).
In November, 1818, the Grand Jury found against Gray and King "for a conspiracy
to defraud the Bank and for violation of trust and the depredations made on the
deposits and bank interest" (per Bentley, Nov. 6). The Essex Bank directors had
handled most of the matters in secrecy, including a negotiation with Gray and
King, in which terms were given and accepted. The whole matter caused much
alarm and discontent in Salem, many of whose people had money deposited there.
Some were distraught, and one died of the shock (Bentley, ibid): "the widow of
Edward Pulling, Esq., was buried this day, an undoubted victim to her feelings
upon the loss of her property in the Essex Bank. Most of the stock-holders are
widows and orphans."
In June, 1819, Mr. Bentley reflected on the dissension among the shareholders of
the Essex Bank, which was, in fact, about to fold. "The subscribers are disposed to
make their richer members pay the loss. The President declined his office
repeatedly and undertook not to be obliged to issue any money in his signature.
But the offenders had kindred and associates in the board. To whomsoever it may
extend, it was one of the most deliberate, persevering, and complete frauds that
ever was in any country accomplished--and among a people distinguished by their
close attention, we might almost say avarice, in money matters. The business,
when it becomes a public investigation, threatens great divisions and warm
contentions."
Mr. W.S. Gray evidently never returned to Salem, but would die in Cambridge, on 27
May 1824, aged about 51 years.
�At the time ( 1819) that Mr. Gray disappeared and the Custom House offices were
moved to their new quarters, B.H. Hathorne resided in the brick Hathorne house on
Essex Street (evidently 243-5, south side, just west of Washington), probably with a
tenant, Dr. Nathaniel Peabody, and family (1820 census, p. 71). Earlier, Dr. Peabody
had lived in the house ofB.H.H. 's brother William, on Essex Street at the south comer
of Cambridge (see EIHC 21 :219). Dr. Peabody was then the father of 7 children, of
whom one, Sophia, an artist, would grow up and become the wife of Nathaniel
Hawthorne (BHH's first cousin, once removed), while another, Elizabeth P. Peabody, a
teacher, became one of the most important education theorists and reformers in
America. In the household of Mr. B.H. Hathorne in 1820 were himself, a boy, his wife,
two girls, and one young woman.
Augustus J. Archer, a dry goods merchant, wrote a series of articles for the Salem
Gazette in the early months of 1890, on the subject of Essex Street in 1820. In this
series, he related the history of "the brick building built by Benjamin H. Hathorne and
vVilliam Gray, extending into Central Street, and there occupied by the custom house
until 1819, when the U.S. Custom House was built. On the comer of Essex Street,
Cushing & Appleton, succeeded by James R. Buffum, as a book store, were located.
vVm. Hathorne had the western one; he was an Importer of broadcloths and dry goods.
The Salem Register was then established in its present quarters, Warwick Palfrey, Jr.,
the sole editor. From this, it would seem that in 1820 the comer store ofHathome's
paii of the building was occupied by Cushing & Appleton, the store next westerly was
occupied as a dry goods store by William Hathorne, and the upstairs rooms were used
as the office of the Salem Register newspaper (as they would be for decades).
In 1820 the part of the building that fronted on Central Street, and had belonged to Mr.
Gray, was sold to Samuel Tucker, a Salem merchant, for $5825.75, by John Morland,
Roxbury merchant ($800 in May), who was probably W.S. Gray's brother-in-law and
may have held a mortgage on the property, and by Joseph S. Cabot, Salem gentleman
($5025.75 in September), who had foreclosed a mortgage on W.S. Gray on 2 July 1819
(ED 222:266, 225:114). In Mr. Cabot's deed, it is specified that the property consisted
of "the dwelling house in which Samuel Tucker now resides and of the other apartments
in Central Building, so-called;" and in Mr. Morland's deed it mentions the "dwelling
house, stores, other buildings, and cellar under". So there is little doubt but that Mr.
Gray's part of the building contained a portion that had been reserved (perhaps since
1805) as a residence. Samuel Tucker, the new owner, resided here in 1820.
Of this same time (c.1820) Mr. A.J. Archer reminisced as follows. "On Central Street,
Dana & Fenno had an office for the sale of lottery tickets and a general brokerage
�business, having a Boston connection. E H. Payson had charge of this office and tells
me he was the person who built the first coal fire in Salem. Mr. Dana had seen them ir
Boston and employed John Chamberlain, mason, to set a grate in his office; Mr. Pays(
built the fire, and says people used to come in by the dozens to see it. One evening he
went to bed leaving the blower up, having forgot to remove it; of course it became red
hot, and so alarmed the passers-by that they rushed in hot haste to tell him his office
was on fire. The Insurance offices next adopted the grate, and it spread rapidly into
general use. The first furnace in the city was put in by Mr. Chamberlain at his brother'2:.
B. Porter Chamberlain, who owned and occupied the old assembly house on Federal
street. The chambers and offices on Central Street were occupied by the Salem Saving
Bank, incorporated 1818; when first organized, Willard Peele was president, and Danie
Bray treasurer. Capt. Peter Lander and his son, Peter Jr., had a private insurance office
for underwriters. Henry Pickering Esq. had a law office. The Salem Courier, Charles
A. Andrew, was started here Sept. 7, 1828; it was short lived. In 1830 the Salem Light
Infantry had two rooms in the second story for their armory."
In The Salem Gazette of 1 Feb. 1820, Cushing & Appleton advertised "Gold Leaf' and
"Almanacks for 1820," and the Salem Brewery announced that "strong and table beer,
porter, ale, yeast, porter bottles, corks, hops, malt, bottled cider, and a complete
assortment of cordials" were available at the Salem Brewery, and at the store, comer of
Essex and Cambridge Streets, also from 11 to half past 1 at the Central Building."
In 1824, B. Herbert Hathorne died (as did W.S. Gray). Mr. Hathorne owned his part of
the building outright, and owned a very large stock of dry goods, which were
enumerated in the inventory of his estate (appended to this report). By his 1823 last
will, he devised to his wife Rebecca cash, personal effects, and lifetime use of some real
estate which was to devolve to his nephew B.H. Hathorne (Jr.) after the deaths of his
wife and adopted daughter. His "land at the comer of Central Street and Essex Street
with the buildings thereon, called the Central building," he devised in trust to his
brother William Hathorne for the benefit of his sons; and upon his death it was to go the
same nephew, B.H. Hathorne (Jr.). He devised $1000 in trust for his adopted daughter,
and left generous cash bequests to other relatives. The property here would remain in
the ownership of Hathomes throughout the rest of the 19th century.
The 1820s was a decade of challenges for Salem. It struggled successfully to
maintain its overseas commerce and to open new markets for its shipping, in
Madagascar (1820), which supplied tallow and ivory, and Zanzibar (1825), whence
came gum copal, used to make varnish. This opened a huge and lucrative trade in
which Salem dominated, and its vessels thus gained access to all of the east
African ports. From 1827 to 1870, there were 189 arrivals in Salem from
�Zanzibar, carrying ivory, gum copal, and coffee. But in the 1820s Salem's national
influence slipped, and it was unable to develop a manufacturing base. Salem's
general maritime foreign commerce fell off sharply in the late 1820s. Imports,
which were the cargoes in Salem ships, were supplanted by American goods, now
being produced in great quantities. The interior of the country was being opened
for settlement, and many Salemites moved away to these new lands of opportunity.
To the north, the falls of the Merrimack River powered large new textile mills
(Lowell was founded in 1823 ), which created great wealth for their investors; and
in general it seemed that the tide of opportunity was ebbing away from Salem.
In an ingenious attempt to stem the flow of talent from the town and to harness its
potential water power for manufacturing, Salem's merchants and capitalists
focused on damming the North River. The project, which began with much
promise, was suspended (before construction began) in 1827, which demoralized
the town even more, and caused several leading citizens to move to Boston, the
hub of investment in the new economy. In November, 1826, Joseph H. Prince,
counselor at law, advertised in the Salem Gazette his "removal" from "from his
late office, in Central Building, to the office formerly occupied by Hon. John
Pickering, in Court Street." This event, seemingly so obscure, points to a sad
fact: John Pickering VI, the ultimate Salem citizen, had decided to take his family
and his talents to Boston, where they were settled by the spring of 1827.
In 1830 occurred a horrifying crime that brought disgrace to Salem. Old Capt.
Joseph White, a wealthy merchant, owned and resided in the house now called the
Gardner-Pingree house, on Essex Street. One night, intruders broke into his
mansion and stabbed him to death. All of Salem buzzed with the news of
murderous thugs; but the killer was a Crowninshield (a local crime-boss who killed
himself at the Salem Jail), hired by his friends, Capt. White's own relatives, Capt.
Joseph Knapp and his brother Frank (they were executed by hanging). The results
of the investigation and trial uncovered much that was lurid about Salem, and more
of the respectable families quit the notorious town.
Salem's remaining merchants had to move quickly to take their equity out of
wharves and warehouses and ships and put it into manufacturing and
transportation, as the advent of railroads and canals in the 183 Os diverted both
capital and trade away from the coast. Some merchants did not make the
transition, and were ruined. Old-line areas of work, like rope-making, sail-making,
and ship chandleries, gradually declined and disappeared. Well into the 1830s,
Salem slumped badly.
�Despite all, Salem was chartered as a city in 1836. City Hall was built 1837-8 and
the city seal was adopted with an already-anachronistic Latin motto of "to the
farthest port of the rich East"-a far cry from "Go West, young man!" The Panic
of 183 7, a brief, sharp, nationwide economic depression, caused even more Salem
families to head west in search of fortune and a better future. Salem had not
prepared for the industrial age, and had few natural advantages. The North River
served not to power factories but mainly to flush the waste from the many
tanneries (23 by 1832) that had set up along its banks. Throughout the 1830s, the
leaders of Salem scrambled to re-invent an economy for their fellow citizens, many
of whom were mariners without much sea-faring to do. Ingenuity, ambition, and
hard work would have to carry the day.
One inspiration was the Salem Laboratory, Salem's first science-based
manufacturing enterprise, founded in 1813 to produce chemicals. At the plant built
in 1818 in North Salem on the North River, the production of alum and blue vitriol
was a specialty; and it proved a very successful business. Salem's whale-fishery,
active for many years in the early 1800s, led, in the 1830s, to the manufacturing of
high-quality candles at Stage Point, along with machine oils. The candles proved
very popular. Lead-manufacturing began in the 1820s, and grew large after 1830,
when Wyman's gristmills on the Forest River were retooled for making highquality white lead and sheet lead (the approach to Marblehead is still called Lead
Mills Hill, although the empty mill buildings burned down in 1960s).
These enterprises were a start toward taking Salem in a new direction. In 183 8
the Eastern Rail Road began operating between Boston and Salem, which gave
the people of Salem and environs a direct route to the region's largest market.
The new railroad tracks ran right over the middle of the Mill Pond; the tunnel
under Washington Street was built in 1839; and the line was extended to
Newburyport in 1840.
The occupants of this building in the 183 Os were the Salem Light Infantry
(armory here in 1830), newspapers, banks, etc.
Rev. Benjamin Herbert Hathorne (Jr.), a Lynn bachelor clergyman (nephew of the first
BHH), the owner of the Hathorne part of the property (worth $6,000 in 1837), died in
1837, having willed all of his property to his father, William, two sisters, and three
brothers, with the survivor to inherit the full ownership.
�In 1836 (per the Essex Memorial, published in that year), the "Central Building" tenants
included two newspaper offices: that of the Essex Register and that of the Commercial
Advertiser. The Register in 1836 was published by Palfray and Chapman twice a week
and was Whig in politics; the Advertiser, founded in 1832 and edited by Palfray &
Cook, was published weekly and was Democrat in politics. In those days, the Whigs
and the Democrats maintained their own reading rooms: the former was in Holyoke
Place, off Essex Street, while the latter was located here at the "Central Building."
Also here in 183 6 (per the 183 7 Salem Directory) were the offices of the Bank of
General Interest, 4 Central Street, $400,000 in capital, William H. Russell, cashier;
directors John Russell (President), Putnam I. Farnham, Caleb Foote, John W. Fenno,
Jonathan Holman. (p.118). Also headquartered here was the Institution for Savings in
the City of Salem and Its Vicinity, 4 Central, Joseph Peabody, President; Daniel Bray,
Treasurer; Francis H. Silsbee, Secretary (p.119). The bankers who actually came to
work here each day were Daniel Bray (Institution for Savings), of 104 Essex Street, and
John Russell (Bank of General Interest), of 22 Lafayette St., and his son Wm. H.
Russell (ditto) of 2 Lafayette Street. No doubt there were clerks and tellers too.
In the 1830s, James R. Buffum "kept a book and stationery store for himself on the
western comer of Essex and Central Street ... (and) then kept a tavern at Ome's Point,
North Salem. He married Susan Mansfield ... and died 14 Feb. 1863, aged 68 years."
(see EIHC 6:212, Benja. F. Browne, Memorials of the Washington Rangers).
In the 1840s, Mr. Buffum moved out of the comer store, and Stephen Osborne took it
over. He ran a retail business in hats, caps, and furs; and Henry Osborne worked there
as a hatter (hat-maker). Stephen resided in 1841-1845 at 17 Oliver Street, while Henry
resided on "Mechanic Street" (near the Laboratory in North Salem) in 1841 and in 1845
on Federal (Marlborough) Street, near Washington. In the Salem Directory for 1850
was an advertisement for "Osborne's Fashionable Hat, Cap & Fur Establishment, 183
Essex Street, comer of Central Street" (p. 221 ). This store would be operated
throughout the 1860s (see ad, p. 88, 1864 Salem Directory).
The Essex Register newspaper, which was founded by the Crowninshield-HathomeWhite families to represent the Jeffersonian point of view c.1800, and which had been
edited at one point by Rev. William Bentley (a major contributor for years), would be
published from this location throughout the rest of its history. In 1842, the co-editor,
Charles vV. Palfray, resided at 47 Federal Street, while co-editor John Chapman resided
at 33 Federal and served on the Board of Advisers of the Salem Children's Friend
Society. In addition, Edward Palfray, of 2 Hamilton Street, was a printer at 4 Central
Street in 1842. (info from 1842 Salem Directory).
�Samuel Dudley Tucker (1782-1857), the owner of the Central Street part of the Central
Building as of 1820, was a merchant. He was born in Salem on 25 January 1782, one c
the sons of John and Lydia Tucker. Among his older brothers were Andrew Tucker
(born 1773) and Gideon Tucker (b. 1778, married 1804 Martha Goodhue). l\llr. Andre\
Tucker ( 1773-1820), who married l\lfartha Mansfield, had several children, including
Jonathan, Samuel (2d) and Gideon (2d); he was subject to melancholy, and took his
own life in February, 1820, aged 47 years.
In 1830, Samuel D. Tucker added to his holdings hereabouts by purchasing for $1950
from the heirs of Dr. Holyoke some shops on Central Street, with land, just south of the
dwelling house part of the Central Building (ED 258:215). At the same time, the
Holyoke heirs sold him, for $4500, the land to the west of the Hathorne parcel, with a
printing office thereon (ED 258:215). By 1836 Mr. Tucker had moved to 293 Essex
Street, and later he resided at the Essex House hotel. He died in the 1857 (#55777),
having devised the premises by will to Gideon Tucker, who was the president of the
Exchange Bank. Gideon Tucker died in or before 1862, leaving many heirs. In July,
1862, some of the Tucker heirs, having purchased the interests of other of the heirs, sold
the premises for $4572.46 to one of their own, Edward Tucker, of Saco, Maine (ED
642:145, also 639:22,24, 638:126, etc.). In September, 1862, Edward Tucker sold half
of the property to Jonathan Tucker and half of it to Jonathan's son, James T. Tucker. In
September, 1865, Jonathan Tucker for $3,000 sold his half-interest to his son, James T.
Tucker, who granted his father a life estate in the property (ED 688:281,287).
Through the 1860s and 1870s, Salem continued to pursue a manufacturing course.
The managers and capitalists tended to build their new, grand houses along
Lafayette Street (these houses may still be seen, south of Roslyn Street). For the
workers, they built more and more tenements near the mills of Stage Point. A
second, larger, factory building for the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company would
be added in 1859, and a third in 1865; and by 1879 the mills would employ 1200
people and produce annually 14, 700,000 yards of cloth. Shoe-manufacturing also
continued to expand, and by 1880 Salem would have 40 shoe factories employing
600-plus operatives. More factories and more people required more space for
buildings, more roads, and more storage areas.
Maj. Jam es T. Tucker predeceased his father, whose life estate would come to an
end with his death in 1877. Jonathan Tucker ( 1799-1877) had been a merchant for
most of his career. He left business in 1849, became a City Assessor for awhile, and
by 1860 he was working as a Measurer at the Custom House. In 1872 he was still at
the Custom House, residing at 29 Andrew Street. He purchased 82 Washington
�Square East in 1874, and moved in. To the Salem Gazette in 1875-6 he contributed
an interesting series called "Our Old Houses," in which he jotted down his memories
of who had inhabited the buildings of Essex Street 1807-1810. By 1876 he was
again working as an assessor at City Hall. On the last day of July, 1877, Mr. Tucker
took his own life.
The obituary of Mr. Tucker ran in the Gazette on 3 August 1877. "The death of
Jonathan Tucker, which took place very suddenly on Tuesday morning last, takes
from amongst us one of our most respected citizens ... His character was as sturdy as
his frame. Upright, conscientious, clear-headed, and intelligent, his services on the
board of our City Assessors were never surpassed in value by any who have been
called to the office. His independence and plainness of speech undoubtedly made
him enemies; but, as an honest man, a good citizen, exemplary in purity of morals
and in every relation of life, he will be held in respectful remembrance by all who
knew him. Mr. Tucker retired-from active mercantile business in 1849, when he was
elected one of the Assessors of the City. This office he continued to hold until
March 28, 1853. He was again elected Assessor in 1869, and held the office until
January 11, 1875, when he retired to private life. During most of his term of service,
he was chairman of the board; and there never was a man who paid more strict,
scrupulous, and faithful attention to the duties of his office. A native of Salem, and
blessed with powers of keen observation and a retentive memory, his knowledge of
our local history of the present century-of persons, events, metes and bounds-was
unequalled, and nothing gave him greater pleasure than to impart from his
inexhaustible stores. He leaves a widow (a sister of Prof. Alpheus Packard of
Bowdoin College), three sons-Joseph F. and Horace, both holding responsible
positions in the Illinois Central Railroad Company, and Rev. William P., who has
recently accepted a call to a rectorship in Pawtucket, R.I.; and two daughters, Mrs. J.
M. Hagar of Salem, and Mrs. Hanson of Chicago. Two sons, Alpheus Packard and
Col. James T., died before their father."
Joseph F. Tucker, the railroad man, became the new owner of the property. As early as
1881, and perhaps before, much of his part of the Central Building was occupied by
John J. Perkins' notable furniture and upholstering store (some photographs show the
building at that time, with the Perkins signs out front). Mr. Perkins, a resident of Bridge
Street, ran the business for many years. The dwelling part of the building, numbered 10
central, was evidently occupied Mrs. Sarah B. Safford, who had a store at 16-18 central.
She died before 1900, in which year the premises at 4-6 Central Street were occupied
by the Salem Press Company, which had its presses and other machinery there, and by
A.N. Webb & Co., printers. At 8-10 were E.F. McClellan, hairdresser, and the offices
�of Cawley & Trow, plumbers. Alphonse Bouin and family resided in the end unit. (info
from Salem Directory, 1899/1900)
Regarding the Hathorne part of the building, by then known as The Hathorne Building:
in 1878 Henry G. Hathorne, of Lynn, sold his interest in the Central Building to
\iVilliam W. Hathorne, of Lynn, his brother (ED 1000:189). On 2 January 1886 William
W. Hathorne leased the first floor and cellar of his part of the building to Herebert D.
Rice of Boston, who opened The Shawmut Hat Store here. The lease was to run for ten
years at $1500 rent per annum. At the same time, Mr. Rice was to pay the cost of a
major remodeling of this part of the building, and agreed not to sell any liquor here.
The remodeling involved removing the stone front, removing brick piers and windows,
and putting in a new front on Essex Street and part of the building on Central Street.
Large new plate glass windows were to be installed, along with iron girders to support
the upper stories.
Mr. Wm. W. Hathorne died in 1893, whereupon the property was conveyed to his
brothers Henry G. and Charles F. Hathorne (ED1401:109). They continued to lease out
the property as commercial space to Herbert D. Rice, who was the proprietor of the
Shawmut Hat Store at 191-193 Essex Street (see adv. p.1194 Salem Directory 1897-8;
ED 1991:66, etc.).
In 1900, the occupants of "the Hathorne Building" were The Shawmut Hat Store (hats,
furs, etc.) at 191-193 Essex Street, and, at 195 Essex Street, J.M. O'Connell and Mrs.
Kate F. Dean, hairdressers, dentist John W. Patch, A.C. Mackintire, photographer, and
B.L. Pervier, jobber.
Salem kept building infrastructure; and new businesses arose, and established
businesses expanded. Retail stores prospered, and machinists, carpenters,
millwrights, and other specialists all thrived. In the 1870s, French-Canadian
families began coming to work in Salem's mills and factories, and more houses
and tenements filled were built in what had been open areas of the city. The
Canadians were followed in the early 20th century by large numbers of Polish and
Ukrainian families, who settled primarily in the Derby Street neighborhood. By
the eve of World War One, Salem was a bustling, polyglot city that supported large
department stores and large factories of every description. Its politics were lively,
and its economy was strong.
On June 25, 1914, in the morning, in Blubber Hollow (Boston Street opposite
Federal), a fire started in one of Salem's fire-prone wooden tanneries. This fire
soon consumed the building and raced out of control, for the west wind was high
�and the season had been dry. The next building caught fire, and the next, and out
of Blubber Hollow the fire roared easterly, a monstrous front of flame and smoke,
wiping out the houses of Boston Street, Essex Street, and upper Broad Street, and
then sweeping through Hathorne, Winthrop, Endicott, and other residential streets.
Men and machines could not stop it: the enormous fire crossed over into South
Salem and destroyed the neighborhoods west of Lafayette Street, then devoured
the mansions of Lafayette Street itself, and raged onward into the tenement district.
Despite the combined efforts of heroic fire crews from many towns and cities, the
fire overwhelmed everything in its path: it smashed into the large factory buildings
of the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company (Congress Street), which exploded in an
inferno; and it rolled down Lafayette Street and across the water to Derby Street.
There, just beyond Union Street, after a 13-hour rampage, the monster died, having
consumed 25 0 acres, 1600 houses, and 41 factories, and leaving three dead and
thousands homeless. Some people· had insurance, some did not; all received much
support and generous donations from all over the country and the world. It was
one of the greatest urban disasters in the history of the United States, and the
people of Salem would take years to recover from it. Eventually, they did, and
many of the former houses and businesses were rebuilt; and several urban-renewal
projects (including Hawthorne Boulevard, which involved removing old houses
and widening old streets) were put into effect.
Mr. Herbert D. Rice, owner of The Shawmut Hat Store here, and lessee since
1886, purchased the Hathorne Building from the Hathornes on 1 Nov. 1920 (ED
2469:90). The premises had been in Hathorne ownership for more than 115
years.
By the 1920s, Salem was once again a thriving city; and its tercentenary in 1926
was a time of great celebration. From that time forward, Salem boomed right
through to the 1960s, but the arrival of suburban shopping malls and the relocation
of manufacturing businesses took their toll, as they have with many other cities.
More than most, Salem has navigated its way forward into the present with
success, trading on its share of notoriety arising from the witch trials, but also from
its history as a great seaport and as the home of Bowditch, Mcintire, Bentley,
Story, and Hawthorne. Most of all, it remains a city where the homes of the oldtime merchants, mariners, and mill-operatives-and the commercial buildings that
Salem's prosperity produced and sustained--are all honored as a large part of what
makes Salem different from any other place.
--10 Feb. 2002, Robert Booth for Historic Salem Inc.
�I
f~-,
--;\ '
"i(
1
~
0-<IJJ..::._~..&'-(1
.
\;~v\
(
rv-cv·--
\. v'\.c-'\'Y\.A..-vV:-.
··,
c~
\r\-c v'--
.') ••
\ r--\ Ii ¢,~~l.-l
'~~
-
(F
\
.
t
Cu../\-
\'l"w\...\,A.-...
v~~
' \..,'-. ~ \ \-C."--'·'.-L'-·\ f\.
.C
l
r
.
BOOKSELLERS AND BOOKBINDERS
"
(.
'-·
~,J...-<-
\ !7"./('
I
···" / ' I
6't-J 1A..C.~C\\v\i
Cevv .
c:: \
\..
"\._(..
~
1-,~~-·
I
I
I
BOOKSHOP OF ClTSHI:'.'\G AJ":D APPLETON..
Essex Strec·t.
'.
l
'":\ I
,. •r
'-cv.:tv\c.l<.. \:).eel..:~·
{ '
------·····--·······--··c· .......
~-
"c~,1
. 1
'
CFSHIXG AXD APPLETOX-BIBLE AXD REA.RT BOOK SHOP.
~f)'\~&A/ir-i.-~
.
"
177
Soon after Dabney established his book shop, Thomas C.
Cushing and \'Villiam Carlton, the latter a young man just
reaching his majority, were associated in the 'Bible and Heart'
book shop. Carlton's advertisement in 1791 reYeals the location of his business as 'opposite Rev. :Mr. Prince's meeting
house,' where he had for sale all the principal books and pamphlets, as v.-ell as mariner's compasses, log books, scales and
dividers, backgammon and Hadley's quadrants, and 'Harry
VIII and HighlancJs Playing Cards.' 67 In 1793 he added a
circulating library. J\1r. Streeter says: 'The Bible and Heart
book-store was in the lo·wer story of the building oecupied by ·
the printing office, the same ·which is now (1856) kept by
D. B. Brooks and Brother. There were formerly wooden figures of a Bible ancl a heart suspended over the door, which
during .the last war were torn down in the night by some
mischievous persons and thrown into the harbor. It was upon
the occasion of a list of privateers in our harbor being published in the Gazette by the foreman of the office.' In 1794
Carlton's 'new book store' was 'a few doors west of the Sun
Tavern, Essex st.Teet.' 08 In 1797 Carlton's connection with
Cushing ceased, and in 1801 John S. Appleton associated
himself with this book shop, the firm of Cushing and Appleton
being a well-known and successful Salem concern, at the 'Sign
of the Bible,' until the death of both in 1824.
In 1803 their shop was at the corner of Court and Essex
streets, 'lately occupied as an insurance office.'c 9 In 1808 they
removed to the store under the Gazette office, lately occupied
by John Russell, one door west of the Central Building, 70
having purchased Russell's stock of several thousand volumes,
which were sold at auction by Jacob Peabody. A side-light
oil the importance to trade of court business and attendance
at the sittings is manifest in an advertisement which appeared
at this time, after the sale had opened, to the effect that 'the
Salem
Salem
6 9 Salem
10 Salem
67
<1s
Gazette,
Gazette,
Gazette,
Gazette,
November 8, 1791, .January 3 and 12, 1793.
September, 1794.
December 3-0, 1803.
April 5, 1808.
�_
,.~..
----~-·-_:.:·-.!;_.,_~.
-.
---..····-v'"
::- .:
~ ·~
~-.
.
.......
··~
;....
A_.
.
- . .... •. . .
·..•
.
L·E.M.
... '
.
.
~7··
,.
.
!
.
.
.
.
.
- .:
'
-..-:· .·-E..r-:N.
-: :
.
.·. ·:·. ·-y··._
.:, .·
·•.
.
..
:·. ... . .; . . !. . /
-.i
:
'
.
l
-
-
I
•••
·-·
'l'an, Snuff, Maple, B11sset, Qoldan
make represented in large quanttes
Bats. A full l'tne of genuine lmp!>rl·
to· suit all requirements a11 to pric
\.
biaok,~d,;Pn·
l-wool,
:ig, $1.
>elted,
back,
]3oy~'
-
•
·-
-
OUS·
them
seour
--
- -
-•
-••-••••-•
-·
•••
---·-
- -
: ts in
Ha:ts.
ga~
>rder,
1:call·
l..
to
1...--.L.
St:ree1:.
'·'-.:.
Is 25 Cents a Bottle. "A."Bottle /Contai~ing··.
.
J
every
·and
'and
The ·Large&~ Hat Store in ·this .~action
an.d. l..93' :gsse=ar, oo:r. C
LUSCOlVIB ~s -$ARSA PARILLA.
~ylish'
....
.
to.o
D~S~~
O~(
e l~igh pric~cf Sarlap ·
""'
FOR
4
~-
....
....
-
- - ,
••
•
-
•
n
••
••
,,_}
••
•
••••
-
.
F~1AL INDECISION•.
A. JI
'"M:
A.n Editor's . Wife Instantl;r
Brown, every fashionable Cf)lor and.
Killed at Nel'l'tonville.
at the Shawmut. Hamiiock and So'ft
ed French Bats, rare colors; kinda $he Attempted· to Cross
· ~the Tracks
.,.
and use.
SHAWMUT "H AT STORE, H .. D.. RICE, -Prop.
>ef01;e 19:1
npare
.
~.--
SS., 'THURSDAY~ -¥:AY 3, 18~8
-
We
~
c_
/
---;-----:--F-- - -
----
.The lowest price for good goods.is whai we aimlat in every Una of Bats
~·:ffJDlf{{[~\
1. the
shown to buy, poor quality in this line above aQ others, is wney thrown
· 191 &183 £5S·f;XST"
. fash· ·away. The slh.wmnt is the largest bu Pricv liat Stere in 'sew England. Bew lines df lobby rteckwear, 25
.
.
!
.
,most cents. .New styles ltQien Collars, Tru I nks, Bags, DreH and Working Gloves.
.t are
.
- .,-,-ats.- l-
-··-•••••n••••-rn••---~
n~rbYI
•
' -
-
-
-;o.,g~····.
~ :!-~~;
L·~ --'.o.:
~:1·;: . .
' .:_ :;:n:;.
<,"t
-
I .
'.
~ :~ SALEM,
), 1880.
•
E
----_---- ------·-12------ -.
.
'1·.
.I
lt will do all that th
. rillas Iwill ·. ,an·d "·) t
costs yo·u b.ut half . a$. 11TlJ.Ch. Try It.. Pr~D ared b
1
ces
ence
the
met:
eel!;
i;chc
thei1
papj
the]
Mr.
ed f<
AfLer the Gates Had ,, Been
Lowere(}.
Mrs. Lury H. Estey, wife ofWillia.m H.
. Estey of the Boston Herald sta..IT; we.e
sfrn<'k by the 7 o'cloo::k inwa.rd pa.ese~r
t ra•n:on:thejBost-on'& Alba.nyrailroaa:a tbe
Walnut street crossing, Newtonville, ast
evrDing, and instantly .k:illed. The unfortunate lady, in .comps.Dy with her youngest
son, atttmpted to cro.ss the. track after
tl'e gates had been lowered. She crol!Sed
the Na. 1 track. just ahead of a.
fteight traiJ!, and passed oyer the No. 2
and No. 3 tracks, when she e"w th".'e Inward
·passenger train approaching. Hesitating
for a moment, she turnP.d as though to go
,. back, taking a.few steps, but again turned
nnd stepped in front of:the engine or the
r.assenger train, which was then running
into the station and moving slowly, and
was struck and thrown upon the platform.
The boy stood between the tracks and thus
escaped injury. Therliotheraudson were on
their way to the depot to take the train
to Newton, to attend a Bible convention
which is being held there. Yr. Estey was
just about to start forWaltham to attend
a camp fire, t.o. whicp the members of h~
poet had been invited. B:e was notified of
'the accident, and the body was· removed
to his home o'.n Brooks avenue, where it
wes -v:iewed by lfedieoal ]!lxaminer Meade.
Tbe derea8€d was 41 years of age; and,
beside her husband, five SOD,B survive her,
th_e youngest Of whulll is 12 years of age!!
.,
¢~N'I'S.
:i\
30
tem·
1ist'
GENERAL. ORDER NO. I;
iRe~ruite
;
1
&iid :necr-.,ittmg
Too
·A 1
bEE"n
Corf•
tttrn
ti on
foot•
an o:
thee
tO tli
HAI'
-.
~.s...'-Set-
tlug'-UP. Exercises l:Q '1& ~acti,eecL, · .
.
. . Col. F. A: Osgood has isSu~. <I!'i~iaLO.r
i!e:r Ne~} t<i. tli~ ~ili,,~JjJ.~t.;_·8-S'_:fol:_
'Jows: -,.;ominan~e'hi q~ colllfe.nt~Jt~.a:u- ·
·1:_1'!!ized.,...t.o plll'llde
tl.tei1,t,_..$iiin:ill.li~.i:for
��-~'-\~ '." ~. '\1t1.~,
~
:101.\~~'.
.
,)
}\.1\.t\.\\\O\'l'<\,V
�.
\\\\~~q •'~"'" \\\
-·1"
.
~
Q\\\u,\:\\~h\i.,11 ,, \\u. ~~~~·-7
'""'t: ....,... io·t.......... ·' ''l..u..u...Juu....kulJ.
1
.
.b
\. \"llli
~~
~~\u'~\U.....~lS.lll\r .t'-""-~--\'.A.\.\LU-\\-U.U.,·i\\\\1.._/.U\.IS ~~~ . 2.~~~_j;'
~tt,,d~~,~~-~~~"S\\\.)'..."l.\"TJl.~1.~.::li.. .'.\\~F1i..JAM.iL~r·-w.wr~
· -"~~\\.'l::..U.U''.L.~\:.... li.\.\'..l>..4~-\\.U.tl.-~~~
\"s.\l\'\o..'..."'
~in m
,.
uuu•..i;,H.,,....Mtl.u:\\•--1.~......,.-
, \......
q,IM~.l.\M.i}.~1~1lPU_i~a\.&n. ~~~-~'Jh.u.w· ~o..w_~~.........~
'W.<!.t~iM.~. -~~~1'.h1>.:.'v\.'~--~\.\)..'J·-~\.\__ toill:\~\!...x\.\\'~i;,\.u\l\t...t_\\~~~~~ill_t\M..~~~.l.""\...
ti..~1.~~-~~'L\-u:~~.1~.\lli~ n.i."'"F'MJi.jtw\.~u~~~~)'.\1..~1.. ·
·-··-·- . ·fil~~-S\.s..Y~w~--~ll~~-~ 11n~~''-l}.~~~1--~~W.t'-4..~~~_t.
Cll_~~-n~'--\o.....°\M.( .)_\.fil\.1~.i\\\'.\.\l.\:\\~,W:L ~~\.~u\.~~·~~...\i.\\~~\_ ~ t.\.\
'
.~..\\.\)\W.t\ ~ ul1 -\~.....£1.&.uLIJi.h~ _1,\1.\..'--nL\,(\.~ti.~....~u .)l\\l\_t\\ay\W.'C
_
\lill:LI~u c~~~...~~~s\_~~\l~~1,.9. N ~c.ll~~~(\>\n..Jtt~~""
~
.
tjs
~~-li'\..~-~\l)n\\lt\.)Lt.o.~.'!\&L~~~ ~-~ ~~~r~~_lll/\.~~
··--·
... _ '~uil
tJio~L\\~\ll~~~~~k~-1\~~l\.~-~~~il~,,.._,,.,.-
a..i..wc1-
W_~\M(.1. '.'\~'ll\.'M..~.MJ.u\t\'.\~.lt~~\_2~~..Y1..\:\\.l'.\"\ W1,~-~\{~·1r
.. fo. ~'tl.1.i:;'i.l..fu......6._~-~)<L11L°"'M'.1.~t.l'-'-J.~16 ..lfu(.d~\'.IM).. _i_M_tO"W\..~"''rll\ .
_··
.
.
~~-kM~~fc\.w.1,ml Jh ~-~tCV:~~»~_Dl\._'A~'-~ ~\.~\M.~.-°-~
~t\Mt\ :\\~-~~f· ~~\\SCI;~'\\"\.\.\ V...\A.~~'.,&j)JAM.4~
.s.~ \l\\ lmtt ~yl\'",~l- hvX '\nM\)o\M\n b~w ~ 1 w~~.JJ.Y~11.;..,,,,
- Tuilii!)~I\
.
- . ~,- ~
(Ny..~" \.\........ ~ ~U.ti.......lli...u\.o· \Mt
. b
\M,M'4
•
.
• '
\oG~\\' W\\\n ~u,l \t\
·:t~JLrh.~~i' IM~t.~~~-~k~~~n\&:r....4\\~J. -
..\~-.~~\tU,lli.Ll.\..:'ii).\\~'i:l
>\\i\t\....'s.\.\~~Ji%~~nc.....h~\ ............
·"'"'-+-
t\~'.l.~~y,,dfilt.iU...1..v1M\JlU.w~.J:~~~ ~,-ww~~~lli~s.\
. . ~:~\.l\.Lliu_\ n....s...::u.i...\·\-°ilJ~.....l\"'-~~W~~~Q.XL~~-tO\H,\.~~ . '
w\Tu St\ t
l\...o,,~,-'~.m::1.~.1<.J.~~""A. tq~uv"" \fuu.t k1,.L\r".~'H Lµ<.>o"""""lo
.
~.\f"~{.
....9.L\hk!
v
~o\·~~-~S.\..il~J..l..'s.\W~LI.\~~~~ l.Mu.,~y~~~.m.ru:
t
.
a
.
_\\'-~~lo_ ~~L1M1..tl....t~~.\)t.~~~__j~.11.™\'.lA.~-~U.
.
.. ~~-WAIA-~ ~~~.t.~1~\1.....1Mil\~..il.rmll.Y5:'>~M.il-w.~i:.n:~\M
-~~"~i;,.k~t....\t\.l~\ 1h@.~~~-~~-suu..M~,.-.~11<11"1
.
~~~...~~!}. \,.~S.~~\~~.>~j\~.\.~--~-'t.~
__ w1\v
\JI.
• ,
)~\1.·~\ f-\'!i,._\~~-i.'l!L.....~9.).1..l.~~\~\Jh_nL.ll.b.L.ll.u~ 14t,; u \)"
-~
l
)<>
i ,\ 1\~~
~~Jf-.......WY-.£.~~1lt.2.11\M ""-1:-x'~-~~~lb.2.~~\&i. . . .~l ~~
ti,J.uil~..'.:kt~~n,11., (,vi.A~\ \~\L.~~,~~',·-'-~....\·~"l\\.\..1QJlo\vt': ~.\ 'k.e..~~\J.~. . 1-~1 ·
\1-0·t""'"'\.~n.~. . J~~~sL ..lr.\.~_~\.. ~-~k"'!I-'~~·
•
'}\. '5<\\\'v,~..."\'.\.~.-~ tOV\~~4'-~xt~Q.'l'.'_iJ~.
.
.'iln
\~U~Li '-~-~\ -~~\?..'}. \\~~·vn\\ _c\ot~_\!'n .\'\lU:c;.\_~_11~.....it\.\~.W~li~~i..'...... • ..,_,..,'tit
·...,_,
'ian~\i~ .u.«V\M~!).t~(\,..,\.,l1,..\\, t,.~°\.')>.\).._~~~\,'J. t\u'\\\ ~ 1
.nn
Q..
•
\in
'& e__,
"-'.Q I ·
'
.... O•' •
.·.1
~UJ..5-U.~Y'-A} .W.' _t.U~l".'-l\ \l.'C\~ ~-~' ··f\\~ ....'::'...._li\\.~):1.~~-'sl...S\~_Hl~ht.-"M WI. )t\!!!.._
)\9-M,o'".w.~ -"~~~~\)~~v \.\t\~\'~!..w~ \'"""I\ \\t\. \w. ~ur t\/1"·"- fih1o°l2. ..;..._ ~
IU.i.~. ·~Q~:X~t\'"Y\ \\I..'-\'"\ \\J..,'-1.. ~\l\lS.~)t.\'-\i'\-t\. ~Y\.\A"\~~t.\ \,u\~,,~~\.~ u.~ .~\\_t,,\\l~ , . - :
~VM."~~~J t\\_~.. ~ ~u11v\\--'-t\.)\_.!..~"'<"'-t<'r. 'N-!.no\.JJ_\0nM:Ki.\· $ln\-t \V...v..\ ·
t1
\'0,1t._ }t~~\~•. -1-.Y)i':.nQ\-~
\~~~u~-~
J 1
xt\ \;\)\.\.\\~~"'~ 'So',\\\'\~v\~
l,W\
-'\~~- o\, ~Q.wt~.~~\ •. .:l\ •.Jl\)tr>V\~ ~
·
..
-:\&\!.~<,,\l.\.\.~-1-~9.Y~~~-\ill.\'IM.~~-- \\)~~~ ~~ )\\..~.1.\JL:iLiu~,t~ ..-il(ll\t\,utL1
Swu ~tt~\_\\\1,;v-.1...\ . . n>.n"'""""I.\ lv.-)Ct"Y\11 \\,~\.t~. ~C\"11\"\~\~:-..t\ .. -~\Si~t.\-\\l o\\ h\M..i:Lrui.u ~
�~}1··-~ ,¥.a .\~'O'~]l.n~s.\. ,\riMM·'"'~ l\i\\)~b'm~'I MW.l¥:~ ..~ '·'.·' ':.· ,··:.,.: :
•.
'
•
""''"'
I.I.~·•'"
"""""'l.Ul..c.Ilo'iOnM!\M!'.\ fl '!-< n
H14J!Q•f_),~.· .
.
-.
.
6
'
·: •
~~~W.i \\) ~~i~.1\'1.\~'~\.-~,..\~'\~~~-b\~wYui :~~~ ~u.~''\ '>wSMF'""'~t:11M.... Q. \i.t\'INV\ ~\-~"~---~r•.\,~ \r.11"')" -:St'Ul:vJ
6
~'v.,\.,.~'l).\Vl.~.1\u.xlll~!.:·t\Mc.\.. \Jv...1.. u.X.t~\X~ ~?i-.J.-x.\\t..J. .)\\'\~hc~.0.~(,\.~ -·
rn
•
•
'
'
'
NII\~ \\1\\C>\~1 \\.\.'-·~~~'I.Us.\,~ ~'!(.\.\~ ~ .~!.-\.~:L:i\Mt\..~Ui~~Lh_~ ~-
a~~\:.1.4.~~W~-~tL\\\..L \!..'l.(~J1~~~~lu;"".i~-
....
.
~~ -\.:~\.S.\:i.\.U.'tL\.~I.\.. \\l.\.,'W\.\.\,:._~\'l.\t~\"(, Qv~_t-\)\)W\.l.\IYl.\..W.~L~t.\.~1)..-~\"\i.'} -·
\,~_Llt\.~'ti--~~\.~...... t,i\.'\I.\.\. ~s..\.,~:-·\t.\..f\\- !~~"1.~~~· n~'r.t..~\ul
\'n\M·'-~R~~u~ t>.tc.t.~1.\. \-~\.\_ l.M.~\\vJiX~\l\.!..t.}_,.~.L!.u: k~tl1U~--.
: 't\.t.\~'Lrc~di.
'
Q.M.c.\. Ul~\lt\j ~~ ~tvl.'l.'\'l.. \o \~\\~\ ~n\11, ~...~:U.~t...\'.\\.u..u~\_:~"-'°-.
.
.
\.~'- ~~ ~\l.\.i:,.\'i...\:\.v..i\. J.\U..'l.\\\\'\~1Wt\.\Q'l'5 ~\.uU.\., 11111.\\"Xl.~.tvv..~~~~
~l:.\.~'.l.:U-Xll °\N\.L..~\.l.l.\\. ~"-tu.I ~- \\U.-\-\
d_O..\.'W\ I. .t.\.~~
tv.,.,.Q. t.~\.~'\li~n\l!IY, ..tl..~t.\~~\.1\,u.lt.\.w~\.\:
.t~l.\.'1.~~--~,/Jx 'Jl..\'>OY<~, ltVIA.!.\.J\i;.iJc\W,_1..;~\Jil.~.-;-.-··
~"~ru...:.~~~~~~---'k )r;iv..i.. 0..1:1~!.\:~: \u.1..U.\. ~!.\6.•lt\.l.o... ~·
rJIV'_~-\).'lrvu..nu.i:t~t_...
.
•t
l
~\\\ '>\.t\ .~V.. '- .~l~\\,..,\ri.-,,1·•W\\ .t~"\~u.w fo.\. ~~ ..d.c\\, \uJ.·\},;~ . \" ~~>t. :\u. 1~ul. :~~~j.....
. t\i\lu.\ ~\~\ _µ,.~_~\°t~.t>SJJ-"\.t\ \o..0.0'\\)Vf \.'l.\~-:-t.. ~\;~U\)'- c.\.t.U/\"v\>t~ )Wt.\Mi\.l~· ..
. .iw.t\.~~\._°t\~\.~--UM.U..w~~- ~~\. l.\.~Y..lu.\., U.\l\.i.\. ~ -~\.'.\W~ ~~...:.
~.~:l.!.\M.~-1.\.\A.\.\... ..~.i:.tw~IA \L~i:\~l.\\'hu ~\.\u::~rtt..._u.t ~«.. \\IJ'\~~-\'twi .
\.lli1fn..\..\;\1.\.Ll\. ti H be_ \;,,,,t_-\A,\-Kl\\1,.U, y t\,11\d, ."Yl..'\.L\.\.64.(U-AMJ..cJ..J.11 ~ ~--·- ..
~\'-1:~.4~--·~u.x!\i.L_l.V.L\.Q.. \);\~\'> U.\!.·\~'\\ 1..t1.~~\~"?-\.U"- \u\-cl~-ll.~uiL____
..
h~_tu..t.~~'l~wu. u'-l;-\.\\'-\\vr O~\~~ .'.lM:t X:O\:l\.t\\\.\i...&""~~u~T±l'\.L. ~\.(..\'"- -
°\
't~~\)--~\u..ll.._ \,U\.X:l.\M.\\.:\~~- .l)V>.1. \\.\.'\: 1.J.\.~u,~~\."t.~..U;\.~\J°\u._.,_.
__ ,._4', ~"<t.\."j
~\.,t,\ ~t.\\\,\l,}'(\t'\~- c.l.u).u.'>.~\)- tl.).\\t.llA~ ,l..O.~'\...W\~'.\K\2.. o\\'.l.i:..l"-~
M\..... \\\..\.~- t\.\.uL ~~,~~'\' _r;,\ tt\.1.\1 _o.t\.. . t\', \\\\1.\ \..~ ~\;;u._t,\,\<>.l,\ ..n-u:~~_1r11~
--~~ IJ,...,.,\\ ~v.1,~\rnH w.tJJ..w.....Lh"uhJ-\lt.~)~1.~-1. \~. k\luU-t., . -·
\.J.i..l\.U.\.\.- lei ~v._r,\A.t,\ '(~tLtx.M.tl. ~\t\\.U,'1..
~'.. ll'.\t\~_t\.'11'.1.'\.L.!ti..h:~.t,\.) _ _:
W,lh'\ t.\l\At\
\>\ \
~,.-~:u..~~~1.'(~~-1\,\,\'\.V..._-~\\'I.\,: />.l..\~I}. -';':1.:·~-i.;~~'i~"-"-~~-tu:--··.
·
'li\~J.~t-L~ \M.i.\x..:\:t.~\\.t~\l.:l'I..
\AL\IY\ t.\.'11\ll
~~> ...I.lo t1.·\l-L\/\\.\Mk..).l..,1~ ..
.o.i.~~ .Ii\\\~~:~ \\.\.t-.:n.)\\Lt\1.1.it- .\\.1.\.\-t U.."'~ ~"~'"'-~~.l.'u.1..\r. ~\,\U;'!"r~.J.~.\a!._
'V"\.l:\.1.J\ '.'U,'l..\'..tuM.u,__,.'\'.\.UU1.w'v--..~'Cv.\ ~t,\_0\1 ~tu il ~~~liAu..~~u.
0
u.,\.,.U.\\.Hl.\.'1>.1\D~\J'\-.t.Ltu.,\'\t1.-'.\'\.1.JJ.. ~.Wt.'1' ~!-\\\1.\.\v..
'M ..l~'ll\~"""o....._
lu'VIA.Lalil-3.<L__
,.l.UJ .'"~i.\.1\.\\~'1.11"<.r.1..VW..~. . J.,,.\,~'"'-t.\.""(.. c1.)_,\l)\'I.~. _ ~'ii\ \:\:'ii\v~~ ·\\J°\:u.ra~1'tu...
b:'""' "'f'.'"""~<~
. ui.x _t\Aiw1. \.\l'(,\\t,"
\1 ~u < hmw.-\, KX \),"" \. '-<'-''~' ·"'"' ~ ><;b-l.> ~"-'..i.., lh
..
. . .
/W, ~\A~t\\·~ ~{~"':}·-·.-:.s.w./
..
. }v.'I.\\ ~.. ~'\"\>.~
~"'"'"/'·"~ l · h'IW, i. ~"'':fr .I\ R\t,;u,.,"'
s,
0-n.i.~...ll.l\.tW.&tW.~\lWtcl :w..\'"O"'"~~ ,v.~
~0,t\\.,,,,:~_l.\\'Uf lv~: \u-\J\,~t":-U'.:t~
+~t-i.-.., ~~ti~ w~·~v.i.., t~ .1''1~""''~ 1,,
i --~t\\~\1
J\.il".'1
lA\t.X
'}{,
•
--~ --~'4' .
~~~uy~,~ .• iw,f
~ .Ji..&,._.,,, __ ~ ioi.
~\. ~C\.M,.l('-IAIY~
l{. Wl\._:
idL~11t ,)\l.\\t\~~lfiJiut.\.\.onu.b .A'Wv\ 1"-~"j"<--•i· } 'JV.""' •\I./":', J.. ~q-v.~ ~J. J>J}I.
--J~\.1.-\\\.ox\'\c
k~u.
.-'><L\)t Yt--U')
.,(," 1."."\~-~t\.
l.l.2!.'-.c/Jl::.~~.J'i.tc..;1:.U&\l\.t.\.'r1J
C\i:.V,\.'\.ow Lttll\:i.1
\\u.
~O'-l'l. ~\.'<1\.-.:w:\"'V.n.t \:a.tit..'~,,.~ .. (
t~\\)'·~ ~H. ~\)~" ~,<. . .~y-.-r1--1 a>u~~
\1' .lQll._l"ftlll\"~\<.)
ij.Q.'k.<M.A<o•
~J ./kn<,•/ Chuct~1t:i>
�
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
Central Street
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
4-10 Central Street, Salem, MA 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built in 1805 for the Merchants B. Herbert Hathorne and W. Shepard Gray
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
1805, 2002
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Robert Booth
Language
A language of the resource
English
10
1805
2002
4
B.
Central
Gray
Hathorne
Herbert
History
House
Massachusetts
Salem
Shepard
Street
W.
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/28828/archive/files/ba869399f96a6a567a9099d9be880312.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=Ed6BOpd6oinkLYdbNqTBI2HtbuJB1ZQ50QQlqN6-w9rL2gEc2A6Vf-%7Efz9DR7jvvn78BcQ1FmC0cOcHE0B-evTn-zT4kLf2FlI5g3xoiTLAUhYXixa1AImXbovUO9mkCPagShwjbYpRVhbT4YrEGCwZsvqML353RX1EatiR-28UJay3-RJMf6FMX-hD3AbLpNKeqXhvXhtzfWhJvSAzMM9QRwjhxudyrQ4z-49rAElOvcTPLDTqd1w33i0FQ%7EKp2UFkqJLacvnnocct6mPhgUgVvCZtPAL5VL43JERIUGoxi4CkIiVPoXFL6XYjT2%7EVnEWYmADqOQywecMUlVC1BaQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
88831778ff90c933fa8de8024e7bf20d
PDF Text
Text
69 Summer Street
Built for
George W. Fuller
Retailer
and his wife
Harriet Guy Fuller
in 1914
Researched & written by
Robert Booth
September 2019
Historic Salem, Inc.
9 North Street, Salem, MA 01970
978.745.0799 | HistoricSalem.org
© 2019
���������������������������������
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
Summer 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
69 Summer Street, Salem, MA 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built for
George W. Fuller
Retailer
and his wife
Harriet Guy Fuller
in 1914
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
1914, 2019
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Robert Booth
Language
A language of the resource
English
1914
2019
69
Fuller
George
Guy
Harriet
History
House
Massachusetts
Salem
Street
Summer
W.