I find old abandoned houses captivating, and there is one in Salem that is particularly so. The 1807 house off Federal Street has so much going for it: its size, scale, and elegant transitional stature, its generous lot, its location, on a shady traffic-free court bordered by the Ropes Mansion Garden, and its overall sense of (faded) grandeur. But it is abandoned—or is it? This summer, the garden was cropped for the first time I can recall, and a building permit appeared in a dusty downstairs window. Signs of hope for this old house.
I don’t know much about the history of this house, but almost from the moment I came to Salem I heard an interesting anecdote about it. In the late 1970s, while the Merchant-Ivory film The Europeans was being filmed in the adjacent garden over which the house overlooks, its owner placed anachronistic twentieth-century electronic items in each window in a rather overt protest against the disturbances of filming the mid-nineteenth century period piece. This story has become an urban legend and it is just that. Last night, Turner Classic Movies aired The Europeans and I saw it for the first time, including the radio-free and television-free windows of our abandoned house, behind Lee Remick in the garden.
September 9th, 2011 at 7:47 am
I want it.
September 9th, 2011 at 9:02 am
Join the crowd, Steve!
September 9th, 2011 at 8:53 am
What an amazing place! I am always drawn to abandoned buildings. They seem so lonely. It’s when filled with life houses truly come into their own!
Such a neat story. I hope the building has a new owner soon, one who will love and restore it to its former glory.
PS: If you haven’t already, please go check out Brian Vanden Brink’s Ruin – asap!!
September 9th, 2011 at 9:06 am
Wow, Christy, thanks for the link. I just ordered it.
September 9th, 2011 at 10:37 am
It’s the sheer purity of an abandoned building—and with proportions and details such as this one has, the effect is spectacular. Thanks for this–I’ve wondered often about this one.
And I second the vote for BvdB’s Ruins. Lovely book.
September 9th, 2011 at 12:34 pm
BUY IT! and the garden next door! That house So beautiful and so strong! Does it have a ghost? c
September 10th, 2011 at 3:46 am
oh. this is a great place for a photoshoot. =) the bricks are fantastic!
January 14th, 2013 at 7:36 am
[…] not that clear on the details). When he did not get approval, he moved out of his Federal Court house and let it and the carriage house rot. So this is the result, 20+ years […]
October 30th, 2014 at 12:25 am
I have heard the man who used to own the Grimshaw House also owned this one. An eclectic man who preserved several homes inn Salem and then let his own fall apart. A Harvard professor who is related to the Carnegie’s or Melon’s.
October 30th, 2014 at 6:25 am
That’s right–from an old Salem family who shall remain nameless here–he died several years ago.