For Patriots Day, I endeavored to find Salem houses built in 1775, but it turned out to be a bit more involved task than I envisioned. I was just going to walk around and look at the Historic Salem, Inc. plaques, then I decided to consult the Massachusetts Historical Commission’s MACRIS database, which gave me a very workable list. The former overruled the latter for many of the houses I encountered however, so “circa 1775” is the best I can do. Salem houses are sometimes tricky to date just by apparent style: there is a conservatism that dominates the quarter century after the Revolution when it comes to you average dwelling (as contrasted to the Federal mansions which rose at the same time). Several “Georgian” cottages were built in 1806 or even 1826. So these houses are very “circa” for the most part, in the most flexible sense of the word, and I’m not really going to be able to answer the question behind this post: how many people in Salem were confident enough to build a house after five+ years of escalating conflict and tension over representation and sovereignty in British America?”
First up is the Wendt House on Crombie Street: this house has been the object of consternation for decades. First it was threatened my Holyoke Mutual Insurance Company, which threatened to demolish it for parking spaces, then it was saved by Historic Salem, Inc. (HSI), now it is threatened again (not so much its form but its LIGHT) by a large apartment building proposal. Below, Summer, Cambridge and Hight Street Houses: 51 Summer Street is dated 1771 by Historic Salem, followed 6 Cambridge Street and 8, 14 and 21r High Street.
And over on the other side of town: a Briggs Street house which MACRIS dates to c. 1775 but for which HSI has a more precise history, a Daniels Street House which is a great example of the “conservative” trend I spoke of above, and 19-21 Essex Street, which has been through many transformations. Such a cool house, and pretty substantial even without its later additions, indicating that even though the political times were turbulent, the economic future perhaps looked a bit more promising from the perspective of 1775.
19-21 Essex Street in 1985, MACRIS.
April 18th, 2021 at 9:51 am
Very interesting question to consider. Many of these houses don’t have shutters…were they considered decoration? Or not worth the trouble? The similarly-aged houses here in the mid-Atlantic nearly always have shutters.
April 18th, 2021 at 10:32 am
Yeah, good thing you went with macris. I think those plaques tend to reflect a lot of wishful thinking sometimes. Especially where the Revolution is concerned, plenty of owners would rather have a house from 1776 than 1786…
April 18th, 2021 at 9:19 pm
That’s my house on Briggs St. Historic Salem (the plaque) provided me with a solid 20 page lineage back to 1740, it’s original location on the Common and it’s occupancy by Thomas Briggs (of Street name and rope walk fame) and it’s moving date of 1883 to it’s current location.
April 18th, 2021 at 8:25 pm
Great house and very detailed history from HSI!