Historic Doorways of Old Salem
THE DODGE-SHREVE HOUSE
HISTORIC DOORWAYS
OF OLD SALEM
BY
MARY HARROD NORTHEND
ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
BY THE AUTHOR
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1926
COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY MARY H. NORTHEND
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
THIS BOOK
IS DEDICATED TO MY NEPHEW
FRANCIS SEYMOUR BENJAMIN
[Pg vii]
FOREWORD
Salem Doorways! How they awaken romantic memories of a gloriouspast, linked as they are with the days when merchantmen and clipperships slipped from the ways to trade in foreign lands. Days whenold-fashioned gardens, gay with hollyhock and fragrant with sweetbrier, were laid out at the rear of the great Colonial houses of theship-owners. Doorways that were first designed for the Derby Streethouses, later appearing on Chestnut Street, when ship-owners removed tothis part of the city.
These doorways were the work of ship carpenters or men who carvedfigureheads, although the most beautiful of all were those designedby Samuel McIntire, the wood-carver of Salem. Many of them displaya marked individuality, the result of McIntire’s skill in combiningvarious types of architecture, and adapting them to the Georgian style.Some show pilasters with Doric or Corinthian feeling, supporting apediment often triangular in design, gaining in effect through the useof hand-tooled ornamentation.
Nathaniel Hawthorne graphically describes a[Pg viii] simple example on thehouse on Charter Street, where he wooed Sophia Peabody, who laterbecame his bride.
Another notable one adorns the Pickering house, built by John Pickeringin 1650. This was the birthplace of Colonel Timothy Pickering, whoserved in four Cabinet offices.
The Cook-Oliver house on Federal Street shows rare bits ofhand-tooling, in part taken from the Elias Hasket Derby mansion onMarket Square, considered the finest house of its day.
Salem has just reason to be proud of these doorways which have givento her a distinctive name in the field of architecture. Little wonderthat architects from all over the country are copying