345 



erect thereon Plummer Hall, from funds bequeBtlicd by the 

 late Miss Caroline Phimmer. 



The house formerly on this site was in the antique style. 

 Its front was on the line of the edge stones of the present 

 sidewalk. In 1793, Mr. Read erected the house, which is 

 familiar to all of us in the rear of the old mansion. It was 

 designed by, and built undcM- the direction of Samuel Mack- 

 intire, whose fine architectural skill is shown in many of our 

 buildings, both private and public, erected about the close 

 of the last and the beginning of the current century. The 

 present Superintendant of streets, Col. Perley Putnam, yet 

 a hale and hearty octogenarian, worked on this building 

 when an apprentice. — Soon after its completion, it was occu- 

 pied for a few years by the Hon. William Prci-cott, his occu- 

 pancy embracing the period of the birth and infancy of his 

 son, WiLLLiM HiCKLiNG Prescott. It is a singular coinci- 

 dence that the site, on which stands Plummer Hall, should 

 be memorable as the birth-place of the historian Prescott, 

 and, if our presumption is correct, the homestead, for sev- 

 eral generations, of the ancestors of Dr. Bowditch. 



In this connection, it may not he inappropiate to read the 

 the following letter from Mr. Prescott, addressed to Dr Geo. 

 Choate, the chairman of the committee of arrangements for 

 the dedication of Plummer Hall, in reply to an invitation to 

 be present on that occasion : — 



Pepperell, Oct. 6, 1857. 



Dear Sir : I last evening had the pleasure of receiving 

 the invitation of the Committee to attend the dedication of 

 Plummer Hall. Unfortunately being absent from town it 

 did not reach me till too late to profit by it. I beg you will 

 present my acknowledegements to the Committee for the 

 honor they have done me. I need not assure them that I 

 take a sincere interest in the ceremonies of the day ; for I 

 am attached to Salem by the reminiscences of many happy 

 hours passed there in boyhood ; and I have a particular in- 

 terest in the spot which is to be covered with the new edifice 

 from its having been that on which I first saw the light my- 



essex msT. proceed, vol. ii. 44. 



