September, 1906 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



179 



Old -Time Porches of Salem 



By Mary H. Northend 



PROMINENT architectural feature of the 

 house is the porch. This is distinctive of its 

 time of building. We may follow the evolu- 

 tion of the portal from the time when every 

 moulding was necessarily made by hand 

 until the present day, when machinery has 

 supplanted handiwork. 



The colonial porches found in seaport towns in Essex 

 County, more especially in Salem, have attracted the atten- 

 tion of architects from all over the country. They range 

 from the doorway which reached its height of perfection 

 about the middle of the eighteenth century, to the more pre- 

 tentious porches which adorn the brick houses that were 

 erected during the time of mercantile prosperity, when Elias 

 Haskett Derby, one of Salem's most noted merchant princes, 

 was sending his great ships to India and China. 



Of these porches, the most elaborate and beautiful were 

 designed by one Samuel Mclntire, a noted wood-carver and 

 designer to whose artistic taste Salem owes its finest work. 

 He was a man of wonderful ability, and his carvings have 

 almost world-wide fame. They are shown not only in the 

 capitals of the columns, but across the tops of the doors them- 

 selves, and ofttimes decorated the framework of the windows. 

 His patterns were always graceful; they represented fruit, 

 flowers and emblems. 



One of his finest specimens is shown on the old Assembly 

 house in Federal Street, now the home of Mrs. John Bert- 

 ram. It represents a grape-vine. Under this carved porch 



passed the youthful figure of General Lafayette, in the latter 

 part of the eighteenth century, for during his stay in Salem he- 

 attended an assembly here. Five days later, a man of strik- 

 ing stature, garbed in richest attire, entered the doorway. 

 This was our first President, George Washington, who, a few 

 months after his inauguration, passed a night in Salem. He 

 led the dance with one of Salem's fairest daughters, whose 

 father, General Stephen Abbot, had served under him. 



Classic in design, unsurpassed in symmetry of form and rare 

 beauty of carved capitals, is the Salem Club porch on Wash- 

 ington Square. This house, which is of brick, was originally 

 the home of Captain Joseph Peabody, grandfather of Miss 

 Mary Endicott, who married the Right Honorable Joseph 

 Chamberlain, of England. During her life in this historic 

 city she was a daily visitor at the house, being one of the 

 favorite grandchildren, and there is still preserved in the fam- 

 ily a fine portrait of her by Captain Peabody's gifted brush. 



Two doorways on Chestnut Street, a beautiful tree-arched 

 avenue, have attracted the attention of noted architects. One 

 adorns the first brick house erected on this historic street. It 

 was built by Mr. Robinson and is now the home of Mr. 

 Philip Little. It shows such perfect lines that students from 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology frequently come 

 to Salem to make drawings of it. 



The Pickman-Little house, built in 18 18, is acknowledged 

 by connoisseurs to show one of the best colonial doorways in 

 New England. Its next door neighbor has also reason to be 

 proud of a porch, the central feature of his house, which 



The Porch of Mr. David Pingree's House 



The Porch of the Mc Mullins House 



