: 
Aug. 4, 1916, 
commanded by one of its parishoners. 
the edifice is attractive, a balcony surrounding the audi- 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE and Reminder ; ell 
Driving About Old Cape Ann 
By ALEX. G. TUPPER 
THE first article on Driving About Old Cape Ann pub- 
_ lished in last week’s issue of the Breeze took us as 
far as the old Gloucester Town Hall, at the corner of 
_ Washington and Middle streets. 
_ for us to continue through historic and attractive Middle 
It will be interesting 
street, in the center of the city, thence to Pleasant and 
Main streets, thus making a circuit of the central section 
of Gloucester. 
On entering Middle street, we pass two quaint old 
houses, the one on the right being the Whittemore house, 
erected in 1762 by Samuel Whittemore, the first school- 
naster of the puplic schools in Gloucester. It is a large 
gambrel roof house containing about 20 rooms and the 
whole atmosphere of the dwelling is quaint. There is a 
fine old-fashioned garden on the estate. The property is 
now owned by the heirs of the late Deacon D. Elweil 
Woodbury, the latter a highly respected business man of 
the city. On the opposite corner is the old Sayward house, 
formerly the home of Parson Eli Forbes. It was erected 
cbout the year 1775. 
On no one other street on the Cape do we find so 
~many fine types of old houses in so close proximity, many 
of which were erected during the Revolutionary days. 
Middle street may also be truly called the street of 
churches, for there are five places of worship situated 
‘but short distances apart, two of them being of especial 
historic interest. The street running parallel with the 
Main or “Front street” as it was called by the early 
settlers, is connected with the latter by three short streets, 
Short street, on the right from Washington street, then 
Center and Hancock streets, the three being nearly equal 
distances apart. 
After passing the Woodbury and Sayward houses, 
we view the St. John’s Episcopal church and parish house 
on our left, and on the adjoining lot, a long avenue of 
elm trees with a walk leading beneath them to the old 
Universalist church, (Independent Christian church). 
This was the first Universalist church to be established 
in America and was dedicated by Rev. John Murray. The 
meeting house was erected in 1805. It contains many 
old relics, among which principally are the mahogany 
writing desk upon which the noted Murray wrote many 
of his sermons and the old organ which turns by a crank 
and rollers and which was taken from a British merchant- 
man during the War of the Revolution, by a privateer 
The interior of 
torium. At the front is the pulpit with the choir loft 
above, in which now is a large, modern pipe organ. On 
the balcony at the rear of the church is an antique round 
clock surmounted by a gilded eagle with wide-spread 
wings. New memorial windows have been recently in- 
stalled. In the tall colonial belfry, the be'l which has 
assembled the communicants to worship for so many 
years and still continues to do so, was cast by Paul 
Revere. The exterior of the church is brown in color, 
though it has been generally agreed by a number of note: 
artists, that it would be more strikingly beautiful if paint- 
ed white. This was proven to me to a great degree a 
few weeks ago, when my neighbor artist, Walter S. Fenn 
of East Gloucester, son of the late noted illustrator, Harry 
G. Fenn, of the Century Magazine Company. showed 
a color sketch of the old church in white, offset with its 
charming walk of green elms. 
Much could be said of the early history of this 
church. The seeds of this sect seemed to have been sown 
by an English sailor, who came to Cape Ann about 1770. 
Among the sailor’s effects was a book written by James 
Relly of London, advocating the principles which are the 
corner stone of Universalism today. This treatise, read 
in households, resulted in many influential converts to 
the Rellyan theology, who met quietly among themselves 
until 1774, when they invited Rev. John Murray, at the 
time much attacked by Boston divines for preaching 
Relly’s doctrines, to labor among them. The Rev. Mur- 
ray accepted the invitation and through many trials and 
adverse criticism, stood his ground and built up the faith. 
_ The graceful lines and perfect proportions of the 
picturesque tower, surmounting the church, unfortunately 
cannot be fully appreciated at close range. One shoulti 
view it from a distance, especially from the harbor to get 
the full charm of its loveliness, as it rises from the wealth 
of green foliage, against a background of azure blue or 
the sunset’s afterglow. 
Nearly across the street from the old Universalist 
church is an old house in which lived a fair maiden who 
tenderly cared for the graceful elms in this church yard, 
watering the young trees regularly. 
The next old house on the right, now 51 Middle 
street, was erected in 1752 by Rev. Samuel Chandler, 
while its immediate neighbor is a house called the 
Revolutionary House, erected in 1775. The structure 
has been an object of great interest to thousands of sum- 
mer tourists on Cape Ann. The late Mrs. Ellen M. Shaw, 
the owner for so many years, had a valuable collection 
of antiques (furniture, pictures and china), a small price 
of admission being charged. The finishings of this old 
house are considered the finest of any in the colonial 
houses of the city, with the exception of the Sawyer Free 
Library. The hand carved hall staircase and the wall 
work of the southwest room are truly beautiful works of 
art, as is also the interesting wall paper. 
Nearly across the street from the Revolutionary 
House may be seen a pleasing type of Colonial structure. 
It is white with large windows, each window having 
twenty-four s‘rall panes of glass. The doorway is antique 
also having small panes of glass above its entrance. This 
house was erected in 1775 by Rev. John Rogers, later 
becoming the property of Capt. Warner, an old sea mer- 
chantman, prominent in the days of the Surinam trade. 
The house is now owned by Miss Sally Warner, a direct 
descendant of the old sea captain. 
The church on the left is the Trinity Congregational 
church and passing along, at the right, between the Pat- 
tillo store and the Y. M. C. A. building, we see a house 
with tall, colonial pillars. On this site, the whipping post 
was located, last used in Gloucester in 1780. The lot on 
which the fine Y. M. C. A. building now stands was occu- 
pied by the Dale house, a splendid type of large colonial 
residence, moved away for the purpose of erecting the 
Y. M. C. A. building on the property. 
Nearly across the street from the Pattillo store, is a 
cuaint church, surrounded by beautiful grounds and 
shading elvs. This is the First Unitarian church, the 
first meeting house in Gloucester, and was established in 
1728. The present structure, however, is the result of 
romodeling in 1830, The church has a number of relics, 
including the old organ, the pulpit, two pictures of the 
old and new religious dispensation, a Paul Revere com- 
munion set and bowl, while in the vestibule there hangs 
