The Cook-Oliver House
THE COOK-OLIVER HOUSE
One of the most elaborate examples of the work of Samuel McIntire is found in the Cook-Oliver house at 142 Federal Street. The amount of detail upon the entrance-posts and about the doorways is unusual, and is carried to a point where it just misses being overdone. Originally carved for the Derby house on Market Square, much of this work was transferred to the Cook-Oliver house about 1804, at which date this mansion was begun, although unfortunate commercial ventures delayed its completion until about 1814 or 1815. This delay may have worked out as a blessing in disguise, as was also perhaps the use of material from the Derby house, which was finally razed in 1815, although the work of demolition had begun at an earlier date.
Samuel Cook was a sea-captain, the father-in-law of General Henry K. Oliver, who was prominent in political and industrial affairs, being at various times Mayor of the city of Lawrence, Mayor also of Salem at the advanced age of eighty years, Treasurer of the State of Massachusetts, Treasurer of the Lawrence Cotton Mills, and Adjutant-General. With the present-day public, however, his chief claim to recognition lies in the fact that he was the composer of many familiar hymns, notably ‘Federal Street,’ named from the thoroughfare where he then lived.
The Cook-Oliver house is a three-story square clapboarded structure save on the eastern side, which is constructed of brick to keep out the east wind. An old-fashioned ‘jut-by,’ with flat boarding, projects from the rear L, with a side-entrance—an arrangement seldom found in houses of this late period, though common in lean-to days.
The porch of the Cook-Oliver house exemplifies once more that characteristic quality of McIntire’s genius—freedom of combination conjoined with restraint of artistic taste—which lends his work so much of originality, while it never approaches the bizarre. Here we find Tuscan, Corinthian, and Doric motives all present, yet without discord. The garlands and festoons about the door-casing and side-lights relieve the severity of the right angles, while elliptical fanlight and side-lights with unique leading complete the harmonious whole. The modern door is again the sole jarring note.
A word must be added regarding the gate-posts, which are the most ornate among many of similar design in Salem. The medallions, carved knots and garlands, the cornice directly below the urns, and the moulded urns themselves with their flames at the top, represent a veritable labor of love on the part of the master-craftsman. The final touch is found in fence and gate, which, simple to plainness, modestly concede to the remainder of the work its proper importance.