In Virginia, the Colonial type was also in vogue, but with a difference. The General’s surprise was apparently at the fact that in towns, as well as upon the great estates of the South to which he had been accustomed, so large a degree of taste and comfort could prevail.
The side-door of the Hosmer dwelling has an attractive enclosed porch, almost hidden by a huge wistaria which clothes it in a tangle of leafage and bloom. It resembles that already described in the Johonnot house in the presence of oval side-lights, although differing somewhat in architectural features. The front entrance of the Hosmer house closely corresponds with that at the side in design, and both possess the correct six-panel door, relieved by brass latch and knocker.
Historical interest attaches to the Hosmer-Waters house in that it was once the home of Henry Fitz-Gilbert Waters, whose genealogical researches and writings are well-known. These include ‘John Harvard and his Ancestry,’ ‘An Examination into the English Ancestry of George Washington,’ ‘Genealogical Gleanings in England.’ Connoisseurs have stated that Mr. Waters’s collection of antique furniture was surpassed by none in New England.
Assembly Hall
ASSEMBLY HALL
Not long after the Revolution, the Federal Party in Salem desired a meeting-place, and Samuel McIntire was commissioned to design for this purpose the Assembly Hall. In 1782 the building was erected at 138 Federal Street. Not to be outdone, the Democrats also, though somewhat later, built Washington Hall, likewise the work of McIntire.
Social festivities of all sorts immediately found their center in the Assembly Hall. In 1789, when Washington, for whose personal use the Boardman house had been designated during his stay, paid a visit to Salem, a ball was arranged in his honor, and this took place in Assembly Hall, where he opened the festivities with Miss Abbot, daughter of General Abbot, his host of the occasion. Washington, however, turned his fair partner over to General Knox when the dancing began, asserting that this was out of his line. At Assembly Hall a banquet was tendered Lafayette on his first tour of America some years earlier.
Curiously enough, and contrary to the usual order of things, after a brief period of only thirteen years, Assembly Hall became a private residence, in the year 1795.
Instead of being clapboarded, the front of this building is laid flat, giving a rather bare effect. This impression is somewhat relieved by the elaborate decorations—four handsome Ionic pilasters rising above the roof of the porch nearly to the eaves, while a gable or pediment extends across almost the full width of the façade. The porch itself is of generous breadth, Ionic pillars with a beautifully ornamented frieze, representing grape leaves and clusters, forming a fitting frame for the hospitable entrance just behind. Probably the porch is of more recent date than the building itself, although this is a matter of conjecture. The sides and back of the house differ from the façade in being clapboarded instead of flat. Elaborate iron railings on either side guard the ascent from the sidewalk.