THE NATHAN ROBINSON-LITTLE HOUSE
One of the most pleasing porches and doorways of all in Old Salem is that of the house at 10 Chestnut Street, built by Nathan Robinson about 1804. Resting upon the massive granite plinths so favored by the famous McIntire, fluted Ionic columns support a simple entablature with dentiled cornice above. The fanlight and side-lights are artistically designed, the latter showing a pattern of alternate circles and diamonds. Above the door itself is a curious and unusual strip of dentil character, and this is supported by four slender half-round pilasters which constitute the framework of the door.
Close to the plinths at the base of the porch columns are set the handsome gate-posts with their surmounting urns. The posts themselves are paneled, and adorned by carved rosettes within a paneled square. They possess flat capitals with a fine dentil member just beneath, and the bodies of the urns are delicately fluted.
In making some changes within this old house, it was discovered that there were in the hallway three fireplaces, one within the other, in the thickness of the wall. Successive alterations had changed the dimensions of the opening, until it narrowed finally to culminate in a small modern grate. It now stands as at first constructed, its narrow mantel adorned with rare bits of old pewter.
The Dodge-Shreve House
This splendid old house at 29 Chestnut Street deserves to be called sumptuous in architectural detail, as no part of doorway, porch, or Palladian window lacks its elaborate decoration—with the single exception of the side-lights, which are chastely simple.
Both supporting and engaged columns are of the Corinthian type, these being reproduced in miniature in others which form the framework of the doorway itself.
The porch roof has a handsome balustrade, and above this we find once more slender Corinthian columns in the frame of the Palladian window. The arched pediment of the latter has a keystone bearing a carved emblem, and frames a fanlight of original design. The windows of all three stories receive special attention in the addition of carved lintels, embodying the familiar ‘Grecian border’ motif, with interesting variations.
The beautiful paneled door of this fine old mansion is of the true Colonial pattern, and has three leaves, with a handsome brass knob. A spear-head iron fence curving gracefully inward to the granite steps, and iron hand-rails of a different design, complete the architectural whole, which is said to have been imitated more than any other in Old Salem.