Colonel Peabody owned many art treasures, one of which, housed in this dwelling, was Murillo’s ‘Immaculate Conception,’ valued by connoisseurs at the sum of $100,000.
The story is told of one Salem citizen, named Simon Forrester, father of the original owner of the house in question, that he projected a plan for the decoration of his own residence, including the representation upon the walls of drawing-rooms and hallways, not of the favorite scenes so often found on the costly wall-papers of the time, such as Cupid and Psyche, Roman ruins, Venetian lagoons, the English hunting-fields, the adventures of Don Quixote, etc., but rather a series of episodes from his own life, ‘showing his rise from poverty to grandeur; the place of his birth, a humble cottage in Ireland; his various places of business, with the wharves of Salem, and the vessels which had brought his merchandise to them.’
The Baldwin-Lyman House
THE BALDWIN-LYMAN HOUSE
Also on Washington Square, at Number 92, the square three-story brick house in question, standing well apart from other buildings, its mellow façade almost completely hidden by ivy, deserves far more than passing mention. The date of its erection is 1818. It bears a peculiar and charming air of self-respecting reserve, to which effect the simple wooden picket fence with ornamental posts contributes by seeming to supply an appropriate frame to the picture.
The windows of the top floor, as was customary at the period, are shorter than those of the other tiers, giving the desired effect of foreshortening. The windows themselves, however, have been modernized by the use of four-panel sashes, and this substitution detracts from the Colonial ensemble.
The porch of the Baldwin-Lyman house, supported by four smooth Corinthian columns and surmounted by a pleasing wooden balustrade, with its white six-paneled door, its plain square-panel side-lights, simple fanlight, and complete absence of embellishment or decoration, presents a singularly pure and distinctive appearance. In contrast to this simplicity, the gate-posts are in full dress—they are fronted by small Ionic pilasters with a wide reeded band above, and are further embellished with carved diamonds or lozenges, some placed in a vertical and some in a horizontal position, in the space immediately below the capital. The surmounting urns again are purely designed. Their covers, however, have a beaded edge; and the details of the flames which they emit are more deeply and carefully carved than usual.
The Andrew-Safford House
