Samuel McIntire, the famous Salem architect, died in 1811. The Gardner-White-Pingree house was designed by him in the previous year, and was possibly his last achievement. The shape of the building is oblong, most of the best houses of the period being square. The windows of the top story are foreshortened. The narrow bands of white marble running across the façade at the height of the first and second floor deceive the eye, and make the building appear lower than it is.
In the front doorway and porch we have a notable specimen of McIntire’s work, illustrating the freedom with which he employed original ideas in the use of the various architectural orders. Corinthian columns support the porch roof, but they are without the usual fluting; while the pilasters farther back are fluted. The slender grace of the tall columns is most pleasing and the elliptical roof with its simple mouldings well crowns the whole. A spider-web fanlight of beautiful proportions surmounts the doorway, which is flanked by side-lights of pleasing design. The wide door itself, though not of original Colonial type, is not a discordant note in the ensemble.
A most elaborate cast-iron fence with square openwork posts resembling tree-boxes, standing at the foot of the steps and continued by simpler hand-rails, lends a proper finish to the approach; while the marble sills and keyed lintels of the windows relieve the plain expanse of the façade.
The House of the Seven Gables
Reference has been made to two of the doorways of the famous ‘House of the Seven Gables’ at the lower end of Turner Street, close to the harbor. This romantic old dwelling dates from the year 1662, a fact gleaned from an ancient iron fire-back standing in one of the fireplaces, bearing this date.
The many gables doubtless belong to sections of the house, built at different times, and the assemblage as a whole is rendered charming by the many irregularities of its composition. It was for four successive generations occupied by the Turner family, from whom Turner Street received its name; they were wealthy citizens, prominent in the civil, military, and mercantile life of the town.
Captain Turner was a representative in the General Court, or legislature, and was once sent with a detail of militia to prevent the town of Andover from falling into the hands of hostile Indians, bringing back as a trophy, as told by his great-granddaughter, a string of scalps which were for many years in his possession.
After the passing of the Turners, the house was occupied by the Ingersoll family. Susan Ingersoll, termed by Hawthorne ‘The Duchess,’ was a favorite cousin. Tradition has it that a chance remark of hers confirmed him in the choice of the name for his famous novel ‘The House of the Seven Gables’—one that has immortalized the old house.
The J. Foster Smith House
