THE CUSTOM-HOUSE
Associated with Hawthorne’s life in Salem
It will well repay Salem visitors to note the beauty and architectural use of these windows in conjunction with a study of doorway and porch. Notable examples are to be found on the Pierce-Johonnot-Nichols house at 80 Federal Street, on the landing of the second floor; at the Dodge-Shreve house at 29 Chestnut Street; the Pickman-Shreve-Little house next door at Number 27; at the Whipple house, 2 Andover Street; the Lindall-Gibbs-Osgood house at 314 Essex Street, this one lighting the landing on the second floor at the rear, as is the case in the Cook-Oliver house at 142 Federal Street, while that over the porch of the Andrew-Safford house at 13 Washington Square presents a unique example of original treatment without departure from the architectural motif of the porch itself.
CHAPTER VI
OLD SALEM KNOCKERS
Tradition maintains that the Pilgrim and Puritan attitude toward strangers was one of reserve and suspicion—upon the theory that until one should prove his motives and purposes to be worthy, they must be assumed to be otherwise.
Something of this natural caution was necessary in the circumstances under which our forbears took up their life in a new country; and the feeling may be said to have been reflected, at first, in the difficulty of finding entrance into their houses. The policy of the ‘open door’ was not the original policy of the Salem Colony in the early years of the settlement, although later the fine old town became noted for its generous and lavish hospitality.
Even to-day, one finds in old New England villages front doors which are never opened; the bolt is rusted into its socket, or the key is ‘frozen’ and refuses to turn. In many instances these front doors have never had steps built up to them, but remain inaccessible, save by climbing, at three or four feet above the ground.
The truth is that the ‘side-door’ was the normal entrance. In this part of the house were the kitchen and living-room. Here the occupants of the house spent most of their time, and here it was natural to seek them, whether for purposes of business or merely for the social gossip which made up so large a part of the simple life of the times.
But with improvement in the type of Salem houses, the enlarging of rooms and hallways, and the more careful attention which then began to be given to front entrances and porches, a corresponding change took place in the mental attitude toward the stranger. The wide and handsome doorway invited him; it was ready to welcome him. But how should he announce his presence? The old-time knocker was the answer.
The study of old knockers furnishes a delightful occupation for the lover of antiques. As found upon the doors of old Salem houses, they furnish conspicuous and charming examples, not only of the art of the craftsman in brass, who loved his work and lent to each specimen turned out by him the impress of his individuality, but of the fondness of our forbears for artistic and symbolic forms, together with an appreciation of classic myths and allegories which is very striking, to those who think of the early Colonists as hard men, with no richness of culture and no love of beauty.