Historic doorways of Old Salem

by Mary Harrod Northend

The Rebecca Nurse House

THE REBECCA NURSE HOUSE

Belonging to the earliest period of Salem architectural history is an old house standing in what is now the town of Danvers, originally a part of Salem, as were also the present towns of Marblehead, Beverly, and Peabody. This house is usually called the Rebecca Nurse house, for the reason that Rebecca, the wife of Francis Nurse, who lived here at the time of the infamous witchcraft delusion, was one of the victims of the cruel fanaticism of the Court, and condemned by the judges to be hanged as a witch, although the jury had rendered a verdict in her favor. Architectural interest centers in the fascinating batten door, with its pattern of diagonal squares scratched upon the planks, studded at the points of intersection with round-headed nails, and adorned by a heavy handle or door-pull of iron. The sill is a simple heavy plank and the casing absolutely plain. Above the doorway, and several inches off center, is a unique and curious sun-dial, on which the shadow of an iron rod, placed slantingly upon a background of plank resembling the heavy square shutter of a window, falls along carved lines radiating from the center and marked at their extremities with Roman numerals indicating the hours from five to two. On the upper edge of the sun-dial are carved the initials ‘T. B.’ and between them the date ‘1636.’ Townsend Bishop, the original owner of the house, built it in the above year. Later the estate changed hands several times, being in turn the property of no lesser personages than Governor John Endicott, the son of the Governor, John Endicott, Jr., and the Reverend James Allen, pastor of the First Church in Boston. In 1692, from the curious doorway above described, with the inexorable shadow upon the sun-dial above it crawling slowly toward her hour of doom, brave Rebecca Nurse passed to her execution. In the dooryard one still sees the old-fashioned garden which she once tended, and just beyond is shown a solitary grave where she rests in peace—history having vindicated her in her steadfast declaration before her judges—‘I can say before my Eternal Father I am innocent, and God will clear my innocency.’

The John Ward House

THE JOHN WARD HOUSE

In the picture, two Salem maids of Colonial times are shown gossiping at the huge door-stone of the lean-to of this interesting old house, built in 1684 and originally located at 38 St. Peter Street. The illustration is taken from the restored building as it now stands in the grounds of the Essex Institute in Salem. Fallen into neglect and disrepair, the old house once came to have a forlorn aspect. But it now presents a most attractive appearance, with its latticed casements, its huge central chimney-stack, its batten front door, and its cheerful surroundings of lawn and flowers.

The steep pitch of the roof and the overhang of the main second story are indications of the age of this fine old house. English cottages were commonly thatched, and a very steep pitch of the roof was necessary to carry off the water. For a considerable time after the founding of Salem, many houses were thatched; and even when the roofs began to be covered with shingles or tiles, habit still retained the steep slope from ridge to eaves. As to the overhang, tradition persists in declaring that the purpose of this was to provide floor loopholes through which a musket might be fired at Indians who had come too close to the building to be reached from openings in shutter or wall. This may possibly be true. But the overhang was quite common in Elizabethan dwellings in the old country; and builders may have used it here without conscious purpose, but simply from custom.

In the John Ward house, the main part was at one time used as a bakery. Our picture shows a window display in the lean-to addition, of apothecaries’ supplies on one side and on the other of striped candy in glass jars, and other unknown dainties, perhaps that flint-like rock candy imported by Salem merchants from the East, or the strange confections known as ‘Black Jacks’ and ‘Gibraltars,’ dear to the childish heart in early times. Other rooms both upstairs and down are furnished in Colonial style and contain interesting relics. The house is innocent of paint, inside and out, and takes its only color from the mellowing touch of weather without and of time within.