Altogether, with its gables, its lean-to, its batten door and lozenge casements, its overhang and its silvery weathered walls, the John Ward house presents a most interesting example of the Old Salem dwelling of the second period.
The Tucker-Rice House
THE TUCKER-RICE HOUSE
The young Salem dames whom we saw at the doorway of the John Ward house a few moments ago, have apparently transferred themselves, by means of some witchcraft, from the seventeenth century, to which the Ward house belongs, to the beginning of the nineteenth, in which was built the Tucker-Rice house, upon the steps of which we now find them. They are still, however, in the garden of the Essex Institute, for this fine portico has been removed from its original location, on the house at 129 Essex Street, and brought here for preservation.
In changing hands in 1896, the Tucker-Rice house became subject to alterations which considerably detracted from its original character, architecturally speaking. The previous year, its classic porch had been pronounced by an eminent authority the best-proportioned porch in Salem. It had at the time, too, an ugly modern door, and the adjacent glasswork was not appropriate. In its present location, as we note in the photograph, the fanlights and side-lights are graceful and artistic in Colonial design, while the door itself presents a rare example of the three-piece pattern belonging to the proper period.
The porch itself, the work of Samuel McIntire, is in the semi-oval composite style. The tall, slender, fluted columns with their flanking pilasters seem almost to spring into the air, so light is the effect produced by their perfect proportions. The roof of the porch is borne aloft without a semblance of effort, while the easy grade of the stone steps with their wrought-iron railings provides a solid and handsome base for the whole.
Directly across the street from the Tucker-Rice house stands the Gardner-White-Pingree mansion, with a porch of similar design, without the fluting of the columns. This was erected in 1810, also the work of McIntire, perhaps his last, and considered the best of his brick houses.
The Ropes Memorial
