American Houses

Edgerly-Hawthorne House // 1824

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The Edgerly-Hawthorne House on Mall Street, near the Salem Common, is one of the most significant residences in Salem, Massachusetts. The Federal style residence was built in 1824 for Peter Edgerly, who ran a teamster/trucker or distribution company in Downtown Salem. After a decade, Peter became insolvent and the property was sold to Joseph Leavitt, a wealthy property owner in Salem. This house is best-known as the place where Salem-born Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family, lived from 1847 to 1850, and where he wrote The Scarlet Letter. It was in the room closest to the street, on the third floor, that Hawthorne sat at his desk and wrote the American masterpiece of fiction. After publishing The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne moved to the Berkshires and then back to Concord, Massachusetts, never to live in Salem again. In c.1906, the Edgerly-Hawthorne House was photographed by the Detroit Publishing Company highlighting some landmarks in town. The house looks nearly identical from when it was built over 200 years ago!

John E. Calhoun House // c.1912

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This site, in the heart of Cornwall village, was once occupied by an early 19th century Federal style residence, built by the wealthy Pierce family in town. The Pierces’ large home was acquired by John E. Calhoun (1859-1940), a successful New York businessman, who retreated to his father’s hometown for summers away from the city. In 1911, a fire destroyed the home, which was wood-frame construction. This event mobilized Mr. Calhoun, who was untrained but interested in architecture, to begin planning a new summer residence, but of fireproof construction. Calhoun is said to have designed (and funded) the town’s library just years before, and modeled his home in line with the Colonial-era residences in the village, just larger and of brick. From the 1950s through the 1990s, the house was occupied by the headmaster and administration of the local Marvelwood School, but was re-established as a private home, a use that remains today.

Rockport Spite House // 1806

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The story of “spite houses” are always so interesting!

Photo courtesy of Carolyn’s Shade Gardens

This large Federal style home in Rockport is a rare extant example of a spite house in Maine. The story goes… James McCobb, an Irish immigrant, arrived in what is now Phippsburg in 1731. Living in a log cabin with his Irish-born wife, Beatrice, he raised a large family of 10 children, among whom was Thomas McCobb (1778-1815), who became a sea captain. In 1774, James built a handsome Federal period house for his second wife, Hannah Nichols, with whom he had three children (twin daughters, and a second son, also named Thomas). He married a third time in 1782 to Mary Langdon Storer Hill, who had a son, Mark Langdon Hill, from a previous marriage, who ended up marrying one of McCobb’s daughters, one of the twins, who was a half-sister to Thomas. While Captain Thomas McCobb was away at sea, the Hills, which included Thomas’ half-sister/wife of Mark Langdon Hill, broke his father’s will and took the homestead for themselves. When Captain Thomas McCobb returned from his voyage and discovered what had happened, he vowed to build the most beautiful house in Maine and one that would dwarf the one he had been deprived of. The house was promptly dubbed “The Spite House”.

This house was built in 1806. Ironically, Captain Thomas apparently never married and left no descendants, as a result, when he died in 1815 in Boston, the house was given over to the Hill family. The house had fallen into disrepair and was purchased in 1925 by Donald Dodge of Philadelphia, who moved the house, to save it from demolition, over 85 miles by boat from Phippsburg to Rockport. He also transported a 1796 house from South Harpswell to be used in the construction of the wings that were subsequently added onto the Spite House. The property now sits on Beauchamp Point, not visible from the street, in a desirable enclave of summer residences, with sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean.

Photo courtesy of Camden Public Library

Hastings House // c.1941

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Many neighborhoods in New England held on to historical revival styles even when the International style and Mid-Century Modern homes began to proliferate all across the region. Some owners (even today) prefer traditionally designed houses to blend into their surroundings and historical context. This charming gingerbread Tudor Revival style house in Fairfield is one of them! The Hastings House was built in 1941 and designed by the powerhouse design couple of Cameron Clark (architect) and Agnes Clark (landscape architect) who designed and renovated properties all over Fairfield. The house is notable for its use of stucco with half-timbering, steeply pitched roofline, red tile roof, and more Colonial-inspired door treatments.

Sturges House // 1855

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One of the finest examples of Italianate residential architecture in the state of Connecticut can be found in Fairfield in the Sturges House. This property was built in 1855 for Henry Sturges Thorp a New York City merchant from a Fairfield family and his wife Julia Ann Thorp, likely as a summer home away from the city. Both Henry and Julia died in 1869 and the property was acquired by Frederick Sturges, the son of Jonathan Sturges a wealthy businessman and philanthropist who had a stunning early Gothic Revival mansion nearby. The Sturges House as it is now known, is a landmark example of the Italianate style with broad overhanging eaves, massive belvedere at the roof, round arched windows, and the tripartite blind windows capped by an elaborate cornice.

Oliver Walker House // c.1809

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The Oliver Walker House in Kennebunkport Village is one of the better examples that shows how overlapping architectural styles can work really well on an old house (when done right)! The original house was constructed around 1809 for Oliver Walker (1788-1851), a sea captain who later accepted the call and became a deacon for the South Congregational Church in Kennebunkport. Walker died in 1851 and the Federal style property was inherited by his only surviving child, daughter Susan, who had married Portland native, Captain John Lowell Little. Under their ownership, the traditionally designed Federal house was modernized with fashionable Italianate style modifications of the decorative brackets and an enclosed round arched window in the side gable. A later Colonial Revival projecting vestibule adds to the complex, yet pleasing design. I have a feeling the interiors of this house are just as spectacular as the exterior.

Naulakha // 1893

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Located on a hillside in rural Dummerston, Vermont, you will find Naulakha, one of the most significant properties in the region. Naulakha (pronounced now-LAH-kuh) was built in 1893 for Rudyard Kipling an english journalist and author born in British India, an upbringing which inspired much of his professional work. In 1892, Kipling married Caroline Balestier, who was born into a prominent New England family. The couple honeymooned in Vermont near Carrie’s family home. The couple would settle in Vermont in a cottage which was soon outgrown, leading the couple to buy 10 acres of land from Carrie’s brother Beatty Balestier and built their own house. The new Shingle-style home they had built was named Naulakha after a book written by Rudyard and Caroline’s late-brother Wolcott. Kipling wanted a home that merged the distinctive qualities of the Indian bungalow with those of the American Shingle Style and he worked closely with his architect, Henry Rutgers Marshall of New York City, a Balestier family friend to achieve this.

The rectangular mass of the home parallels the contours the hill upon which its sited, and sits atop a raised fieldstone basement salvaged from stone walls on the property. From the home, Kipling wrote some of his most influential work, including the Jungle Books (1894, 1895), Captains Courageous (1896, The Seven Seas (1896), and The Day’s Work (1898). Sadly, the Kipling’s moved out of Naulakha after just a few years, largely from familial disputes with Caroline’s brother, Beatty. The family removed to England where they settled, though Rudyard always mentioned how much he missed his secluded life in Vermont. The property was then purchased by the Holbrook family, who made slight modifications to the property, but all maintaining the original design and feeling. In 1992, the British-based Landmark Trust acquired Naulakha as its first American building, later creating the Landmark Trust USA to maintain the property and more. The Landmark Trust USA rents out Naulakha and the adjacent carriage house for short-term rentals to provide revenue for maintaining these properties.

For more on my stay at the absolutely stunning Kipling Carriage House, check out my later blog post here.