Essex County MA

Joseph Story House // 1811

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Built in 1811 for Joseph Story, lawyer, politician, and judge of the United States Supreme Court, this stately brick residence on Winter Street in Salem, Massachusetts, is significant, not only for its architecture, but for its esteemed owners. Judge Joseph Story (1779-1845), who was then Speaker of the House of Massachusetts in 1810, purchased this house lot near the Salem Common, and proceeded to have this three-story brick house constructed. By the time it was finished, Story had been appointed by President Madison to the bench of the United States Supreme Court. He was just 32-years-old when nominated to the bench. The house is also the birthplace in 1819 of Story’s son William Wetmore Story, a well-known sculptor. Judge Story would reside here until 1829, when he moved to Cambridge in order to pursue his work at the new Harvard Law School. The property was sold in 1831 to Robert Upton (1788-1863), a self-made merchant heavily engaged with trade in South America. Robert Upton and his sons were among the most important men in Salem in the 1830s-1850s, for they were able to maintain a successful foreign commerce, and keep ships and men employed, at a time when Salem was otherwise fading as a seaport. The house has been lovingly maintained by centuries of stewards, and the house was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1973.

Kenneally House // 1913

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While Salem, Massachusetts, is best-known for its Colonial and 19th century architecture, there are some great 20th century buildings that deserve attention. This is the Kenneally House at 3 Williams Street, just north of the Salem Common, a c.1913 Colonial Revival home with great curb appeal. The house was built for Maurice D. Kenneally, a teamster, who lived here with his wife, Mary, and son, Patrick. Symmetrically arranged, the house has a center entry , with sidelights and an elliptical fanlight. The front facade is dominated by a full-width first story porch on paired Doric columns and a gable roof with Palladian window.

George Clark Cottage // 1847

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In 1847, George Clark (1815-1890), a Salem carpenter, purchased a house lot on Oliver Street, a block away from the Salem Common. That year he began constructing this cottage for his family. The Clark Family resided here for just a year until 1849, when George got caught up in the California Gold Rush, selling the property and moving west to make his fortune. Since Mr. Clark was back in Salem by 1850 (according to the federal census), he was likely one of the thousands of forty-niners who did not strike it rich. The Greek Revival style house is unique for its more Gothic style gable, brackets, and segmental arched windows.

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!

J. Michael Ruane Judicial Center // 2011

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In 2005, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts announced plans to build a new court complex on Federal Street in Salem to replace the aging 19th century courthouses. A site adjacent to the 1909 Registry of Deeds and Probate Court was selected, but with one issue, a Federal-period historic Baptist Church was already on the site. The church was purchased from the congregation and moved down Federal street, and construction began on the new contemporary judicial center. Designed by Goody/Clancy Architects, the building takes design cues from the historic courthouses on the street, with a modern interpretation of the Classical architecture and Corinthian columns found nearby. Opened in 2011, the complex was named after late state representative, J. Michael Ruane, and incorporated the former 1805 Baptist Church as the new Essex Law Library.

Essex County Registry of Deeds // 1909

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The Essex County Registry of Deeds and Probate Courthouse on Federal Street in Salem, Massachusetts, was built in 1909 from plans by Boston architect, Clarence Blackall. The Neo-Classical courthouse adds to the rich tapestry of Civic buildings there, showcasing the ever-evolving tastes in architecture as the buildings become more contemporary as you move westward down the street. The two-story granite and cast-stone faced brick masonry building is cross-shaped in plan, consisting of a three-bay wide gable-end entrance with Ionic porch of six fluted columns supporting a dentilled entablature and pediment. The central bay within the entry porch contains a large double-door entrance with elaborate architrave and a scrolling pediment incorporating Classical motifs and a Greek god bust. The building underwent a massive restoration in 2017, and was renamed the Thaddeus Buczko Building after retired First Justice Thaddeus M. Buczko.

Old Essex County Superior Courthouse // 1861

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Located to the west of the Old Granite Courthouse on Federal Street in Salem, the Old Essex County Superior Courthouse is a visual depiction of the emergence of the Victorian styles from the more Classical Greek mode. Originally built in 1861 from plans by Salem architect, Enoch Fuller, the building was distinctly Italianate in style and built of brick until a major renovation in 1889 gave the building its present Richardsonian Romanesque appearance. The building was enlarged and renovated by architects Holman K. Wheeler and W. Wheelwright Northend which includes: changes to the roof line, creation of dormers, alterations to the window surrounds to create Romanesque arches and more. A three-story projecting pavilion, whose first floor is finished with rusticated brownstone, contains a recessed entry with a large semicircular arch supported on three columns with carved capitals at each end. The central pavilion resolves into a gable with corner pilasters with carved finials centering a blind arch containing the full date span of the complex, “1861-1891” in a field of square rusticated brownstone blocks. The courthouse remained in use until the J Michael Ruane Judicial Center at the end of the block was completed in 2012. The Old Granite Courthouse and adjacent Old Superior Courthouse were both vacated and have been essentially mothballed ever-since under the ownership of the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance as surplus. The fate of the two buildings remains undetermined.

Essex County Old Granite Courthouse // 1841

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Aligned in a row on the north side of Federal Street in Salem, the Essex County Court complex is a tour de force of the evolving architectural tastes of three centuries. At the eastern edge of the complex, the Old Granite Courthouse stands as the oldest of the group. The two-story temple-form building is of rectangular plan with gabled roof oriented towards the street. The facade features a recessed porch with paired columns surmounted by Greek Corinthian capitals which are set between broad, squared Doric corner pilasters. The granite building was designed by architect, Richard Bond (1797-1861) of Boston, and the structure is often referred to as one of the finest Greek Revival-style Civic buildings in New England. The courthouse remained in use until the J Michael Ruane Judicial Center at the end of the block was completed in 2012. The Old Granite Courthouse and adjacent Old Superior Courthouse were both vacated and have been essentially mothballed ever-since under the ownership of the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance as surplus. The fate of the two buildings remains undetermined.

First Baptist Church of Salem – Essex Law Library // 1805

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The First Baptist Church of Salem was built in 1805 on Federal Street and is the oldest brick meetinghouse in Salem. The local Baptist congregation was established in 1804 when 24 parishioners formed the First Baptist Church, and began gathering funds to elect a pastor and build a house of worship. At the time, Baptists were a religious minority in Massachusetts, where nearly all churches were Congregational, so against large odds, the parishioners funded a brick building and lot on the prominent Federal Street in Salem. The structure was completed by 1805 and is said to have been one of only fifty brick structures that stood in the city at the time. A major renovation to the building occurred in 1850, when the church was renovated in the Italianate style. Its three bays are articulated as an English basement containing three identical entrances framed in heavy rusticated brownstone. A belt course separates this basement from a principal story composed of tall arched windows capped by drip-molded brownstone. A lunette window is the centerpiece of the strongly projecting modillioned pediment. The entire composition is very pleasing and showcases the ever-evolving architectural tastes in the 19th century. A tower was later removed due to structural issues. In the early 21st century, the site of the church was needed for an expansion of the Essex County Courts. The congregation sold the property and in the following year, the old brick church was moved a couple hundred feet to the west and restored and was converted into a law library for the new courthouse. Talk about historic preservation at work!

Tabernacle Congregational Church of Salem // 1923

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The Tabernacle Congregational Church at Washington and Federal streets in Salem, Massachusetts, was built in 1923 for one of the oldest congregations in the Commonwealth. The Tabernacle Church’s congregation traces its origins to the founding of the First Church of Salem in 1629. The church was originally located a few blocks away until a fire destroyed the wooden building in 1774. The congregation built a new wooden church on this site by 1777, and have remained on the site ever since the United States was established. The present, stone church building, was constructed from designs by the Boston firm of Philip Horton Smith and Edgar Walker in 1922. This dignified and graceful Colonial Revival church building (with attached parish house) is the third ecclesiastical structure to stand on this site. It replaced a large wooden Italianate church which the parish occupied from 1854 until it was torn down in 1922. Its predecessor, which stood from 1776 to 1854, possessed an elegant three-stage tower which Samuel McIntire added in 1805. The Tabernacle Church is a stone-veneered masonry building with a prominent engaged tower which contains a large arched entry, and a giant order porch consisting of four Tuscan columns and associated pilasters of the same type, which supports a pedimented roof that shelters the entrance. The tower is surmounted by a square, wood-frame belltower with pilastered corners above which is an open octagonal cupola with bell-cast roof. What a great Colonial Revival style church!