Architecture Trail

The House of the Seven Gables Site
Among the several buildings on this site is the Turner-Ingersoll mansion, which was built by the wealthy merchant John Turner circa 1668. This post-medieval includes an overhanging jetty, pendant drops, and original noggin in the attic where a rare 1600s batten door is on display. Restored in 1910, there is a porthole to view the 17th-century timbers with chamfered edges and lamb’s tongue stops. Also on the site are the 1682 Retire Beckett House and the 1655 Hooper Hathaway House, which were moved during the Colonial Revival by Caroline Emmerton to save them from demolition.

Continuing that tradition, author Nathaniel Hawthorne’s birthplace was moved to The Gables property in 1958 from 27 Union Street under the supervision of architectural historian Abbott Lowell Cummings. The modest Georgian house was purchased by Captian Daniel Hathorne in 1772 and inherited by his son Captain Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author’s father. The younger Nathaniel was born here in 1804, but due to his father’s sudden death during a voyage to Surinam, Mrs. Hawthorne had to sell the house in 1808 and move in with relatives.

Owned by: The House of the Seven Gables
Address: 115 Derby Street, Salem
Phone: 978-744-0991
Website: www.7gables.org
Hours: January 12–June 30, daily 10 am–5 pm; July 1–October 31, daily 10 am–7 pm; November 1–December 31, daily 10 am–5 pm; October weekends until 11 pm
(Text from the Essex National Heritage Commission.)