The House
The earliest section of the House of the Seven Gables was built in 1667 for Capt. John Turner. It remained in his family for three generations, descending from John Turner II to John Turner III. Facing south towards Salem Harbor, it was originally a two-room, 2 1⁄2-story house with cross-gables and a massive central chimney. This portion now forms the middle of the house. Four windows of the original ground-floor room (which became a dining room) remain in the house's side wall.
A few years later, a kitchen lean-to was added. In 1668, Turner added a spacious south (front) extension with its own chimney, containing a parlor on the ground floor, with a large bed chamber above it. Ceilings in this new wing are higher than the very low ceilings in older parts of the house. The new wing featured double casement windows and an overhang with carved pendants; it was capped with a three-gabled garret.
In 1692, John Turner II added a new north kitchen ell to the rear of the house (later removed but then restored in 1908–1910), as well as the famous "secret stairway" within the rebuilt main chimney. About 1725 he remodeled the house in the new Georgian style, adding wood paneling and sash windows. These alterations are preserved, very early examples of Georgian decor. Research at The House of the Seven Gables has shown that the kitchen ell, thought to have been added in 1692, was added in 1675; only a small brewing room addition was added in 1692. The House of the Seven Gables is the oldest surviving mansion house in continental North America, with 17 rooms and over 8,000 square feet (700 m2) including its large cellars.
After John Turner III lost the family fortune, the house was acquired by the Ingersolls, who remodeled it again. Gables were removed, porches replaced, and Georgian trim added. Their relative Nathaniel Hawthorne, while growing up, was often entertained in the house by his cousin Susannah Ingersoll. By Hawthorne's time, the house had only three gables, but his cousin told him the house's history, and showed him beams and mortises in the attic indicating locations of former gables. Horace Ingersoll told Hawthorne a story of Acadian lovers that later inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1847 poem Evangeline.
Read more about this topic: House Of The Seven Gables
Famous quotes containing the word house:
“It will be difficult for me not to make sport for the Philistines by pulling down a house or two, since when I once take pen in hand, I must say what comes uppermost, or fling it away.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“‘Tis ill talking of halters in the house of a man that was hanged.”
—Miguel De Cervantes (1547–1616)