Colonial Homes and Their FurnishingsNorthend, Mary Harrod
History
Colonial Homes and Their Furnishings
Northend, Mary Harrod
Architecture, Colonial; Furniture -- United States
Other types of porches still seen in Salem include the Dutch porch,
quaint and comely in its construction, an excellent example of which is
seen on the Whipple house on Andover Street, while surrounding the
Common on Washington Square are many rare and picturesque porches of
various dates of erection.
Considered by experts to excel them all is the porch that adorns the
Pierce-Jahonnot house on Federal Street. This dwelling was erected by
Mr. Pierce, of Pierce and Waitte, merchants, in the year 1782, and
beside the main entrance it boasts a fine example of the narrow doorway
at one side. In the early spring, crocuses clustering about the base of
the porch add a touch that is decorative and charming, and the
box-bordered garden beds, just in front, filled with masses of pure
white bloom, complete a wholly delightful setting. There is about this
particular doorway a touch of sentiment felt by every Salemite. It is a
piece of architecture of which any one might feel proud, and in its
beauty and dignity it stands distinctive in the midst of many fine bits.
It is the Mecca of architects, who delight in the exquisite blending of
doorway and entrance.
There is a touch of the old Witchcraft Days connected with a doorway at
Number 23 Summer Street, that resembles in type the one immortalized by
Hawthorne. More than two hundred years ago, this porch was the site of
an event that culminated in tragedy. Bridget Bishop, the first victim of
the terrible delusion of 1692, kept a tavern here, and in her gay
light-heartedness, she scorned the dictates of the church and insisted
upon wearing on Sabbath Day a black hat and a red paragon bodice,
bordered and looped with different colors. Her boldness in defying the
rigid doctrines made the dignitaries suspicious of her, and at her
trial, when one witness told of meeting her before the site of the
present doorway where his horse stopped, and the buggy he was driving
flew to pieces,--she of course having bewitched it,--was condemned to
death.
Individual types found throughout the city show a variety of
construction and ornamentation, and many of these are most unique,
although they do not belong to any special period. Prominent among these
is the Pineapple doorway on Brown Street Court, an excellently
proportioned and finely adorned entrance, which, through the remoteness
of its location, is rarely seen by tourists. The dwelling of which it is
a part was built in 1750 by Captain Thomas Poynton, and this feature,
unlike the old Benjamin Pickman porch on Essex Street, which shows a
codfish, has nothing about it suggestive of New England. The pineapple,
which is set in a broken pediment, was brought over from England in one
of the captain's own ships, and in the days of his occupancy it was kept
brightly gilded, its leaves painted green.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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