Belonging to the earliest period of Salem architectural history is an old house standing in what is now the town of Danvers, originally a part of Salem, as were also the present towns of Marblehead, Beverly, and Peabody. This house is usually called the Rebecca Nurse house, for the reason that Rebecca, the wife of Francis Nurse, who lived here at the time of the infamous witchcraft delusion, was one of the victims of the cruel fanaticism of the Court, and condemned by the judges to be hanged as a witch, although the jury had rendered a verdict in her favor. Architectural interest centers in the fascinating batten door, with its pattern of diagonal squares scratched upon the planks, studded at the points of intersection with round-headed nails, and adorned by a heavy handle or door-pull of iron. The sill is a simple heavy plank and the casing absolutely plain. Above the doorway, and several inches off center, is a unique and curious sun-dial, on which the shadow of an iron rod, placed slantingly upon a background of plank resembling the heavy square shutter of a window, falls along carved lines radiating from the center and marked at their extremities with Roman numerals indicating the hours from five to two. On the upper edge of the sun-dial are carved the initials ‘T. B.’ and between them the date ‘1636.’ Townsend Bishop, the original owner of the house, built it in the above year. Later the estate changed hands several times, being in turn the property of no lesser personages than Governor John Endicott, the son of the Governor, John Endicott, Jr., and the Reverend James Allen, pastor of the First Church in Boston. In 1692, from the curious doorway above described, with the inexorable shadow upon the sun-dial above it crawling slowly toward her hour of doom, brave Rebecca Nurse passed to her execution. In the dooryard one still sees the old-fashioned garden which she once tended, and just beyond is shown a solitary grave where she rests in peace--history having vindicated her in her steadfast declaration before her judges--‘I can say before my Eternal Father I am innocent, and God will clear my innocency.’ THE JOHN WARD HOUSE [Illustration: THE JOHN WARD HOUSE] In the picture, two Salem maids of Colonial times are shown gossiping at the huge door-stone of the lean-to of this interesting old house, built in 1684 and originally located at 38 St. Peter Street. The illustration is taken from the restored building as it now stands in the grounds of the Essex Institute in Salem. Fallen into neglect and disrepair, the old house once came to have a forlorn aspect. But it now presents a most attractive appearance, with its latticed casements, its huge central chimney-stack, its batten front door, and its cheerful surroundings of lawn and flowers.