Historic doorways of Old SalemNorthend, Mary Harrod
History
Historic doorways of Old Salem
Northend, Mary Harrod
Architecture -- Massachusetts -- Salem; Architecture, Colonial; Doorways; Salem (Mass.) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
[Illustration: THE KIMBALL HOUSE]
Another of McIntire’s porches, placed in 1800 upon the Kimball house
at 14 Pickman Street, is interesting, as illustrating the architect’s
characteristic freedom in the combination without discord of the
various orders. The columns are Ionic--the entablature is Corinthian
style, although incomplete. Side-lights flank the six-paneled door, but
the usual fanlight is missing, paneling taking its place. Door-frame
and side-lights are decorated by a border of garlands, which are of
composition applied to the surface of the wood--although the capitals
of the columns are painstakingly carved by hand.
THE COOK-OLIVER HOUSE
[Illustration: THE COOK-OLIVER HOUSE]
One of the most elaborate examples of the work of Samuel McIntire is
found in the Cook-Oliver house at 142 Federal Street. The amount of
detail upon the entrance-posts and about the doorways is unusual, and
is carried to a point where it just misses being overdone. Originally
carved for the Derby house on Market Square, much of this work was
transferred to the Cook-Oliver house about 1804, at which date this
mansion was begun, although unfortunate commercial ventures delayed its
completion until about 1814 or 1815. This delay may have worked out
as a blessing in disguise, as was also perhaps the use of material from
the Derby house, which was finally razed in 1815, although the work of
demolition had begun at an earlier date.
Samuel Cook was a sea-captain, the father-in-law of General Henry K.
Oliver, who was prominent in political and industrial affairs, being at
various times Mayor of the city of Lawrence, Mayor also of Salem at the
advanced age of eighty years, Treasurer of the State of Massachusetts,
Treasurer of the Lawrence Cotton Mills, and Adjutant-General. With the
present-day public, however, his chief claim to recognition lies in the
fact that he was the composer of many familiar hymns, notably ‘Federal
Street,’ named from the thoroughfare where he then lived.
The Cook-Oliver house is a three-story square clapboarded structure
save on the eastern side, which is constructed of brick to keep out the
east wind. An old-fashioned ‘jut-by,’ with flat boarding, projects from
the rear L, with a side-entrance--an arrangement seldom found in houses
of this late period, though common in lean-to days.
The porch of the Cook-Oliver house exemplifies once more that
characteristic quality of McIntire’s genius--freedom of combination
conjoined with restraint of artistic taste--which lends his work
so much of originality, while it never approaches the bizarre. Here
we find Tuscan, Corinthian, and Doric motives all present, yet
without discord. The garlands and festoons about the door-casing and
side-lights relieve the severity of the right angles, while elliptical
fanlight and side-lights with unique leading complete the harmonious
whole. The modern door is again the sole jarring note.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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