THE HOME FOR AGED WOMEN [Illustration: THE HOME FOR AGED WOMEN] Many buildings in Salem which now house various charities and organizations were originally private houses, with which is associated much interesting history. One such instance is found in the Home for Aged Women at 180 Derby Street. Erected in 1810 from designs by McIntire, this was the home of the Honorable Benjamin W. Crowninshield, Secretary of the Navy under Madison and Monroe, to whom reference has already been made. William C. Endicott, Secretary of War during Cleveland’s administration, was born here in 1826. When the property passed into the hands of the Association for the Relief of Aged and Destitute Women, alterations and improvements were made, but the main portion of the house remains as originally built. Notable among all McIntire’s entrances and porches is that which adorns and dignifies this fine old house. Standing at the head of a flight of six granite steps, fluted Doric columns support the porch roof, the architrave and cornice being severely chaste, in the absence of any carving or ornament whatsoever. Plain pilasters flank the charming doorway, which is wide and hospitable, with a generous and beautiful fanlight, and leaded side-lights of graceful design. The door itself is of unusual size, but bears the characteristic Colonial panels, six in number, and is painted white. The total effect is one of purity and taste, with a certain note of nobility which inevitably impresses the beholder. This house, then owned by Secretary Crowninshield, was occupied by President Monroe when he visited Salem in 1817. Guests at the time included a number of notable men from every department of public service--Judge Joseph Story, General Dearborn, Commodores Bainbridge and Perry, Senator Silsbee, Lieutenant-Governor Gray, and General James Miller among them. General Miller became Collector of the Port in 1835, and continued in this office until 1849. Nathaniel Hawthorne held the position of Surveyor of Customs for the last three years of General Miller’s administration, when a political overturn ousted both Surveyor and Collector. Spare time with Hawthorne was partly spent in preparing the manuscript of ‘The Scarlet Letter,’ in the introduction to which he describes the old Custom-House. General Miller fought at Lundy’s Lane--his historic reply on that occasion, ‘I’ll try, sir,’ being afterward by governmental order engraved upon the buttons of his famous regiment. THE HOME FOR AGED MEN [Illustration: THE HOME FOR AGED MEN Turner Street Doorway]