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At various times, there was a tea room, boarding rooms, and even an academy (I think) on-site. The house brings to life the gloomy Puritan atmosphere of early New England. Look for wonderful seaside gardens, many original furnishings and a mysterious secret staircase. Due to the nature of the architecture at The Gables’ campus, our historic house museums are not wheelchair accessible. Our visitor center, restrooms, Colonial Revival gardens, grounds, and a portion of our Museum Store are wheelchair accessible. Information is available for visitors that cannot access our historic house museums.
Brief Biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne
In 1668, sea captain John Turner built a multi-room house on the Salem waterfront. Three generations of Turners lived in the home, increasing its size and the family’s wealth, until John Turner III lost everything and the house was sold to another mariner, Samuel Ingersoll, in 1782. Upon Ingersoll’s death, daughter Susanna inherited the great mansion, where she was often visited by her younger cousin, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne, a relative of the Ingersolls, was infamous for being reclusive during his time living in Salem, in part because Hawthorne himself exaggerated his reputation.
House of the Seven Gables & A Walk Around Salem
With only the two other women in a house full of rooms, Hawthorne probably had plenty of time to himself. While living in Salem, Nathaniel Hawthorne worked at a custom house collecting ship duties, so he would have seen a ship like ours come in. Though he also wrote The Scarlet Letter while working there, so his mind might have been otherwise occupied as he watched the ships nose into the harbor. Ruminating on this, I disembarked and made my way the few short blocks to the House of the Seven Gables. Salem is either a half hour train ride or 50 minutes by ferry (running May through October) from Boston.
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Interestingly, this wasn’t the only renovations made to the home for the benefit of Hawthorne’s readers. Our tour group leader opened the door to the house and we filed into the kitchen. It wasn’t just that the ceiling was low and the fireplace nearly took up an entire wall. It was so small that there was no table or chairs in order to make space for tour groups.
House of Seven Gables welcomes 5 new trustees News salemnews.com - The Salem News
House of Seven Gables welcomes 5 new trustees News salemnews.com.
Posted: Wed, 01 May 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Inside, you can see a live re-enactment of the witch trials and tour the dank prison where they were held for execution. The museum opened in 1979 in a chapel built in 1897 on some old fortifications. Tickets cost $13 and can be combined with the Witch History Museum and the New England Pirate Museum for an $8 savings overall.
Once you’ve made it through the House of the Seven Gables, the same guide will open up Nathaniel Hawthorne’s birthplace to tour. The most interesting things here are upstairs with the bed he was born in and a few personal artifacts. Steinberg has delivered lectures on nonprofit finance, inclusive planning, nonprofit fundraising and community relations. He has lectured on the power of innovation and design through art education in China, Japan, India and throughout the United States. Celebrate later with a vow renewal and party with family and friends. Packages start at $750 at The House of the Seven Gables for a ceremony and mini-celebration, an on-site event coordinator, and flexible catering options for a light and lively affair.
He lived in Liverpool for four years and kept a journal related to his travels and observations in England. His reflections on these travels were published in his fictional work, The Marble Faun. Around the time of publication, the Hawthorne family returned to The Wayside. The House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association remains one of about 50 settlement houses that still operate in the United States. Caroline Emmerton’s organization has survived for over a century and will continue to help generations of immigrant families. Emmerton expanded the programs and services of the settlement house to the point that they exceeded the capacity of the Seaman’s Bethel.
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With all these elements swirling in the mind of a writer, The House of the Seven Gables must have practically written itself. Our group moved into a room decorated with East Asia trading influences, from the wallpaper to the table China. I could just imagine Susanna and Hawthorne finishing dinner here and as she retired for the evening, he perhaps sunk into an armchair and began to muse. Susanna lived alone in the house with the exception of a paid maid, because as long as she remained unmarried, the property remained hers.
Visit The House of the Seven Gables
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s birthplace, moved to the grounds of The House of the Seven Gables in 1958, from its original location a few blocks away on Union Street. There are a few other connections to the witchcraft period involving John Turner. When John Proctor’s servant Mary Warren accused Salem Town widow Ann Pudeator of witchcraft, one of Warren’s claims involved Pudeator’s specter causing a young Turner to fall from a cherry tree, knocking him unconscious. In addition, John Turner’s sister Elizabeth was the first wife of Eleazer Gedney, the brother of witchcraft trials judge Bartholomew Gedney.
Residents in the surrounding Derby Street neighborhood were the primary beneficiaries of the settlement house. The area was an enclave for Eastern European immigrants, especially from Poland and Russia. Other communities served by Emmerton’s work included the Irish, Italian, Syrian, and African. After John Turner III lost the family fortune, the house was acquired by the Ingersolls, who remodeled it again. The Gables offers educational programming to support our local immigrant community including Adult English Language and Citizenship preparation classes.
When Emmerton learned that the neighboring Turner-Ingersoll Mansion was up for sale, she purchased it as the settlement’s practical and collective center. After restoring the Turner-Ingersoll mansion, Emmerton continued to focus on saving threatened Salem buildings. She purchased and saved The Hooper-Hathaway House (c. 1682) and moved it to its current location in 1911. She did the same with the Retire Becket House (c. 1687) and moved it in 1924. Today’s museum campus reflects Emmerton’s generosity and dedication to preservation. For more than a century, The House of the Seven Gables has been a welcoming, thriving, historic site and community resource that engages people of all backgrounds in our inclusive American story.
Due to the popularity of the house as a destination for literary travelers, a later owner of the house restored the previously removed four gables. In 1668, merchant and ship-owner John Turner built a house on Salem Harbor that was destined to become one of America’s most beloved historic homes. Designated a National Historic Landmark District in 2007, The House of the Seven Gables is best known today as the setting of world-renowned American author Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1851 novel. In 1910, Salem philanthropist Caroline Emmerton restored the house and opened it to the public as a museum, using proceeds from ticket sales specifically to fund settlement work that benefited immigrant families.
After the book’s publication in 1850, the Hawthorne family would leave Salem once again for Lenox, Mass. While living in Lenox, Hawthorne wrote A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys as well as the famed Gothic novel, The House of the Seven Gables. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Mass. on July 4, 1804 to Elizabeth Manning and Capt. Nathaniel Hathorne. The family lived on Union Street in Salem until 1808, when his father died of yellow fever at sea. After his death, Nathaniel, his mother, and two sisters—Elizabeth, and Maria Louisa—moved into the Manning family home on Herbert Street.
There are other secret compartments, like hidden doors and liquor cabinets. And overall, the tour is a lot of fun and informative about the history of Salem. Emmerton used ticket and store sale proceeds from the museum to fund The House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association. In the late 1800s/early 1900s, the settlement house movement was seen as the progressive method to help newly arriving immigrant families adapt to life in their new cities. Settlement houses offered a variety of services including classes, medical care, and recreational opportunities.
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