PHOTO BY PAULA MULLER
Lynn residents Susan Woodbury and her two children, Jaelynn and Jeremy, both 6, and her father David Arsenault join the tour of the House of the Seven Gables.
By GAYLA CAWLEY
SALEM — Residents from five cities and towns are offered a free brush with history throughout the winter months, if they choose to tour the House of the Seven Gables, the mansion that inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel of the same name.
Lynn residents were offered free tours on Sunday, both of the House of the Seven Gables, also known as the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, and the Nathaniel Hawthorne Birth Home. The buildings are part of the nonprofit museum, with proceeds going toward its settlement programs.
The House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association was founded in 1910 by Caroline Emmerton, who restored the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion and opened it up for tours. Proceeds from the tours were used to fund her Settlement House, which originally aided Salem’s immigrants, according to information from the association.
Peabody residents toured the National Historic Landmark site on Jan. 29, with Beverly residents taking part the previous week. Marblehead residents will be invited to visit for free this coming Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Danvers residents are invited Feb. 26. Besides the mansion and birth home, the site also contains several other historic buildings.
Susan Woodbury, 43, of Lynn, said she decided to take the tour because she had heard from others that it was good.
“It’s informative,” she said. “It’s kind of cool to see how people lived back then.”
Malvina Goldin, of Lynn, said she came because she’s a “history buff.”
Dan Marshall, manager of visitor services, said the idea behind the free tours was to share the history of the region with the surrounding towns.
“I feel that folks can walk away with a greater appreciation of the area’s history,” he said.
The Turner-Ingersoll Mansion was built in 1668 by John Turner, a Salem sea captain, and remained in the Turner family for three generations. The house was sold at an auction in 1782 to Capt. Samuel Ingersoll.
When Ingersoll and his son died at sea, his daughter, Susanna, inherited the property. Susanna was the cousin of Hawthorne, who began visiting the house, and was later inspired to use it as the setting for his novel, The House of the Seven Gables, according to information from the association.
The house was updated over the years to keep up with changing fashions. Rooms in the home reflect the wealth of the families. It was built with low ceilings, as a way to conserve heat. When Capt. Ingersoll bought the house, he removed a kitchen wing, which contained a large staircase and four gables from the house. Emmerton later rebuilt the wing and replaced the gables, but instead of rebuilding the original staircase, she built the famed secret staircase within the reconstructed chimney, according to information from the association.
Part of her inspiration for the staircase appears to have come from the novel, which implied that one of the characters, Clifford Pyncheon, whose bedroom was in the attic, had mysterious ways of moving around the home, according to Jeff Horton, the tour guide on Sunday.
When the tour extends to the birth home, tourists are able to show themselves around. The home was not originally built on Derby Street, where the museum is located, but on Union Street in 1750. Hawthorne was born in the home on July 4, 1804. It was moved to the site in 1958, after the association purchased it for the equivalent of $1, according to Horton.
Hawthorne only lived in the home for four years. He left after his father was lost at sea. He and his mother moved in with his uncle, Robert Manning, on Herbert Street.
Horton said Hawthorne’s novel, inspired by the House of the Seven Gables, is a little bit about Puritanism, curses and love, but as he told visitors while explaining bits of it during the tour to relate to the mansion’s rooms, they’d have to read it to find out more.
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Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.