Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-08

United States to the great profit of the Salem
6hipownerS:
Among the leading shipowners Of this period
were Elias Haskell Derby, William Gray and
Joseph Peabody. During the early years OF
the nineteenth century Peabody owned 30 ships
which he freighted himself and sent trading to
the East Indies, Europe and St. Petersburg He
employed it is said a total of 1000 seamen
and other workers, and accumulated large
fortune, which is today perpetuated In more
than one museum and foundatlon-and OF
course the name Peabody brings to mind that
of Morgan, and carries the Salem tradition
into the financial life of the Nation of today.
In 1899, when with France threatened
Salem, then numbering just short Of 10000
inhabitants, built and equipped the Essex, and
gave it to the Nation, at a cost Of about $40
a head for every man, woman and child In
town. She proved the fastest ship in the navy,
and captured some 100000 worth of prop
erty. Meanwhile Salem shippers were showing
their heels to French men -of-war and Mediter-
ranean pirates
IN 1907 Salem had 252 vessels on the high
seas, aggregating 1850 tons Nearly the
entire town was in some way connected with
Seaborn commerce, not the least important of
the workers being the ship carpenters, who
not only built the ships but embellished them
with beautiful and elaborate carving. There
was gathered into Salem perhaps the finest
body of woodworking craftsmen ever assem-
bled in one place in America, and it was due
to a combination of that fact and the financial
prosperity of the town that the new houses
which rose from the close of the Revolutionary
War through the first quarter OF the nine
teenth century are unrivaled in America for
the skill and beauty of their detail.
The genius of these wood-workers was
Samuel McIntire, Salem-born in 1857, the son
of a carpenter, or "houSewright." He early
displayed artistic bent, and made portrait bustS
in wood. He also was musical But evidently
he knew what was his serious business In life,
for while learning his trade, he spent every
cent he could muster on books about art and
design, so that today he would be called a
Self-made architect. When he only 25
he was commissioned to build what is now
called the -Johonnot-N Nichols house, by
many esteemed the finest wooden house in
America, and one day to become a museum
This house had a garden which Sloped down
to the water and its owners private wharf,
and was spacious and dignified, as beftted one
of the new aristocracy. When McIntire began
it, he first built the west parlor in the prevail
ing Georgian style. But the house was not
finished for some 1S years. and when McIntire
finally ended his work with the east parlor his
style had changed under the Adam influence,
to something much more delicate, refined and
characteristic of McIntlre's chisels and gouges
and molding planes. In that house, then is an
American wing covering two great periods of
style with furnishings to match.
But during those Is years McIntire was busy
on many other houses. His grandest and in
its day, most famous house was the he
built for Elias Haskell Derby facing the water
and a series of terTaced gardens leading down
to the shore. Derby was then rated as the
richest man in America; he had retired, and
was, it is to be feared, putting on a bit of
Swank. He moved into his new mansion in
1899, but died soon after. None Of his heirs
could afford to keep up such an establishment,
nor were there any other merchants who
wished to take up the burden. The house was
torn down only Is years after it was finished,
the site given to the town and the interior
woodwork built into a simpler dwelling. An
old wood cut of the house shows the usual
three-story square block (the cheese box type,
it has been called, but highly oFnamented
with pilasters, surmounted by an elaborate
cupola and flanked on both sides by ornate
stables.
But though this house is gone, Salem still
contains many examples of McIntires work,
and everywhere in the old town his influence
be felt. He was designing city houses, to
stand for the most part close together and
close to the street, and meant for large families
who at the same time refused to be cramped
in small rooms. Moreover, these families.
though they had money, were still not far away
from their Puritan heritage of gravity and
decorum. Probably all these forces operated
to bring about the three-story cheese box type
of dwelling which is characteristic of Salem,
well in other New England seaport towns.
1t gets the maximum number Of generous
rooms on a city lot.
The exterior is, Of course, puritanically rigid
and severe, but If the proportions are good the
application to this exterior Of ornamental win
dow caps perhaps a Second-stOry central Pal
Iadian window, and, finally, the cTOWning detail
of a front entrance modelled from the classic
orders gives to such dwelling q calm dignity
and o touch Of style and elegant restraint.