Built in 1793-94, the Derby Summer House, also known as the McIntire Tea House, is a historic teahouse on the grounds of Glen Magna Farms in Danvers, Massachusetts.
The house is a 2½-story Federal-style house designed by notable architect Samuel McIntire and features several carved wooden figures mounted on its roof. The figures consist of four urns, a milkmaid, and a farmer, and were carved by John and Simeon Sikillin of Boston, Massachusetts.
The house was built for Elias Haskett Derby on the Derby Farm on Andover Street in South Danvers (now modern-day Peabody.) The building originally served as a garden house for drinking tea and sat in the center of a garden filled with rare plants and trees.
On the ground floor of the house is an open passage through the center, with rooms on each side. A small hallway leads to a private staircase, which leads to a room on the second floor. The room features vaulted ceilings, eight windows, and four cupboards with glass doors used for storing china.
In 1901, the house was purchased by Ellen Peabody Endicott from the owners of the Debry Farm, the Osburns, and moved to its present location on Glen Magna Farms.
When the house was moved, it had four carved urns on the corners of the roof and a carved figure of a farmer with a scythe at the back end of the roof. The milkmaid figure that stood at the front end of the roof was missing at the time.
It was later discovered that the milkmaid figure had been purchased by the Sutton family of North Andover and placed upon one of their mills, but a fire had destroyed the mill and damaged the figure.
The charred milkmaid figure was given to the Endicotts, and a replica was made by John Evans & Sons of Boston. The replica figure was returned to its place on the roof in the spring of 1924.
In 1958, the Endicotts gave the house to the Danvers Historical Society. On November 24, 1968, the Derby Summer House was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark.
In 1981, one of the farmer figures was damaged after it fell off the roof during a storm. A reproduction of the figure was completed in 1982.
This house is located at the Glen Magna Farms gardens & grounds, 29 Ingersoll Street, Danvers, MA.
Sources:
“National Historic Landmark, Derby Summer House,” Danvers Historical Society, danvershistory.org/visit-us/national-historic-landmark-derby-summer-house/
“Historic Building Detail: DAN.29 Derby Summer House.” MACRIS, mhc-macris.net/details?mhcid=DAN.29