The Gardiner-Pingree House is a historic house on Essex Street in Salem, Massachusetts.
Built in 1804 for local merchant John Gardner, the house is a three-story, brick Federal-style townhouse designed by notable architect Samuel McIntire.
The Gardiner-Pingree House and the Peirce-Nichols house are both considered to be two of the finest examples of McIntire’s work.
The house features brick laid in Flemish bond, a white marble balustrade trim and a hipped and balustrade roof. The front door is framed by reed pilasters and also features a porch with four Corinthian columns. The windows are topped by flat arch winged marble lintels with keystones and marble sills.
The interior features 14 rooms, with four large rooms on each floor divided in half by a wide center hall. The first floor features a large dining room to the west, a pantry to the rear, and a kitchen in the rear ell. To the right are large double parlors.
The windows have interior paneled folding shutters. The mantels, cornices and trim are decorated with images of leaves, sheaves of wheat, and baskets of fruit. The upper floors have a total of eight bedrooms.
After John Gardner died, the property was sold to Nathaniel West in 1811. In 1814, it was purchased by Captain Joseph White.
In 1830, Captain White was brutally murdered in the house in an attempted inheritance scheme. The trial reportedly later inspired Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne to write the Tell-Tale Heart and other works.
The house stood vacant for a few years after Captain White’s death until David Pingree purchased it in 1834. The Pingree family erected an elaborate iron fence around the property in 1840 and built a carriage house in the rear of the property in the 1860s. It remained in the Pingree family until it was given to the Essex Institute in 1933.
At the time the house was given to the institute, it was held in a trust for a number of owners: One-third was owned by Richard Wheatland of Topsfield; one-third by Ann P. Phillips (wife of Stephen W. Phillips of Salem); and one-third by the grandchildren of the late Mrs. Stephen G. Wheatfield of Bangor, David P. Wheatfield of Marblehead, Lucia P. Fulton of New Haven, Anna Ordway of New York, Martha Ingraham of Brookline and Stephen Phillips of Salem, according to an article in the Boston Globe.
The house has undergone very little renovation and the majority of it is still original. The only major change was the removal of the original pierced stair balustrade which was later carefully reconstructed.
The Gardiner-Pingree House was added to the National Register of Historic places on December 30, 1970. It was also designated a contributing property to the Essex Institute Historic District and the Salem Common Historic District on June 22, 1972, and May 12, 1976.
In 1979, the house was featured in scenes from the film The Europeans, which was based on a Henry James novel.
In August 1989, the Bryan Times of Ohio reported that Barbra Streisand spent a day in Salem during which she toured the Gardiner-Pingree House and photographed room arrangements and paint colors for inspiration for a new Federal-style house she was planning on building in California.
In 1992, a near-exact replica of the Gardiner-Pingree House was built in Brookline, Massachusetts and was later put up for sale for $16 million in 2018.
Sources:
“Pingree House in Salem Given to Essex Institute.” The Boston Globe, 30 Mar. 1933, p.7.
Franckling, Ken. “People in the News.” The Bryan Times, 18 Aug. 1989, p. 9
“Gardner-Pingree House.” PEM.org, pem.org/historic-houses/gardner-pingree-house
“Historic Building Detail: SAL.2455 Gardner – Pingree House.” MACRIS, mhc-macris.net/details?mhcid=SAL.2455
“The Most Beautiful House in America (and the Power of Place).” Streets of Salem, 10 July. 2018, streetsofsalem.com/2018/07/10/the-most-beautiful-house-in-america-and-the-power-of-place/
Bilis, Madeline. “A Historical Salem Mansion Was Replicated in Brookline, and Now It’s for Sale.” Boston Magazine, 5 April 2018, bostonmagazine.com/property/2018/04/05/gardner-pingree-house-salem-brookline/