The Gedney House and Cox House are historic houses on High Street in Salem, Massachusetts. They are located on the same plot of land, which was originally owned by the Gedney family.
Built in 1665 for Salem shipwright Eleazor Gedney, the Gedney House is a 2-story Federal-style clapboard house with a central chimney.
Gedney purchased this house lot near the South River in Salem in 1664 and built Gedney’s wharf and the original part of the Gedney House there.
Gedney, the brother of Salem Witch Trials judge Bartholomew Gedney, was not only a shipwright but also served as Salem juryman in 1670 and grand juryman in 1675-76.
Gedney was Clerk of the Market in 1667/68 and Fence Surveyor for the North Field in 1678/79. He was the constable for Salem in 1671, the same year he became a freeman.
Gedney died in 1683, leaving his widow Mary Patteshall with seven children to care for. In July of 1692, Mary received approval to become an innkeeper and she turned Gedney House into an inn and tavern.
When the Salem Witch Trials began that year, the town paid Mary £40 to use her inn for “entertainment of jurors and witnesses” but it’s not exactly clear what took place there.
Its use during the trials makes the Gedney House one of only two buildings still standing in Salem with direct ties to the Salem Witch Trials, with the other being the Witch House.
Mary never remarried and when she died in September 1716, her estate went to her eldest surviving child Martha, and son-in-law James Ruck.
The house was renovated twice, once in 1700, when the original parlor lean-to was raised to a full two stories, and again in 1800, when a new two-story lean-to at the rear replaced an earlier structure.
The property changed hands several times until Benjamin Cox purchased it sometime before the American Revolution. The Cox House was built on the property in 1775 probably for Benjamin Cox.
The Cox family owned the property until 1874 after which it passed through many owners. Around 1962, the owner at the time removed the central chimney of the Gedney House and stripped the interior of the house.
In 1967, the property was purchased by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA). The houses were added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 1, 1974.
The houses are still owned by Historic New England (originally known as SPNEA), which offers limited tours of the property.
Sources:
“Mary Gedney: A Seventeenth-Century Entrepreneur.” Historic New England, historicnewengland.org/mary-gedney-a-seventeenth-century-entrepreneur/
“Historic Building Detail: SAL.1156 Gedney, Eleazer House.” MACRIS, mhc-macris.net/details?mhcid=SAL.1156
“Historic Area Detail: SAL.IA Gedney and Cox Houses.” MACRIS, mhc-macris.net/details?mhcid=SAL.IA