The Grimshawe House is a Federal-style house on Charter Street in Salem, Massachusetts. The house is located next to the historic Old Burying Point Cemetery.
Built in 1770, the house is a three-story wood-frame house with a hipped roof and a two-story wood-frame ell in the rear.
The house was drastically remodeled in the 1790s. In 1794, Joseph Everleth, a blacksmith, bought the house from Benjamin Pickman.
From 1835 to 1841, the house was owned by Dr. Nathaniel Peabody, and his daughters Elizabeth, Sophia, and Mary lived there with him.
During this time, local author Nathaniel Hawthorne began courting his future wife, Sophia, and he became a frequent visitor to the house.
Hawthorne even later used the house as the setting for his novel Dr. Grimshawe’s Secret and described it in the novel as follows:
“As I remember it, (and for aught I know it still exists in the same guise,) it did not appear to be an ancient structure, nor one that would ever have been the abode to a very wealthy family or prominent family; – a three-story wooden house, perhaps a century old, low-studded, with a square front, standing right upon the street, and a small enclosed porch, containing the main entrance…It has often perplexed my mind to conjecture what sort of man he could have been who, having the means to build a pretty, spacious, and comfortable residence, should have chosen to lay its foundation on the brink of so many graves.” (Hawthorne 5.)
In 1849, Nathaniel Foster Safford, a lawyer, bought the house from relatives of his mother, Joseph and Sarah Everleth of Boston and Mary Everleth of Salem, who had inherited it from their father, Joseph Everleth.
Nathaniel Safford died in 1891, and Josephine M. Brown purchased the house from Safford’s widow, Josephine Safford, that same year.
In 1909, Louis Dembofsky, a real estate agent, acquired the property from the Brown family and then sold it to Jennie Ida Linsky in 1910.
In 1914, James S. Athens purchased the property from Linsky. When the Great Salem Fire of 1914 broke out, the house was spared from the fire due to its close proximity to the Old Burying Point Cemetery, which is an open stretch of land the fire did not reach. Buildings on the other side of the cemetery were destroyed in the fire.
On July 3, 1915, the interior of the Grimshawe house was damaged in a fire, and Athens remodeled the structure into a boarding house, although initial news reports stated it would become a hotel with plans to open around Thanksgiving that year. The hotel plans never came to fruition.
During the remodel, the portico was removed from the front of the house, two large chimneys were removed to make more room, and a one-story concrete block garage was built on the property.
In 1917, Athens granted the house to Stephen S. Santos, who continued to run it as a boarding house.
In 1925, Santos conveyed the property to Anthie S. Velonis, who also continued to run it as a boarding house. The house had 12 lodgers at the time, mostly working-class laborers.
In 1946, Velonis granted the house to local barber George Xiarhos and his wife, Christine, who operated a barber shop in the basement.
In 1975, Harlan B. Peabody purchased the house from Xiarhos for $49,000. In 2008, Peabody conveyed the house to H. Berkley Peabody, a trustee of the Peabody family trust.
Also in 1975, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a part of the Charter Street Historic District.
In 2016, the exterior of the house was remodeled. The house was repainted, the roof was repaired, the portico was rebuilt, the windows were replaced with historically accurate double-hung windows, the shutters were replaced, and the wood fence along Charter Street was replaced.
The owners of the house are currently remodeling it into an apartment building, despite pushback from the community over concerns it could compromise the historic integrity of the building.
Sources:
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Dr. Grimshawe’s Secret. Cambridge University Press, 1883.
“Historic House at Salem to be Hotel.” The Boston Herald, 3 Oct. 1915, p. 33.
“Old Salem Landmark Sold.” Emmons County Record, 8 Dec. 1910, p. 7.
Luca, Dustin. “Historic house renovation sparks some fears, controversy.” Salem News, 4 Feb. 2019, salemnews.com/news/local_news/historic-house-renovation-sparks-some-fears-controversy/article_52a2b56a-b15a-5820-8529-a6b7a76125f8.html
Luca, Dustin. “Grimshawe House gets much-needed renovation.” Salem News, 16 Oct. 2016, salemnews.com/news/local_news/grimshawe-house-gets-much-needed-renovation/article_75d12a13-7020-5c59-bb62-e0311916daf0.html
“Historic Grimshawe House.” Preserving Salem, preservingsalem.com/historic-grimshawe-house
“Historic Building Detail: SAL.2507 Peabody, Dr. Nathaniel and Sophia-Grimshawe House.” MACRIS, mhc-macris.net/details?mhcid=SAL.2507