Hawkes House is a historic Federal-style house on Derby Street in Salem, Massachusetts.
Built in 1780, the Hawkes House, which is also known as the Elias Hasket Derby-Benjamin Hawkes House, is a three-story clapboard house designed by architect Samuel McIntire. The house features a shingle-hip roof with a deck and balustrade and three chimneys.
The house was originally built for Elias Hasket Derby in 1780. Derby lived next door in the Derby House with his wife and seven children and decided to build the new house because they had outgrown their home.
Before Hawkes House was finished, though, Derby changed his mind about it and instead purchased an existing mansion on Washington Street and used Hawkes House as a warehouse for Derby Goods.
According to the Massachusetts Historical Commission records, the reason Derby changed his mind is because the American Revolution interrupted the construction of the house.
In need of more space and with the end of the war nowhere in sight, Derby most likely decided to give up on the house and buy a move-in-ready home.
In 1800, local pastor William Bentley mentioned the unfinished house in his diary:
“On this Land in 1780 Mr. Derby raised a Great House which he never finished. The third story was as high as the first & higher than the second. The pediment was lost in the roof & the Cupola which was finished was without any good effect. The back part was finished but the front only covered with boards & was very rotten. It was sold this day to the Carpenters for 600 Dollars. A more uncomely mass was never piled up for a building. The Lot under it sold for above 2,000 D. It has now stood 20 years as a monument of folly.”
In 1801, the house was purchased by local shipbuilder Benjamin Hawkes and his business partner, shipmaster William B. Parker, who finally completed the house. The finished house is 5,000 square feet in size.
After completing it, Parker removed his portion of the house, the east bay, which reduced the overall size of the home to 3,200 square feet. The house remained in the Hawkes family until financial problems forced them to sell it in 1833. By the end of the 19th century, the house had been converted into a tenement for immigrants and mill workers.
In 1937, the National Park Service acquired the house, and it became a part of the Salem Maritime National Historic Site in 1938, which was the first national historic site in the country. The NPS completely re-sided and restored the house in 1938-39 and repaired it in the 1940s and 1950s.
In 1940, the Boston Post ranked the Hawkes House and the Salem Maritime National Historic Site number 49 on its list of the 100 things to see in Boston and surrounding cities article.
The Hawkes House is not open to the public and is currently used as office space for the National Park Service.
Sources:
“One Hundred and More Things to See in Boston and Surrounding Cities and Towns.” Boston Post, 19 Jul. 1940, p.6.
Bentley, William. The Diary of William Bentley, D.D.: Pastor of the East Church of Salem, Massachusetts. Vol 2, Applewood Books, 1905, p. 350.
“Historic Building Detail: SAL.2573 Derby, Elias Haskell – Hawkes, Benjamin House.” MACRIS, mhc-macris.net/details?mhcid=SAL.2573
“The Hawkes House Historical Marker.” The Historical Marker Database, hmdb.org/m.asp?m=186239