Pedrick Store House is a historic warehouse at Derby Wharf in Salem, Massachusetts. Built in 1770 by merchant Thomas Pedrick, the store house was originally located in Marblehead Harbor but was later relocated across the harbor to Salem.
The building is a two-story warehouse and was first used to store salt and goods from the codfish trade while the second floor was used as a sail loft, which is a workshop where sails are designed, cut, and sewn for sailboats and other vessels.
When Pedrick died in 1802, he didn’t leave a will, and the store house passed down to his sister’s children, Anna Broughton Proctor and Eleanor Broughton Horton.
In 1809, the warehouse was purchased by Pedrick’s relative, Captain William Story. Story replaced the wooden dock in front of the warehouse with a granite and earth wharf.
Story eventually had to sell the warehouse when the decline of the fishing industry caused financial issues for him. His brothers-in-law Stephen White and William Fettyplace both purchased half of the property in 1817 and 1820.
In 1821, Captain Leavitt Kingsbury purchased the property, but he went bankrupt a few years later. Captain Nicholson Broughton III, a descendant of the Pedricks, then purchased the property. In 1829, Broughton sold the wharf to his daughter Susan.
The property remained in the Broughton family for the next five years until Joseph Roundey Bassett and William Fabens purchased it in 1847.
In 1852, Bassett and Fabens sold the property to sailmakers, John and Eleazer Graves, who used the first floor as an office for the local ferry and continued to use the second floor as a sail loft. When Eleazer Graves died in 1873, the property passed down to his son Philip.
The property began to fall into disrepair, and Philip sold it to Everett Paine, manager of the National Grand Bank, in 1902 for just $1.
In 1904, Paine sold the property to the Marblehead Transportation Company, who altered it for use by the New Fountain Inn. The attic story and gable roof were removed, a roof balustrade and windows were added, and the entire building was reshingled.
In 1978, the company sold a parcel of the wharf with the Pedrick Store House on it to Tucker’s Wharf Limited Partnership.
In 1993, Tucker’s Wharf Limited Partnership sold the building and the wharf to the town of Marblehead, which had plans to restore the building.
In 2003, the residents of Marblehead instead voted to raze the store house. In order to save it from demolition, the National Park Service accepted the building in July of 2003, dismantled it, and repaired it before relocating it to the Salem Maritime Historic Site at Salem Harbor.
After it was reassembled on Derby Wharf, using period building techniques, it was restored to its 19th-century appearance with a new roof, windows, and clapboards between 2007 and 2010.
Sources:
The Pedrick Store House Historic Structure Report. National Park Service, 2006, share.google/JmwU46RRRovfH72jH
“Historic Building of the Week: Pedrick Store House.” Marblehead Weekly News, 13 Mar. 2024, marbleheadweeklynews.com/historic-building-of-the-week-pedrick-store-house/
“Pedrick Store House: Construction Updates.” National Park Service, nps.gov/sama/learn/historyculture/pedrickupdate.htm
“The Pedrick Store House.” The Historical Marker Database, hmdb.org/m.asp?m=220593
“Pedrick Store House.” National Park Service, nps.gov/places/pedrick-store.htm