The Samuel Holten House is a historic house in Danvers, Massachusetts, with connections to the Salem Witch Trials. The house was once home to Sarah Holten, who testified against Rebecca Nurse in the Salem Witch Trials in 1692.
The Samuel Holten House, also known as the Benjamin Holten House, was built for Benjamin Holten in 1670. It is a Colonial Saltbox-style house with clapboard siding, a wood shingle roof, and a foundation constructed out of fieldstones.
The house has the appearance of an 18th-century building, with its steep front roof and long lean-to in the rear, but the attic reveals First Period framing, original oak clapboards, and evidence of a series of additions made in the late 17th century and early 18th century.
Beneath the floorboards and behind the walls are signs of early whitewash on the framing, wall plaster is present underneath the paneling installed in 1750, and clapboards are present behind an 1832 addition.
Sarah Holten was living in the house when she testified against Rebecca Nurse in the Salem Witch Trials in June of 1692. Holten testified that in 1689, some of her pigs got into Rebecca Nurse’s field and ruined some crops. Nurse came to her house and scolded her, after which Sarah’s husband began having fits and died two weeks later.
Despite Sarah’s testimony, some members of the Holten family defended Nurse, such as Sarah Holten’s in-laws, Joseph and Sarah Holten, who signed a petition defending Rebecca Nurse against the witchcraft accusations.
In 1715, Benjamin Holten Jr owned the property and began running a tavern in the house, which operated under various managers until 1745.
The house remained in the Holten family for 200 years and was altered several times: in 1715 by Benjamin Holten, in 1763 by Samuel Holten Jr, and in 1823 by Harriet and Israel Adams. In the 18th century, a unique seven-seat privy (outhouse) with a pagoda-form roof was constructed on the property.
During the Revolutionary War, the house was home to Judge Samuel Holten, a Founding Father who served in the Continental Congress and was a member of the House of Representatives. Notable figures such as Timothy Pickering and John Hancock were guests at the house when Judge Holten lived there.
In the 19th century, a shed or barn-like structure was constructed at the rear of the property. Sometime during the Civil War era, the Holten family sold the house to Thomas Palmer.
In 1921, Palmer sold the house to the General Israel Putnam Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In the 1920s and 30s, silversmith Franklin Porter lived in the house as a caretaker of the property for DAR and used the barn at the rear of the property as his workshop.
In the 1930s, the Historic American Building Survey documented the property with ten drawings of the house and privy. The house is still owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution and is open to the public by appointment.
Sources:
“Samuel Holten House 1670.” Historical Marker Database, hmdb.org/m.asp?m=17988
“Judge Samuel Holten House.” DAR.ORG, dar.org/national-society/historic-sites-and-properties/judge-samuel-holten-house
“SWP No. 094: Rebecca Nurse Executed July 19, 1692.” Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, salem.lib.virginia.edu/n94.html
“Historic Building Detail: DAN.36 Holten, Benjamin House.” MACRIS, mhc-macris.net/details?mhcid=dan.36