Built sometime between 1665 and 1683, the Pickman House, also known as the Goult-Pickman House, is a historic First Period house in Salem, Massachusetts.
According to an article by Sidney Perley in the Essex Antiquarian Magazine, Samuel Pickman, a local mariner, purchased part of the land that the house sits on, a plot of land known as the Benjamin Pickman Lot, on December 24, 1657, and another part, known as the Francis Gahtman Lot, from Samuel Friend, also on December 24, 1657. Pickman also purchased another section of land adjacent to the Gahtman Lot from William Goult’s family on June 12, 1660.
According to the deed for Goult’s property and the National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, there was already an existing house on the Francis Gahtman Lot at the time Pickman purchased it and the house was located next to the site where the Pickman House currently sits.
Pickman built his house, possibly with the help of his father and house wright Nathaniel Pickman, sometime after purchasing these plots of land. The exact date the house was constructed is debated, embroiled in controversy, and at times confusing.
An inventory of Samuel Pickman’s estate in 1687 mentions a house located on his property, so the Pickman House is believed to have been constructed sometime prior to this date.
Yet, Sidney Perley’s map of Salem in 1700, published in the Essex Antiquarian article, shows only one house on the Francis Gahtman Lot and no house on the Benjamin Pickman Lot, so it is not clear if Goult’s old house was torn down or if the Pickman House was not built yet.
Also, the map shows the house on the Gahtman Lot was located next to the site of the Pickman House, not exactly on it, which suggests the Pickman House had not been built yet.
Whenever the Pickman House was built, structural evidence indicates that the house originally consisted of a large right-hand hall with a chamber and attic above and a chimney bay.
According to the book Architecture in Colonial Massachusetts, the “room at the left with lean-to roof at right angles may have existed at the outset, and was later raised to a full two stories about 1725.” A new chimney was built at this time as well. During the Revolutionary War era, Benjamin Lynde Jr, judge and chief justice of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, owned the house.
In 1800, Captain Woodbridge Grafton owned the house and rented the rooms out to boarders, such as notable Italian painter Michele Felice Corne. Corne held painting classes for children in the house. The projecting porch on the house was constructed around 1800. The mansard roof was added sometime during the 19th century.
In 1964, Historic Salem Inc. purchased the Pickman House, and it was later conveyed to Philip A. Budrose of Marblehead in 1969, who completed a restoration of the house between 1972 and 1973.
For a time in the 1970s, the Pickman House served as a historic house museum. An article published in the Evening Independent of St. Petersburg in 1976 described the house as a former “rooming house in its decline” that now serves as a museum where tour guides dress as members of the Goult family and others who lived in the house and tell stories based on their personal diaries and records.
In 1975, the Lewiston Evening Journal described the museum’s exhibits as a multimedia presentation based on the personal diaries and records of the former inhabitants:
“William Goult, the first owner, describes his immigration to America from Norfolkshire. The Widow Pickman tells of the loneliness of a seaman’s wife, and of the religious strife of the witchcraft era. Justice Benjamin Lynde, Jr. tells of his role in the trial of the controversial Boston Massacre, at the opening of the American Revolution. And Michele Felice Corne, a great seascape painter, recounts Salem’s days of glory as the port of the ships of the China Trade.”
On March 10, 1975, the Charter Street Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places, which includes the Pickman House, the Grimshawe House, and the Charter Street Cemetery.
The Salem Witch Trials Memorial is also located within the district, adjacent to the Pickman House, but it is not a contributing property.
After serving as a museum for a while, the Pickman House later became professional offices. In 1983, the Pickman House was purchased by the Peabody Essex Museum. In 2021, it was reopened to the public as a visitor center for the city. It is located at 43 Charter Street, Salem, Massachusetts.
Sources:
The Records of Salem Commoners 1713-1739. Essex Institute, 1919.
Perley, Sidney. The Essex antiquarian; a quarterly magazine devoted to the biography, genealogy, history and antiquities of Essex County, Massachusetts.
Perley, Sidney. The History of Salem, Massachusetts: 1638-1670, Vol. II. Sidney Perley, 1926.
Architecture in Colonial Massachusetts: A Conference Held by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, September 19 and 20, 1974. The Colonial Society of Massachusetts 1974.
Abrams, Jane, “Witches! Burned, Hung And Buried…But They Live On!” The Evening Independent [St. Petersburg], 20 Jan. 1976, 8D.
“Witchcraft in Old Salem.” Lewiston Evening Journal, 25 Oct. 1975, p. 8A.
Tolles, Jr. Brian and Carolyn K. Tolles. Architecture in Salem: An Illustrated Guide. University Press of New England, 1983. pp: 74-75
“Historic Building Detail: SAL.2506 Goult – Pickman House.” MACRIS, mhc-macris.net/details?mhcid=sal.2506