Salem Women's
History and
Business Community
History and
Business Community
John Ward House
Brown Street across from Howard Street
A property of the Peabody Essex Museum — Open to the public
(tours leave from the museum at East India Square)
According to the architectural historian Bryant F. Tolles, the ca. 1684 John Ward House “is one of New England’s finest wood-frame-and-clapboard 17th-century dwellings, and it has received extensive exposure in books, pamphlets, and articles in the field of American architectural and social history.” Originally situated at 38 St. Peter Street, the house was moved by the Essex Institute (today, the Peabody Essex Museum) in 1910 and restored by the well-known Colonial Revival preservationist George Francis Dow.
The women’s history stories include a well-appointed kitchen, or hall, complete with massive colonial fireplace. The "newer" kitchen, added on after 1685, features an assortment of cooking utensils and a beehive oven in the colonial fireplace. These rooms were women’s domain, and they were used for everything from food preparation and cooking to soap making, candle making, sewing, educating children, and even sleeping. In colonial times, women kept a “housewife’s garden” near the kitchen where they grew herbs used for cooking, medicine, and cleaning.
Retail shop
Although it's not part of the tour, an “ell” of the Ward House (or addition) housed one of Salem’s cent shops, similar to the one reconstructed by Caroline Emmerton at The House of the Seven Gables. Women traditionally ran cent shops, as they could work from home. Owners stocked a myriad of useful dry goods and groceries for their customers, but they might also sell dolls, sleds, snuff, sheet music, Valentines, sewing supplies, beads, marbles, ginger beer, and candies.
An artist’s place
Many years later, the Salem artist Sarah W. Symonds had her studio and gallery in the Ward House where she created and sold images of Salem’s storied past during the Colonial Revival.
Sources
• Architecture in Salem by Bryant F. Tolles
• “Thread and Needle Shop of Old Days” by George E. Percy (Salem Evening News, May 20, 1944)
A property of the Peabody Essex Museum — Open to the public
(tours leave from the museum at East India Square)
According to the architectural historian Bryant F. Tolles, the ca. 1684 John Ward House “is one of New England’s finest wood-frame-and-clapboard 17th-century dwellings, and it has received extensive exposure in books, pamphlets, and articles in the field of American architectural and social history.” Originally situated at 38 St. Peter Street, the house was moved by the Essex Institute (today, the Peabody Essex Museum) in 1910 and restored by the well-known Colonial Revival preservationist George Francis Dow.
The women’s history stories include a well-appointed kitchen, or hall, complete with massive colonial fireplace. The "newer" kitchen, added on after 1685, features an assortment of cooking utensils and a beehive oven in the colonial fireplace. These rooms were women’s domain, and they were used for everything from food preparation and cooking to soap making, candle making, sewing, educating children, and even sleeping. In colonial times, women kept a “housewife’s garden” near the kitchen where they grew herbs used for cooking, medicine, and cleaning.
Retail shop
Although it's not part of the tour, an “ell” of the Ward House (or addition) housed one of Salem’s cent shops, similar to the one reconstructed by Caroline Emmerton at The House of the Seven Gables. Women traditionally ran cent shops, as they could work from home. Owners stocked a myriad of useful dry goods and groceries for their customers, but they might also sell dolls, sleds, snuff, sheet music, Valentines, sewing supplies, beads, marbles, ginger beer, and candies.
An artist’s place
Many years later, the Salem artist Sarah W. Symonds had her studio and gallery in the Ward House where she created and sold images of Salem’s storied past during the Colonial Revival.
Sources
• Architecture in Salem by Bryant F. Tolles
• “Thread and Needle Shop of Old Days” by George E. Percy (Salem Evening News, May 20, 1944)
