Peabody Essex Museum...A Walk Through Time

John Ward House 1600s

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of touring the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM to us locals) with my neighborhood association club. It was a walk through history and I loved it!

Before moving to Salem I had visited several times, but like most visitors to Salem, concentrated on the whole Witches theme. Witches are only a very small part of the uniqueness and history of Salem. Salem boasts the first U.S. millionaire, Derby, and 13 wealthy maritime Captain merchants that started The Marine Society bringing artifacts from all over the world; India, China, Europe, to start the PEM in 1799.

The first stop on the tour was visiting three house from the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s to show the changes in architecture, style and wealth. Our tour guide mentioned The Death of an Empire detailing the people involved in American history including writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Quincy Adams (sixth president of the United States) and Daniel Webster, writer, congressman and creator of our dictionary. It is now on my good reads list.

Austerity was key in the 1600s. Much of the style represents European architecture because of where people originated, and many of the materials such as glass for the windows were imported from England. Functionality and necessity ruled style. The John Ward house is from the 1600s. John Ward was what we would term a middle class merchant and his house is comfortable for the time but not extravagant. There is a second story for bedrooms and an addition to the bottom level as their family grew. 

This is the second extension in the John Ward house with an additional fireplace and kitchen table. They ate with their hands because the only utensils were for cooking, not eating. Knives and forks were not used yet. The head of the table (the man) had a chair with arms. The rest of the chairs didn't have arms. They used quite a bit of pewter which we now know has lead. This caused severe health problems.

The Crowninshields were an extremely wealthy family that still has descendants in Salem. The original Crowninshield built this home in the 1700s. The hundred of years since the Ward's the house is bigger, more comfortable and starts to show the influence of color and design from India and China. The windows are larger because technology had moved to roll out the glass more effectively and added floors (mainly for the children and servants) are added.

Crowninshield Home 1700s

Crowninshield home parlor

The Gardner home of the 1800s shows incredible wealth. However, after the "Empire" fell and many of the wealthy merchants of Salem were either thrown into bankruptcy (Gardner lost his home) or they moved to Boston to save their wealth.


Notice how the floor, hearth and decorations are extravagant showing wealth and prosperity of the owners. The men would stay in the dining room with port and cigars and the women would move to the parlor (right) with the children. This is called the Federal-period design. 

Detail on the Gardner home staircase

As a history buff I can't wait to get to the bottom of all Salem history has to offer. The other tour participants were long-term Salem residents and I had a wonderful time chatting and hearing about the many stories they told like the one about the Crowninshield's grandson that murdered Captain White (owner after the Gardner house). 

We finished the tour at the PEM with a walk-through of the old part of the museum that was the first housing of the 13 marine society in 1825! And...I get into the museum for free because I'm a Salem resident. How great is that!