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Young Salem architect Samuel McIntire designed the three-story Peirce-Nichols House (1782) in a transitional late-Georgian/early Federal style for Captain Jerathmiel Peirce, co-owner of the merchant ship Friendship.
A 10-minute walk from the museum’s main campus, the house is a National Historic Landmark and singularly surviving masterwork of early American architecture. Originally this property swept down through terraced gardens to the North River, where Captain Peirce could dock his ship at the foot of his own property.
This house is perhaps the only building of its kind of McIntire’s design that survives with two phases of his architecture and design evolution intact, enabling comparison between young McIntire and mature McIntire in the same building. One of the reasons the house is so important is because when it was built in 1782, the entire west half of the house was finished in the Georgian style. The central passage and the entire east side of the house was left completely unfinished and in a barn-like state with just open framing until the wedding of Jerathmiel’s daughter in 1801. At that time, Peirce hired McIntire to finish the other side of the house to prepare it for the wedding.
Steven Mallory, PEM’s Manager of Historic Structures and Landscapes. Photo by Dinah Cardin/PEM.
Steven Mallory, PEM’s Manager of Historic Structures and Landscapes. Photo by Dinah Cardin/PEM.
This design, on the other side of the house, is delicate high Federal woodwork, a complete contrast to the Georgian side of the house. Captain Peirce was involved with the China trade and, like many merchants in Salem who tended to get rich quickly, he also ended up going bankrupt. The house entered into the Nichols family where it stayed until the early 20th century, when it was put on the real estate market. Even at that time, it was considered to be such an important piece of early American architecture that it was nationally advertised for sale. The Essex Institute (a precursor to PEM) purchased the house in order to preserve it.
Photo by Kathy Tarantola/PEM.
Photo by Kathy Tarantola/PEM.
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