Historic New England: Gedney House

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A black, white, and light blue striped header image reading Historic New England Gedney House

Back in early October of 2022, I visited Gedney House in Salem, MA, one of the oldest properties owned by Historic New England (HNE) and on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974. Built in 1665 by Eleazer Gedney (1642-1683), whose day job as a shipwright or boat builder gave him plenty of carpentry experience, the house was intended for twenty-three year old Gedney and his wife-to-be, sixteen year old Elizabeth Turner Gedney (1648-1677). The house is among a handful of extant structures from the First Period of American architecture, part of the early British colonial era in what is now the United States. It predates the better known House of Seven Gables, made famous by American author and Salem resident, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), who wrote a book by the same name. Salem was a small community, and Gedney's brother-in-law, John Turner (1644-1680), built the House of Seven Gables in 1668.

Gedney House; a three-story yellow painted clapboard house with a white picket fence in front. Gedney House sign; a standard black and blue Historic New England sign with the words Gedney House 1665 written in white, serif font. The HNE logo is on the bottom right. Behind the sign is previously described Gedney House

Gedney died at age fourty, predeceased by the wife for whom he had built the house. Gedney’s second wife, Mary Patteshall Gedney, continued to live with her children and stepchildren and operated the space as a tavern. She served refreshments to jurors and witnesses during the Salem Witch Trials. Her youngest child, Martha Turner Ruck, married shipwright James Ruck. After Mary Geney’s death in 1716, the couple greatly renovated the house, adding a second floor and a trendy lean-to kitchen similar to what I have seen at other HNE properties from the time period, including Boardman House of Saugus, MA and Eleazer Arnold House of Lincoln, RI. In 1739, their only child, Mary Ruck King, inherited the house. In 1773, one of her sons, Gedney King I, sold the house to fisherman Benjamin Cox, Sr. From then until 1962, the house went through a long list of owner who used it as a low income rental unit. At one time, up to forty Italian-Americans rented space on the property, according to a laminated copy of census records on display inside the house.

Downstairs fireplace at Gedney House; crubling red brick next to a gravel and plywood floor. Construction examples at Gedney House; a wooden model demonstrating how posts and beams were fitted together, along with a diagram of posts and beams hung on a bare wooden support. The walls have no plaster. Bare room at Gedney House; a room stripped of paneling, with a small fireplace in the wall and a beam lying on the floor
17th century insulation; mud bricks filling in the space between support beams and the outside wall. Green beams indicating recently added supports; a thick green wooden beam across the ceiling and a thinner green wooden vertical beam holding up the ceiling Rotten Support Beam; the original support beam holding up the ceiling of the first floor, which was rotted away.

In 1962, real estate investor Fred Winter nearly demolished Gedney House, as he wanted to build apartments on the property. Luckily, a grad student and lifelong Salem resident, Elizabeth Keats Butler Frothingham (1923-1958), found the 18th century panels outside for trash pickup and realized that the original house predated the paneling. Frothingham alerted her professor, preservationist Abbott Lowell Cummings (1923-2017) of Boston University, for whom a postdoctoral fellowship in American Material Culture is now named. HNE purchased the house, including the 18th century paneling, and has kept it as a museum ever since.

Diagonal truss in the corner of Gedney House; a diagonal piece of wood holding together the walls. Diagram of the corner of Gedney House; a print demonstrating two horizontal beams and a diagonal truss connecting to a vertical stud or post Diagram of a pair of small beams connecting to a large beam
Table containing laminated replica documents pertaining to the history of the house. Looking up at the outside of the chimney stack; the rough brown brick exterior of a chimney reaching the attic space, with the peaked ceiling visible in the background. Pile of 18th century paneling in the corner of Gedney House behind a buildt-in cabinet.

The study home shows several 17th century construction techniques. Illustrations hung around the interior demonstrate show the post-and-beam joinery or timber framing common in Post-Medieval English Architecture. Regularly spaced vertical posts hold up the horizontal beams, while a diagonal truss in the corners of the house lend extra support. A pair of sketches of the second floor demonstrates the different interior paint styles depending on the century. One section of the house is held up by a piece of wood originally from a ship’s ribs. One opened up wall contains a type of 17th insulation, where mud bricks were wedged between vertical support beams against the exterior wall. This insulation turned out to be ineffective, and the method was soon abandoned. HNE made multiple repairs to the house so it can remain open to the public, painting the newer beams a deep forest green to distinguish them from the original architecture. Notable repairs include replacement of a main support beam holding up the ceiling of the first floor, as the original had rotted away, and several vertical posts lending extra support to the ceiling.

Another living space in Gedney House; a red brick fireplace with a bare floor and bare walls. The ship rib in the corner of the room; the rib and doorframes are painted with sea green lead paint.
Another living space and storage area at Gedney House; this space has a red brick fireplace with a painted blue mantel. The room also stores folding chairs and a plastic skeleton. Pair of illustrations for two distinct interior design styles at Gedney House; the illustrations are hung on a bare wooden wall.

As a big fan of study homes, I thought this tour was spectacular. My tour was led by the same tour guide as Boardman House, and a second guide arrived near the end of the tour to offer additional information on the architecture and history. I enjoyed seeing the walls stripped away in layers, with a unique style of construction denoting each architectural period. For those interested in the Salem Witch Trials, this tour is an opportunity to learn about “real life” during that time. Unfortunately, this tour is not accessible for everyone. Like many historic houses, this house does not have ramps or elevators, so it cannot be toured by those with limited mobility or using a wheelchair. No virtual tour is available at this time. The house was decorated with lead paint, which now flakes off the walls, so those with a sensitivity to chemicals might consider skipping this tour. Gedney House is open on the first Saturday of the month from June through October. Tours are given on the hour from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Tickets are standard HNE small house pricing: $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and students, $5 for children, and $0 for HNE members (like me!) along with Salem residents.


Abby Epplett’s Rating System

Experience: 9/10

Accessibility: 5/10



Location: 21 High St, Salem, MA 01970, USA