Historic New England: Phillips House
Last October, during my trip to Salem, MA, I visited Phillips House, an elegant Federal style mansion built in 1821 and operated by Historic New England (HNE). This tour is vastly different from other historic tours in Salem because it focuses neither on the 1690s around the time of the Salem Witch Trials, nor on the early 19th century during the peak of maritime trade. Instead, the tour is told through the eyes of five-year-old Stephen “Stevie” Phillips, who moved into the newly renovated house with his family in 1912. As the last in the line of many Stephen Phillipses, he is best remembered today by a scholarship that bears his name.
Long before Stephen Phillips, and even before the house that became Phillips House, was Orchard Hill Estate in South Danvers, MA. In 1800, Samuel McIntire built the house for Captain Nathaniel West and his wife Elizabeth Derby West, the semi-disgraced daughter of Elias Hasket Derby. McIntire was famous for his work as an architect and carver, as he also created Hawkes House in Salem, Lyman Estate in Waltham, MA, and a golden eagle for Lynn Academy in Lynn, MA (now on view at the Lynn Museum). As for the Wests, they had eloped seventeen years earlier in 1783 and since had six children together, but the marriage was not going well. In 1806, when Massachusetts divorce laws changed to favor women, Derby West divorced her husband on the grounds that he was unfaithful. When Derby West died in 1814, a mere seven years after the divorce was finalized, she left Orchard Hill Estate to her three daughters to prevent her ex-husband from getting the property. This did not last. In 1819, with the death of youngest daughter, Sarah West, her father inherited a third of the estate. Remarried and petty, Captain West took his four rooms off the two-story house and brought it by ox cart to Salem, where he added a kitchen, hallway, and third floor. West and his family moved out in 1836 but kept the home as a rental property.
As is often the case for older house, Phillips House passed through several hands and had many different purposes. Malvina Tabitha Glover Ward and her daughter, presumably Eliza Wetmore Ward, moved into the house in 1836 to start a boarding school, buying the property from the West family in 1863. Malvina died in 1874, and Eliza died in 1875, leaving the house to Sophia Langdon Ward Jackson, granddaughter of Malvina, niece of Eliza, and great-great-niece to Governor John Langdon of Portsmouth, NH. Sophia Jackson quickly sold the property to Annie Bertram Webb and William George Webb, who greatly expanded the size of the house. Bertram Webb rented the property to friends until 1911. (The HNE website lists one of the renters as David Mason Little, describing him as “a relative by marriage”, but we can do better than that. David’s wife, Clara Bertam Kimball Little, was the niece of Annie Webb. Clara Little’s mother, Clara Millet Bertram Kimbell, was the older sister of Annie Webb. As an added bonus, Clara Kimbell’s and Annie Webb’s mother was also named Clara.)
At last, we arrive at the Phillips family, the last members in a long line of successful, Salem-based ship captains and businesspeople. During the 1790s, one Stephen Phillips captained a ship owned by Elias Hasket Derby. Stevie’s great-grandfather was a mayor of Salem. His grandfather was Massachusetts Attorney General and ambassador to the Kingdom of Hawaii, hence the Hawaiian flag hung outside the house. His father was a city council member and a representative in the Massachusetts State Legislature.
Back in 1911, Anna Pingree Wheatland Phillips bought the house, ripped out most of the Victorian decorating, and remodeled the building in the Colonial Revival style. She invested in modern appliances, like a gas-powered stove to accompany the giant Walker and Pratt brand coal-powered cast iron stove, along with an indoor toilet with exposed pipes so guests could clearly see the newfangled plumbing system. She also added electricity to the house. The Phillips family kept a small staff to run the big property. Three Irish-American women — Bridget Durgin as the cook, Delia Cawley as the maid, and Catherine Shaunessy as the nanny for Stevie — lived in separate quarters at the back of the house. A pair of Irish-American men — Cornelius “Con” Flynn and Patrick O’Hara — kept the grounds, carriages, and cars, but they were not allowed to live on the property.
Anna Phillips died in 1938, while Stevie’s father, Stephen Willard Phillips, died in 1955, leaving the house to his son. Stevie had been unwell throughout his life, having contracted tuberculosis in childhood, while his wife, Betty Wright, was similarly unwell. In fact, the pair had met in Saranac Lake, NY, an area once known for its sanatoriums. The couple never had children and instead created a scholarship fund for local college-bound children. They also wanted to open Stevie’s childhood home to the public as a house museum. When Stevie died in 1971, Betty created the Stephen Phillips Memorial Charitable Trust for Historic Preservation, which she ran from 1973 until her death in 1996. HNE took over Phillips House for this organization in 2006.
Beside the Colonial Revival decor and early 20th century appliances, a draw of Phillips House is its collection of vehicles owned by the Phillips family. During this transition period from horse-drawn wagons and carriages to cars, all the vehicles lived together in a brick building at the back of the property. The guide enjoyed pointing out a “surrey with the fringe on top”, similar to the carriage featured in the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Oklahoma.
For a different look at Salem and to learn more about the life of a local philanthropist, Phillips House is a relaxing stop. Like most historic houses, the property does not have the ramps and elevators required for wheelchair accessibility. However, because the house has gone through multiple renovations, the stairs were easier to navigate than most other historic houses. The house is open frequently, with tours on Thursdays through Sundays from June to September, and Thursdays through Mondays in busy October. Tours leave on the hour from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tickets are standard pricing for a midsized HNE house, at $15 for adults, $13 for students and seniors, $7 for children, and $0 for HNE members (like me!). Two-hour parking on the street is limited, especially during October. If you don’t mind a short walk, the Salem MBTA parking garage is just over half a mile away.
Abby Epplett’s Rating System
Experience: 7/10
Accessibility: 7/10