The House of the Seven Gables as it appeared in about 1940 remains pretty much the same. The most noticeable change is that the garden, pictured in a slightly overgrown English style popular at the time, is now a faithful replica of a colonial garden.
:Throughout the Twentieth Century, generations of Massachusetts schoolchildren were hauled regularly through a gloomy mansion on Salem Harbor. That it was old, everyone knew. That it was dark, creaky and downright spooky, they soon found out.
Most interesting of all was its secret staircase that set the fecund imaginations of most fourth graders racing toward the realm of witches, ghosts and evil spirits.
Such was the reputation of The House of the Seven Gables. Its importance today is as a compelling and living document of history, preservation and the social and economic history of Salem over three and a half centuries.
In acknowledgment of its unique history and character, the house, and its cluster of adjacent properties, has been designated a National Historic Landmark. Its significance lies in the 1909 restoration, which made it one of the earliest houses in the United States to be restored to its Seventeenth Century state, and which also drew on details from Hawthorne's novel of the same name. The restoration was additionally the inspiration of other such projects around the country.
Built in 1668 for exceptionally prosperous Salem merchant mariner and trader Captain John Turner, the First Period house was particularly grand for the era; Salem had only been settled in 1626. Its original construction was that of a two-and-a-half-story dwelling with a steep roof and cross gables, with two rooms downstairs and upstairs, an attic and a massive central chimney.
The miniature portrait depicts Captain Nathaniel Hathorne, father of author Nathaniel Hawthorne, who died when the author was four. A note attached indicates that Captain Hathorne was also the grandfather of Julian Hawthorne.
A few years later a kitchen shed was added. The house was expanded again when Turner extended the front. This provided him with a generous parlor and a large and handsome bed chamber above, and another chimney. He gave the addition higher ceilings, double casement windows, an overhang with carved pendills and a three-gabled garret.
Turner's son John II advanced the family fortunes and made another addition, a kitchen ell on the back of the house and the aforementioned narrow twisting secret stairway inside the rebuilt main chimney. A small brewing room was added in 1692. He modernized the house around 1710 with the Georgian wood paneling and double sash windows that were the latest styles from England. By the time the additions and improvements were complete, the house had 17 rooms and more than 8,000 square feet, and the original part of the house had become its middle.
The house remained in the Turner family until the 1780s when grandson John Turner III seems to have overextended himself in real estate and lost the family fortune. While his father's probate inventory numbered nearly 15 pages and was valued at 11,000 pounds, his own took up not quite three-quarters of a page and was valued at less than 60 pounds. The house then sold to another Salem seafaring family, the Ingersolls.
