Great House in

Cape Ann Cape Ann is a rocky peninsula in northeastern Massachusetts, United States on the Atlantic Ocean. It is about northeast of Boston and marks the northern limit of Massachusetts Bay. Cape Ann includes the city of Gloucester and the towns of ...

was a seventeenth century structure built by colonists in present-day

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

, Massachusetts. It was later disassembled and moved to Salem, Massachusetts, to be the Governor's house.

Origins

When Thomas Gardner came with his party of " old planters" came to

to establish a fishing colony, they arrived with the necessary provisions to become self-sustaining and to ship seafood product back to England. The area turned out to not allow easy success at the endeavor, but a little-known accomplishment of the small group was to build a house that was the first of its kind in New England. One author wrote that it was quaintly described by an early writer as "of the model in England first called Tudor, and afterwards the Elizabethan, which was essentially Gothic." It was of two stories with a sharp pitch-roof. Information about its origin is scanty, but much of the material came with the party. Some material, such as lumber pieces, may have been produced locally. One later observer mentioned that the framing looked to be designed for transportation.Letter from Endicott descendant. Endicott, C.M. (1860) "The Old Planters' House" Hist. Coll. of the Essex Institute. Vol II, pg 39 (vi
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When Roger Conant arrived at Cape Ann in 1625, the house was already there. Roger's son, Lot, is thought to have been born in the house.

Moving

In 1628,

John Endecott John Endecott (also spelled Endicott; before 1600 – 15 March 1664/1665), regarded as one of the Fathers of New England, was the longest-serving governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which became the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He serv ...

ordered for the house, which was to become known as the Governor's House, to be disassembled, moved from Cape Ann, and reassembled on what is now Washington Street, north of Church Street. When Reverend

Francis Higginson Francis Higginson (1588–1630) was an early Puritan minister in Colonial New England, and the first minister of Salem, Massachusetts. Biography England The son of a minister, Francis Higginson received his B.A. degree from Jesus College, Ca ...

arrived in Salem, he wrote that "we found a faire house newly built for the Governor," which was remarkable for being two stories high.

Uses

It was in this house that Governor

John Winthrop John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led t ...

and his party, on their arrival in 1630, partook of their first meal in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

by dining on venison and beer. Also, according to Winthrop's diary, the party enjoyed fresh strawberries brought from plantings done at Cape Ann. The house went through several transitions; a third story was added in 1792. Tradition has it that some pieces of the old house may have been used for some extant structures.

Pioneer Village replica

There has been a lot written about the house. Unfortunately, sketches were done after the later modifications. George Francis Dow did a detailed study of the house and included a replica in the Pioneer Village built up for the 300th anniversary of Salem's founding.Dow, G.F. (1935) ''Everyday Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony''. Heritage Books/reprint (vi
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Notes

;Footnotes ;Citations

References

* * {{Coord, 42.5217, -70.8946, display=title Houses in Gloucester, Massachusetts Houses in Salem, Massachusetts