The Hathaway House

Page 3

Another instance is found in the book of Thomas Maule, the Quaker, published in 1694, "The Truth Held and Maintained," where in a sermon against Governor Endicott he says.- "His fair dwellings in Boston have become a barn and a stable for cows and horses and one can hardly find where his fair dwelling in Salem stood."
   I cannot believe that Thomas Maule would have expressed himself in this fashion if the fair dwelling was in reality standing and flourishing like a green bay tree a few feet from the cellar hole that he was mourning over. In that case he would have been far more likely to have alluded to it as "uprooted and in the hands of strangers."
   But I must leave speculation and get on with my story. The house that Benjamin Hooper built remained in his family till 1795. Five generations of the Hooper family lived in it in turn. I believe that it was while it was owned by James Hooper, Benjamin's grandson, that it was greatly enlarged and modernized, and all the old features, on the exterior at least, removed, except the overhang which was never closed in.
   Its next owner was Henry Rust, who died in 1820. Then it was owned for forty years by the Gardner family, and then it came into the possession of the Hathaways, who conducted a bakery there for two generations.
   The ovens were in the basement, which was a high one on account of the position of the house on the slope of the hill. Many Salemites look back with pleasure to the simple old days when they carried their beans and brown bread to the Old Bakery (for so it came to be called) and stopped in for them Saturday night or Sunday morning, ready to eat as soon as they reached home.

[46]

And now a movie theatre covers the site of the ancient house. Koen Brothers bought two or three estates for this purpose, and if no purchaser had been found the Old Bakery would have been taken down. But the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities heard of the danger and found a purchaser.
   I bought it for the House of Seven Gables Settlement in June, 1911, and moved it to the grounds of the House of Seven Gables in July. The City Council were reluctant to give permission for the moving, and experts had to be brought to testify that the old house was worth preserving. It was moved by a roundabout way to its present location, through Bridge, Webb and Derby Streets in three sections, and when each section of the house arrived it looked like Birnam 'Woods, having torn off a great deal of foliage from the overarching elms on the way down.
   Immediately after the purchase of the house its new owner received a letter from a well-known antiquarian, setting forth the theory of the origin of its posts and beams. To feel the force of the argument the house itself should be studied, and this can be easay done, as it is open to visitors every summer. During the winter the house is used for the clubs and classes of the Settlement.
   Although the ovens were left on the 'Washington Street site, our visitors demanded to see them as long as the house was known as the Old Bakery. It was decided to change the name, and that of Hathaway naturally suggested itself as associated in the minds of Salemites with the Old Bakery. Unfortunately the name has another significance to the general public. They call the house the Anne Hathaway House.

[47]
Salem In 1700
No. 14
Benjamin Hooper
House
21/3 Washington St.

A short way south of the head of Washington St. lay what was called Gov. Endicott's field which he owned in 1665. He died that year leaving his estate to his wife Elizabeth and at her death their son Zerubabel came into possession. He sold it to Benjamin Hooper in 1682, who, at once, built a house. Hooper died about 1693 and his widow, in 1702, his son Benjamin also died in 1718 and the other children released it to their brother James that same year. James died in 1783 and in a division the next year the west end came to the daughter Elizabeth and the east to the heirs of James, who had died after his father. James' part was assigned in a division in 1785 to his son James who died before 1795 when his administrators sold it to Henry Rust Jr. Elizabeth's end was sold by Samuel Symonds and John Leach to Jacob Very in 1792. The latter sold it to Henry Rust in 1797. Hence he owned the whole. He died in 1820 and his executor sold it to Elizabeth Rowell in 1822. She married John Gardner and died in 1862. Her two children inherited the estate and the daughter Clara C., wife of Louis Thies sold her half to Eliza J., wife of Eleezer Hathaway, baker, in 1865 leaving two children who, through their guardian, sold their half to Mrs Hathaway in 1865. She died a widow in 1884 and her son continued the bakery there. In 1909 Miss Caroline Emerton removed it to the rear of 54 Turner street, where after extensive repairs, it became 'Hathaway House' of the House of the Seven Gables Settlement.

ESSEX INSTITUTE
JAMES DUNCAN PHILLIPS LIBRARY

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