OLD SALEM AS A CENTER OF COLONIAL DOORWAYS
Old Salem, Massachusetts, has long been the Mecca of all pilgrims who
seek what is purest and most distinctive in Colonial architecture; for
here as nowhere else is to be found a collection of old-time houses
bearing the stamp of those traits of simplicity, dignity, reserve, and
permanence which we believe to be most typical of the character of the
American people.
The explanation of this fact is found in a number of circumstances.
First, in the location of the town, which led to its early importance
as a shipping center and port of entry; second, in the quality of its
settlers, who were of earnest purpose and serious determination in
the business of home-making; third, in their continuous intercourse
with the mother country, resulting in a familiarity with her own
architectural renaissance during the period involved, from 1626, the
date of the founding of Salem, up to the year 1818, when the Colonial
vogue began its decline and the Greek style gradually took its place;
fourth, in the occupation of the people, which became more and more
commercial, their merchant flags appearing in every harbor in the
world, leading to increasing wealth, a familiarity with comfort and
style, together with the means of securing and maintaining them; and
last, but by no means least in importance, in the presence in Old Salem
of that remarkable man Samuel McIntire, who as designer, builder, and
cunning craftsman in wood, for a period of thirty years, from 1782 to
the date of his untimely death in 1811, so guided the architectural
taste of the Salem people, and so contributed to their building
activities by the ingenious and beautiful productions of his own hands,
as to leave upon the town a stamp of genius hardly paralleled in the
world.
The doorways and porches of the loveliest old Salem homes owe so much
either directly or indirectly to the influence of McIntire, that he
might almost be termed the architect of Salem beautiful--as for over
a quarter of a century he was its master-craftsman, working with an
originality of conception, an ingenuity of combination, a freedom from
hampering tradition, yet with a restraint and refinement of taste,
which render his productions individual, beautiful, and noble, the true
notes of the Colonial style at its very best.