THE COLONEL JEREMIAH LEE HOUSE
Of the many noted colonial houses found in New England, one of the most
distinguished is the Colonel Jeremiah Lee house situated on Washington
Street, in the picturesque old town of Marblehead, Massachusetts. The
quaintness of Marblehead, situated on a rocky peninsula, is world
renowned; and its name heads the list of patriotic towns in New England,
for from its rugged shores went forth a larger majority of soldiers than
from any other place of its size in our country.
[Illustration: PLATE XXIV.--The Lee Mansion, Marblehead, Mass.]
The celebrated Lee mansion, erected in 1768, is of the purest colonial
type, and was the most costly residence ever built in this seaport town.
Many traditions relate that the timber and the finish were brought over
in one of the colonel's trading ships as ballast. However that may be,
the material used was pine, such as was known in the old days as pumpkin
pine. The trees of that species sometimes allow for boards four feet in
width, and the fact that boards of this width are found in the Lee
mansion is claimed by many to refute the idea of English wood, as the
pines in the old country did not produce boards of such width when
Jeremiah Lee commenced to build.
Standing back from the street behind a granite curb and iron paling is
the old mansion, its dimensions being sixty-four feet by forty-six feet,
and containing fifteen large rooms. The exterior was built of brick,
over which were placed huge, bevelled, wooden clapboards, more than two
feet in width, and one and a half in height. From a distance the
observer might mistake the gray of the exterior for stone, as the block
style of construction was employed, the wooden cube being painted and
sanded to resemble dark gray rock.
[Illustration: PLATE XXV.--Porch, Lee Mansion.]
This gray wooden building, with its two wide-girthed chimneys pushing up
from the red roof, has the same appearance as in the days when the first
housewarming took place, in 1768. The handsome porch and the gray cupola
are distinguishing features, and from the former in the olden days the
colonel swept the seas with his spy-glass to watch for incoming ships
just as sea captains do to-day.
In the early part of the eighteenth century Jeremiah Lee came to this
country and settled at Manchester-by-the-Sea. The little that can be
learned of him shows him to have been a keen trader, who took care to
make his savings increase his income. In 1760 we find him living in
Marblehead, prominent in town affairs and serving on important
committees, being one of the Board of Fire-wards in the first fire
department of the town. He was also one of the building committee that
had charge of the construction of the powder house erected about that
time.
Originally Lee was a Loyalist, but he later became a patriot and was
foremost in all the movements that kindled the spirit of independence in
the colonists. Before the struggle had fairly commenced, his career was
cut short by an early death; otherwise he would have been as well known
to posterity as was his intimate friend and fellow-townsman, Elbridge
Gerry. As a member of the Province Committee of Safety and Supplies,
which held a meeting on April 18, 1775, at Weatherby's Black Horse
Tavern, situated on the highway between Concord and Lexington, he was
among the number who decided to spend the night at the tavern rather
than to go on to Lexington. The advance guard of the British troops was
sighted in the early morning, and the colonel and his friends hastily
dressed and escaped by a rear door, the colonel thereby contracting a
cold from which he died.
During Lee's life in Marblehead he entertained royally in this mansion,
which was erected at a cost of ten thousand pounds. Within a few steps
of this mansion there was also a cooking-house, the same building being
used to shelter the carriages of the family. Originally the large brick
building now used for the store was made his slaves' quarters. Not long
ago was found inside the house a small brass button, bearing the coat of
arms of the Lee family, which was doubtless once worn on the livery of
one of his slaves.
In the flagging that leads to the side door has lately been uncovered a
central stone bearing the date of the erection of the house.
[Illustration: PLATE XXVI.--Two Views of the Hallway, Lee Mansion.]
As the ponderous front door swings open, one enters a grandly spaced
hall, wainscoted waist high in solid mahogany. At the right is a deeply
recessed window, and a door on either side of the hall leads into rooms
beyond. Above the casing of these entrances runs the classic egg and
tongue molding. The feature of the hallway is the wall-paper. This
represents scenes of Grecian ruins, such as shattered columns,
temples, landscapes, coats of mail, each set in a separate panel,
handsomely carved. It is finished in soft tones of gray, beautifully
blended, doubtless the highest development of early decorative art.
[Illustration: PLATE XXVII.--Wallpapers, Lee Mansion.]
At the rear of the hall, ascends the grand staircase, with boxed stairs
spacious enough for several people to walk abreast. It is quite likely
that the stair rail was made on the other side of the water. The finely
turned balusters of regularly varying style, together with the
exquisitely wrought carvings and delicate panels running along the side
of the staircase, are expressive of the taste and skill which went into
its building. A great, arched window, which floods the hall with light,
is inserted at the landing, and is flanked by several pilasters, which
seem to support the high ceiling encircled with heavily dentated
corners, and heighten the effect of grandeur. From this lofty window the
broad hall is lighted.
[Illustration: PLATE XXVIII.--Wood Carving, Lee Mansion.]
In this hallway at the time of Lafayette's visit to the house, the
banquet tables were set. The ever-loyal ladies of Marblehead sent for
the entertainment some of their choicest belongings: table-cloths of
wonderful damask brought from over the seas, rare old silver, and choice
English glass.
At the right of the hallway is the drawing-room in white and gray. Two
Corinthian pilasters flank the fireplace, rising to the molding and
following the line of the wall. The whole chimneyside of this room was
panelled in huge white slabs. This was the living-room of the house, and
here were doubtless entertained the members of the Secret Council.
[Illustration: PLATE XXIX.--Banquet Hall, Lee Mansion; Fireplace, Lee
Mansion.]
On the opposite side of the hallway is the dining-room, which was known
as the banquet hall. Here Washington was entertained, also Monroe and
Jackson. This room shows a huge open fireplace and a richly carved
mantel. So carefully have the chimneypieces been wrought, that there are
no two alike in the large house.
The tiles in many of the fireplaces are fascinating. We find some quaint
and humorous, while others are sentimental. There is the wide-skirted
shepherdess climbing the stile with the aid of the swain, a sailor
taking leave of his lass, a ship lying in the offing, nymphs and
shepherdesses piping and playing. These tiles of blue and pale pink
afford a study of interesting pictures to the lover of the antique.
In the former days scriptural texts and marble tablets were placed over
the mantel in one of the chambers. One of these, a representation of
Susannah and the Elders, was purchased from the family and is now found
in the Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
Great care as to detail has been exercised in the finish of every room.
Notwithstanding the talk of secret stairways and mysterious trap-doors,
there is nothing at all uncanny about the place, which was built for
comfort and good living.
It is easy to be carried back in imagination to the days when Colonel
Lee and Mistress Martha, noted for their open-handed hospitality, dwelt
in this mansion. Its great rooms echoed with the laughter of the
gallants of the day, who in short clothes, silver buckles, and laces,
made love to the stately dames in trailing gowns and powdered hair and
danced in the state chamber over the parlor, used then as a dance hall.
In this house the venerable Marquis de Lafayette accepted the
hospitality of the Lees, when he came to America in 1824 at the
invitation of Congress, accompanied by his son, George Washington
Lafayette. It was during this visit that he danced a minuet in the great
southwest room. An old letter, discovered recently by Miss Dixie, of
Marblehead, discloses the fact that her mother led the dance with the
gallant Frenchman.
This room is panelled in wood of dark finish, with exquisite designs
over the fireplace, where a shelf on consoles shows over it an ornate
panel made from a single board and exquisitely carved. On the opposite
side of the room is the large apartment which was originally used as a
chamber, probably by Colonel Lee. Here the pictures all relate to the
sea,--one of them depicting Neptune and another a fish.
[Illustration: PLATE XXX.--Chamber, Lee Mansion; Four-poster, Lee
Mansion.]
The Lee mansion, like many of the Marblehead houses, stands with one
foot on the land and the other almost on the water, bespeaking the
maritime side of the community. Within the house, the arrangement of
rooms and passages suggests the troublous times in the years just before
the Revolution. A secret stairway connects two of the upper rooms, while
the front hall shows a trap-door which led to the cellar. This doubtless
gave rise to stories of intrigue but probably was concerned only with
the contents of the cellar. A small cupboard door, leading apparently
into a clothes-press, gave access to a narrow secret stair leading to a
bedchamber above. A smaller panel, sounding hollow, was discovered to
have a pair of hinges. On being opened, this revealed an iron safe with
double doors, buried in the brick work of the chimney. Doubtless it
was the private safe of Colonel Lee, for according to tradition there
was always plenty of money in the house.
In the early days an effort was once made to surprise the bank of which
Lee was an official. A party of men came into town after the closing
hour, and meeting the genial colonel, explained that they had come to
collect money on a note. Without a moment's hesitation, they were
escorted to the Lee mansion, where the entire sum, which was an
unusually large one, was paid by him in gold. This story has been
vouched for by one of the earliest inhabitants of the historic town, and
the finding of the safe discounts the idea of the secret closet being
used for any other purpose. In the upper floor are plainly found marks
of sliding panels to mask a retreat by secret floors and false walls to
reach the garret.
The kitchen fireplace has been a recent discovery. When the house was
restored, the fireplace was a practical but shallow affair, not showing
the generous depths found in many houses of that day. In the process of
repairs it was discovered that this was a false fireplace, back of which
two feet more were found, and behind them the deep oven that had not
been used for cooking since Massachusetts Bay was a royal colony. This
kitchen fireplace is believed to be in what was used as the family
dining-room, for doubtless the cooking was done in the slave quarters,
much as in the Southern homes, the food being brought into the house
through a covered passageway.
In the early days, a little after the building of the house, there was a
great demand for lead to make bullets for the Continental army. It has
been discovered that in the upper casements of the house, in rooms which
were rarely occupied, the lead weights are wanting. This leads one to
believe that the old tradition of their being melted during the time of
the Revolution for ammunition may be true.
In the attic is a mark which shows the house to have been built by
English architects. This is an inside dormer window used in those days
by architects in the motherland for ventilation. This idea is rarely if
ever carried out in a house where the architects or master builders are
of this country.
On the death of Colonel Lee, the house was occupied by his widow, who
continued to extend hospitality to the townspeople and visitors from
other places, much as during her husband's lifetime. At her death the
estate passed into the hands of her son, and afterwards was owned and
occupied by Judge Samuel Sewall.
A grand old landmark this colonial mansion makes, and even now the old
sea captains climb to the gray cupola to scan the horizon for incoming
ships, much as they did in the days of long ago.