Maritime, literary and local history
Built for Captain John Turner and his family in 1668 and expanded over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion is an iconic example of early American architecture. It owes its fame, however, to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1851 novel, The House of the Seven Gables. Hawthorne’s cousin, Susanna Ingersoll, owned the home for much of the 19th century, and the author drew inspiration from her stories of old Salem and the house’s history. By the 1890s, literary tourists had begun to visit the property on a regular basis.
In 1908, activist Caroline O. Emmerton purchased the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion with the intention of establishing both a museum and a Settlement House. Emmerton, heir to a shipping and railroading fortune, came from a long tradition of social service. Upon learning about the difficulties of recent immigrants living in Salem’s Derby Street neighborhood, Emmerton determined to help. Using the mansion as her headquarters, she organized The House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association in 1910.
Emmerton, working with historic architect Joseph Everett Chandler, restored the exterior of the house to its 18th-century appearance. They decorated and furnished the interior to reflect the space Hawthorne had seen, as well as to suggest fictional spaces from his novel. Emmerton’s vision was unique in all the world—she opened the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion to the public as a historic house museum, with proceeds from admissions and souvenir sales supporting her organization’s Settlement work.
Today, The House of the Seven Gables continues to carry out Caroline Emmerton’s vision through offering daily Mansion Tours and free ESL and Citizenship classes for our immigrant neighbors. We host approximately 100,000 visitors per year, sharing the legacy of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Salem’s maritime history, the stories of individuals who were enslaved on the site, the Indigenous presence in the area, and both the historical and present-day immigrant experiences in America.
