Hooper Hathaway House

Hooper Hathaway House (built 1683)

Now sited on the property of the House of the Seven Gables, this house was built in 1683, by Benjamin Hooper and was moved from 23 Washington Street. It was known as the Old Bakery when at the Washington Street location, as it was used as a bakery for years. George Hathaway was the baker when the old structure sat at 23 Washington Street. According to Gannon is his book Nicknames and Neighborhoods, "it was an old Salem custom to fetch pots of beans to the bake shop on Saturday, to linger a while to talk over news and gossip."

According to the Seven Gables website:

"The Hooper - Hathaway House is a building that was rescued through the combined efforts of Caroline Emmerton and the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. Miss Emmerton purchased it and moved it from Washington Street to its present location in 1911 when it was threatened with destruction. It has been heavily restored in the Colonial Revival Style, and its wonderfully nostalgic diamond pane windows are a 1911 creation, but it still retains some very exciting Jacobian details. For instance, on the eastern overhang you can see an excellent example of first period projecting timbers. Normally, these exposed beams that hold the floor joists would simply be rounded off. In this case, the builders spent time creating a cyma, or double curved profile, and added a scalloped fillet, or banding."

See Also

• Postcard courtesy of CardCow.com

• Visitor's Guide to Salem 1916 ed., p.158

• "Old bakery, now at House of Seven Gables Settlement, is ancient relic" Salem Evening News, July 15, 1943, p.?

• Nicknames and Neighborhoods by F. Gannon, p. 27

• Hooper Hathaway House House of the Seven Gables

• Mobile Homes Salem Tales, Salem Web