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“The Ward House” By Mike Soressi
In the late 1600s, life was very simple and practical in Salem, Massachusetts. This idea is ap- parent in the Ward House. The house is small and painted a simple brown. The colonist’s didn’t bother with making their houses look colorful. The wood is very plain with no designs carved on it. The house has four small, diamond paned windows on the front. The purpose of the diamond panes was not to make the windows look nice. Small panes were simply easier
to ship from England than large ones. The two win- dows on the left look evenly positioned. Making sure the windows were all evenly placed and symmetrical wasn’t practical. The windows’ only purpose was to let in light. The front door in between the windows
is so low one has to duck to enter. Making the door
size grand wasn’t as important as making the doorway small to keep in heat.
Inside, the walls are whitewashed for the simple purpose to re ect light. The rooms are small to insulate the heat. The beds are pushed up against the wall like current Murphy beds in order to have more space to work during the day.
A house in the 1600s was simply to provide shelter for a family. The house didn’t need to look beautiful or interesting. Despite a few minor decora- tive touches such as a few items hung on he wall to add interest, the Ward House is very simple and plain. As long as it served its intended purpose of sheltering, the colonists were happy. The way a house looked was obviously not one of the colonist’s priorities. They had more important and practical things to worry about.
“The Garner-Pingree House” By Liz Faulisi
The Garner-Pingree House is a tremendous three-story house from the early eighteen hundreds. Standing out- side the large house’s black rod iron fence, one is overwhelmed by the size of the Garner-Pingree House. The gate is of heavy rod iron that has rusted from years of wear and tear. Beyond the gate there is a large male tree whose leaves have just begun to change color. Even this magni cent tree is dwarfed by the giant that is the Garner-Pingree House. The house itself is built of hundreds upon hundreds of reddish pink bricks. There are layers of crisp white stone separating each of the three oors. The house is perfectly symmetrical. Starting at the doorway there are two columns on each side of the rounded entranceway. The elongate the vertical look of the house and add structure and balance while emphasizing the large front door. To the right and left of the door there are sets of windows. The windows are large and framed by slatted forest-green shutters. Each of the three oors has its own set of windows. They are all identical although as they go up the windows get progressively smaller. This gives the illusion that the house reaches even farther towards the sky than it actually does.
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