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Author Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, MA, and his famous 1851 novel The House of the Seven Gables was based on an actual house in that city that still stands. The house was originally located on Washington Street, but it was moved to a more tourist-accessible location a few blocks away in the town center.
Also called the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, Seven Gables is located right on the water of Salem Harbor at the intersection of Derby and Turner Streets. The large house was built in 1668 and is uniquely constructed with many pointed gables, multiple chimneys, and a dark, foreboding exterior.
For a fee you can take a tour of the house and see displays on Hawthorne’s life, work, and historic Salem in general. As part of the tour, you can also see the small house of Hawthorne’s birth, which was also moved from its original location on Union Street to right behind the House of the Seven Gables. A few blocks away on Hawthorne Boulevard towers a large statue of Nathaniel Hawthorne himself.
Adapted with Permission from: The New England Grimpendium by J.W. Ocker
