This season marks the 100th anniversary of the Retire Beckett House’s move to our campus. The original location of the house was on a portion of Beckett Street that crossed Derby Street near the Salem harbor. The Becketts, a prominent Salem family of shipbuilders, occupied it for generations. The most well-known member was Retire Beckett, who built Cleopatra’s Barge, a luxurious yacht for the Crowninshield family.
What we have today is a fragment of the house; only two of its original rooms have survived. The other portions were demolished in the early 19th century when subsequent owners sold their shares. While we once believed that only the 1655 portion survived, recent dendrochronology has proven that what remains today dates to the 1680s. Photographs taken in 1916, shortly before Caroline Emmerton purchased the house, show the house abandoned with its windows boarded up.
In her book titled “The Chronicles of Three Old Houses,” Emmerton details the history of the Retire Beckett House and dedicates it to a new purpose. In 1924, Emmerton had the house moved to its new location on the grounds of The House of the Seven Gables. Miss Emmerton’s original plan was to use it as an antique shop on both of its two floors. The antique shop was only mildly successful. As the site evolved, the Retire Beckett House was enlarged with a two-story lean-to. A formal tearoom set with period furnishings occupied the first floor.
As the decades passed, the Retire Beckett House evolved into our Museum Store, and the second floor became an onsite residence for our Executive Directors. Today, the second floor is used for administrative offices. We are forever grateful to be able to continue Miss Emmerton’s vision for the Retire Beckett House through the next 100 years and beyond.