1 Fruit Street

History

Located at the northeast corner of Prospect Street and Fruit Street, 1 Fruit Street is a good example of a three-story, 5 x 2-bay, Federal-style residence. The clapboarded building has plain cornerboards and a simple frieze.

It is capped by a hip roof with two interior brick chimneys and displays a foreshortened third story. Centered on the Fruit Street façade is a pedimented entrance portico supported by Doric columns. It is now set on a concrete base and has been enclosed by multi-light panels. The front door is a modern six-panel unit with two glazed upper panels. The windows on the first two floors have double-hung 6/6 sash, fitted with storm windows and shutters. On the façade, these windows are topped by entablature lintels. The openings on the third floor contain small 4 x 3-pane fixed light windows.

Extending behind the north side of the house is a two-story, hip-roofed, clapboarded ell. Facing Prospect Street is a doorway with mid-19th-century Italianate-style brackets over the louvered door. Remaining fenestration includes 6/6 windows and modern casement windows at the rear. Offset behind the south half of the house is a brick two-story ell capped by a gable roof. Windows have 6/6 sash, and there is a transommed entrance on the south side, while the entrance facing Fruit Street has a louvered panel outer door.

The property includes a fenced yard. There is a gravel driveway behind the house.

It is believed that this house was built by Captain Moses Brown in 1794. A famous privateer, Brown was involved in the West India trade and was the commander of the U.S. Sloop of War Merrimack, which was built in Newburyport in 1798. Moses Brown died at sea in 1804, and his wife died in 1808. It appears that after their deaths, the house passed to the younger Moses Brown (1770-1819), who was also a sea captain. Moses Brown, 3rd, married Eunice Stickney in 1796. He was an active member of the Newburyport Marine Society and was lost at sea in 1819.

After her husband’s death, Mrs. Eunice Brown continued to live here for many years. She is shown as the owner on the 1851 map. By 1860, the house was occupied by Mrs. Mary Brown, 59; Lawrence Brown, mariner, 28; John Brown, mariner, 26; Jane and Elizabeth. Elizabeth L. Brown (daughter of John and Mary Brown) owned and occupied the house from about 1880 until she died in 1923 at the age of 96. Census records indicate that she took in boarders.

By the late 1920s, the house at 1 Fruit Street was occupied by County Clerk Frederick Huse, 41, and his mother Margaret Huse, 71. Among the boarders at the property was Lawrence Hayward, who was minister of the Unitarian church. What had become known as 1 Ih Fruit Street was rented by John Wilders, his wife, Gladys, and his son, John.

Later owners included Raymond Haley, Allen Aylward, Geoffrey and Judith Moran, and Paul Cragin. The present owners, Tyrus and Sandra Porter, purchased the house in 1989.