209 High Street

History

This house is a fine example of three-story Federal mansions built by Newburyport’s mercantile class during the early years of the nineteenth century. The house has the characteristic Federal form, with a hipped roof and small, square windows on the third floor.

Exceptional architectural features in the building are the modillioned cornice, the balustrade at the roof’s hip, and the delicately detailed window lintels. The entrance vestibule is a fine example of mid-nineteenth-century workmanship. The doorway is Greek Revival in character, with the characteristic side and transom lights. The balustrade above the vestibule is far too robust to date from the Federal period.

On May 19, 1806, William Hoyt purchased about four acres of land that had been left to Elizabeth Hoyt by her father, Joseph Hoyt. At that time, Capt. William Hoyt then erected the house now known as the Hoyt-Morrill House.

William Hoyt had mercantile interests and had financial problems in 1812. He made an assignment of his property to William Woart and the shipbuilder Orlando B. Merrill of Newbury. In 1813, this property and house were conveyed to Capt. David Stickney of Newburyport. Stickney purchased a public bathing house in Newburyport in 1814.

Stickney died in 1820. In 1826, his widow married Rev. Henry C. Wright. He was the pastor of the First Parish Church and Society in West Newbury. In 1832, the property was sold to Amos Noyes. The property was later owned briefly by Joseph W. Hale of Bangor, Maine, who sold it to Henry W. Kinsman in 1836. Kinsman was the customs collector. He lived in the house until his death on December 4, 1859.

The Kinsman heirs conveyed the property to Capt. George L. Rogers, Master Mariner, in 1862.

Subsequent owners of the house include the heirs of George L. Rogers, Emily Harwood of Boston, Cyrus Stevens of Newburyport, and Frank T. Morrill.