- Built
- c. 1810
- Style
- Federal Federal
- Neighborhood
- South End District
- MACRIS
- NWB.300 ↗
History
This house is a fine example of the Federal style. The house is unusual in that the facade is three bays rather than five. The building is three stories and has a hipped roof. Exceptional Federal features include the splayed window lintels with keystones and the semi-circular fanlight above the front door. The fanlight has delicate tracery. The arch of the doorway has a keystone, like that seen in the window lintels.
The Hannah Gould House was built by John T. Gould about 1810. Gould was a bricklayer and quite possibly designed his own home. In 1813, Gould was forced to sell the house to David Peabody. Benjamin A. Gould, John’s son, purchased the building in 1815.
Benjamin Gould was the principal of the Boston Latin School and was in an East India importing business. Before 1851, Hannah T. Gould became the owner of this house. Hannah Gould was a local poet of considerable note. She lived in the house until her death in 1861 at which time her heirs sold the property to Anna, Susan, and Sophionia Balch.
1n 1884 the house was owned by G. W. Snow. Snow was a doctor who started a practice in Newburyport in 1866. In 1924, George B. Merrill of the Merrill Construction Company was the owner of the property.
Planning work on this building?
Reviews that may apply
Newburyport Historic District (National Register, listed 1984) · Downtown Overlay District (DOD) · Parcel 7-4-A/F · Zone R3
Planning Board decides
Downtown, new construction, alteration or demolition of a historic building (individually listed or contributing in 1984) needs a DOD special permit, judged against the Secretary of the Interior's Standards; the Historical Commission sends an advisory report. Replacing windows, doors, signs, awnings or fences is reviewed by the Planning Office at staff level, with a window inventory; a new opening in a wall needs the Board. This lot is in an underlying R3 district, where alterations (not demolition) of a one- or two-family house are excluded from DOD review. The demolition delay ordinance does not apply downtown except to work the Zoning Administrator excludes from DOD review.
Zoning Administrator first stop
Every project starts with a zoning determination from the Zoning Administrator, which says which of these reviews apply and whether the work also needs zoning relief (a special permit for a non-conformity, or a variance). Fees, forms and filing deadlines are on the City’s site.
Not legal advice, not an official City publication, and not the position of the Historical Commission or any board. Says what the ordinances say as of September 30, 2026; the Zoning Administrator decides what applies. Boundaries: Merrimack Valley Planning Commission / City of Newburyport GIS (MIMAP); 1984 status from the National Register nomination's district data sheets. City's quick guide to the DCOD and demolition delay ↗ · Do I need approval? Project by project →
From the archive
4 items · maps, papers, old photographs
More built 1775–1830
Sources
- Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System - NWB.300
- “Gould, Hannah Flagg," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College.
- McIntyre, H. (Henry). "Plan of Newburyport Mass. from an actual survey." Map. 1851. Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center.
- Illustration for ”The Silver Bird's Nest" by Hannah Flagg Gould "Williams's Choice Literature Book 4" by Sherman Williams, 1912, Page 213
- Biff Bouse, Instagram post (@newburyportarchitecture), 2020-05-15