257 High Street

History

This house is an excellent vernacular example of the Second Empire style, popular during the later decades of the nineteenth century, when this home was built. The house has a mansard roof with a decorative slate pattern and bell-shaped dormers, indicative of the Second Empire style.

Captain Charles Tyng (1801 - 1879) was a famous New England sea captain and merchant, best known for a memoir he wrote near the end of his life. He inherited a house and 6 acres of land from his Aunt, Rebecca Atkins. Captain Tyne’s daughter, Dr. Ainta Tyng, who became the first licensed female surgeon in America and a founding member of the American Medical Association, sold 6 acres of land to Jonathan and Fidelia Douglass in 1880 and 1881.

Jonathan Douglass sold a parcel of land to Elbridge Woodwell in 1881, with the condition that Woodwell build a house within a year; otherwise, Douglass would get the land back. Dr. Ainta Tyng provided the mortgage.

Elbridge Woodwell built this beautiful house within a year. According to his obituary, it was one of 7 homes that he either built or lived in. He sold the house in 1888 to Jeremiah Nelson, who lived there until he died in 1918.

Elbridge Woodwell (1853 - 1950) married Florence Sargent in 1876; he was 22, and Florence was 16. They were married for 70 years, and according to the newspaper, they “were one of the longest married couples in the United States.” Woodwell was a banker at the First and Ocean Bank; he owned three small yachts and was an active member of the American Yacht Club. He died at the age of 96 and was described as “one of Newburyport’s oldest natives.”