3 Fruit Street

History

The house at 3 Fruit Street is an excellent example of the three-story Federal-style residence, which found great popularity in Newburyport during the early 19th century. Sheathed in clapboards, the house is set on a granite foundation and capped by a low-pitch hip roof with two interior brick chimneys.

The house is outlined by plain cornerboards and a plain baseboard that extends nearly to the ground. A modillion cornice wraps around the building just below the roof overhang. Centered on the five-bay façade is a pedimented entrance porch supported by fluted Roman Doric columns, echoed by fluted pilasters on either side of the doorway and decorated by a Doric frieze of triglyphs and metopes. Set on a concrete stoop, the portico has been enclosed by multi-light glazed panels. Inside the vestibule, the front door displays six panels and is topped by a dentil molding. The windows on the lower two stories of the main block contain replacement double-hung 6/6 sash fitted with blinds and storm windows; those on the façade are capped by entablature lintels, while the lesser elevations, which are two bays wide, have molded surrounds. The third-floor windows are nearly square, have modern double-hung 111 sash, and are also flanked by blinds.

Extending behind the main block is a two-story ell aligned with the north elevation. A paved driveway extends along the north side of the house, terminating at a single-story, gable-front garage which is offset at the northeast corner of the ell. The front sidewalk is paved with brick, and three granite posts are evenly spaced on either side of the main entrance.

The land on which this house stands was part of a much larger tract of land acquired by Benjamin Wyatt and Richard Pike in 1798. On April 16, 1799, they sold this land to Captain Jonathan Dalton of Newburyport, a mariner, for $450 (Essex County Book 167, Page 63). Dalton probably built the present dwelling soon thereafter. Fruit Street had apparently already been laid out by this date, as the deed refers to the “new street”. Jonathan Dalton died at sea on August 8, 1802 (History of Marine Society).

In 1829, Dalton’s son, John Dalton of New Boston, New Hampshire, sold the land with buildings to mastmaker Michael Titcomb for $850 (Book 253, Page 191). Titcomb died in 1869, and by 1872, directories indicate that the house was being used by the Second Presbyterian Society, which had a church on Harris Street. The church apparently rented the home to various tenants. Architect Rufus Sargent lived here from about 1873 to 1877, and shoe manufacturer Edward Tibbetts was living here in 1879 and 1880.

In 1891, the devisees of the Michael Titcomb estate - the Horton Fund of the Presbyterian Church sold the property to Willard Hale and Louis F. Barton. It was sold the same year to Edward and Angeline Bartlett (Book 1656, Page 523). Angeline Bartlett’s estate sold the property to Geneva Adams in 1924 for $8,000. Her husband, Wallace Adams, was a barber at 50 Inn Street. The Adams continued to own the property into the 1950s. Later owners included Marjorie Mooney, Christopher & Mardi Snow; John & Barbara Davis (1977-1979) and Peter Sweet (1979-1985). Kimberly Simas purchased the property in 1985 and sold it to the present owner, Sharon Gilman, in 1990.

A photograph of the front entrance porch appears on page 130 of John Mead Howells’ The Architectural Heritage of the Merrimack (1941).