348 High Street

History

This house is one of the fine Federal homes built along High Street during the early years of the nineteenth century. The house has the typical Federal form of three stories, a hipped roof, and small square windows on the third floor.

The house has several notable features, including the classically inspired cornice moulding and window lintels. The doorway is Federal in style with flanking sidelights and a portico. The portico is pedimented and is supported by Doric columns. The wooden fence with urns is an excellent example of a type of fence that predated the cast-iron fences of the mid-nineteenth century.

Thomas Hale, at the age of 24, purchased three lots of land in the Belleville section of Newbury. This happened in 1797, and Hale built this three-story building within three years.

Hale was born in 1773 in Plaistow, New Hampshire. He was orphaned at 18 and moved to Newbury. Hale learned the Hatter’s trade. In 1800, Hale married and moved into his new home. Hale built a hat factory on his property, but his interests were not limited to that alone. Hale was also involved in shipping, and in 1806, he owned ⅛ of the ship “Edwin.” He also served as Newbury’s town treasurer and, for many years, as a justice of the peace.

Hale married twice, and his second wife, Mary Little, lived in this house until 1871, long after he died in 1836. After Mrs. Hale’s death, the house passed into the hands of Captain Joshua Hale and later to his grandson Joshua Hale. Joshua Hale died in 1915, leaving the house to his wife, Florence Gould Hale.

In 1922, Edith C. Kinsman purchased the Hale house. Mrs. Kinsman’s husband, William, was an executive with the Newburyport silversmith firm, Towle Manufacturing Company. He retired as the company’s president in 1958. Mrs. Kinsman died in 1963, and her death was followed by that of her husband the next year.

At that time, the house was sold to John T. Leary.