38 State Street

History

Located next to Threadneedle Alley, 38 State Street is a narrow, 3½-story building with a broad gable end. The brick is laid in a Flemish bond. The first floor retains a granite sill and lintel.

However, the main entrance is no longer at the front of the building, and the original storefront has been infilled with five 1/1 windows resting on a paneled bulkhead. The upper two stories of the facade are three bays wide and contain modern 6/6 replacement windows. The original lintels above the second-floor openings have been removed, and the area has been filled with brick. The slightly smaller third-story windows retain splayed brownstone lintels with vertical grooves as well as brownstone lintels. The front eaves are decorated with a brick modillion cornice.

Visible on the alley elevation is a faded painted advertisement for Coca-Cola: “delicious and refreshing...relieves fatigue.” The first floor is punctuated by two 6/6 windows with semi-circular arched transoms, brick lintels, and sandstone keystones and springblocks. Adjacent is a vertical board door capped by a flat door hood supported by two quarter-round brackets with pendants. An additional opening at the rear of the elevation has been bricked in. The second and third floors feature four bays of modern replacement windows with applied mullions. Like the facade windows, they are capped by splayed stone lintels. Two diamond-shaped iron tie rods are located between the second and third floors. A lunette lights the attic. The rear elevation features arched openings on the first floor and 6/6 windows in four bays on the two upper floors.

This building was probably built shortly after the 1811 fire. A “Reminiscences” article appearing in the Daily News in 1886 recalls that, circa 1816, this was the location of Osgood & Brackett’s shoe store. The store was later occupied by J.T. Pike and George Emery, both of whom were in business before 1830. Eliphalet Griffin had a dry goods store here in 1851. The Post Office was here from 1832 until 1877, including the period during which Richard Plumer served as postmaster (April 21, 1869–May 1877). Plumer had a dry goods store at 46 State Street. The building at 38 State Street was remodeled in 1872 for use as the post office according to designs by local architect Rufus Sargent (Woodman, page 344).

An undated photograph at the Newburyport Public Library, Hamilton Room, shows the building as it appeared when the post office was here. The Grant Club is shown occupying the second floor. Although no further information was found regarding the Grant Club, Ulysses Grant visited Newburyport on October 17, 1871, and the club may have been a short-lived organization that developed at the time. In the late 1880s, the Seventh-day Adventists, organized in 1877, met in the upper hall. This hall was later occupied by the St. Jean Hall in the 20th century.

In 1880, Charles Johnson ran a book shop at 38 State Street. Harrison G. Johnson had a fancy goods store here in 1898, followed by Zafris Brothers fruit and confectionery. From about 1920 until 1973, the storefront was occupied by E.W. Pearson Estate Florists. Various restaurants have occupied the space since the 1970s.