9 Fruit Street

History

The house at 9 Fruit Street is a good example of a wood-frame, three-story, Federal-period residence displaying a foreshortened third story. Measuring 5 x 2 bays, the main block is rectangular in plan, with a symmetrical five-bay façade fronting the street.

Capped by a low-pitch hip roof with two interior brick chimneys, it is sheathed in clapboards with plain cornerboards and a baseboard that extends nearly to the ground, obscuring the granite foundation. Set above a concrete stoop, the central pedimented entrance portico is supported by smooth Roman Doric columns set on blocks with pilasters on either side of the entrance. The upper two panels of the six-panel door are glazed. Windows on the lower two floors contain double-hung 6/6 sash and are capped by entablature lintels. The smaller third-story windows feature double-hung 6/3 windows, and their tops extend to the modillion cornice, which wraps around the building.

Offset to the southeast of the building is a two-story jog with a flat roof and a single bay of openings facing the street. The manner in which this section covers part of the windows on the south wall of the main house suggests it is a later addition, possibly late 19th century, as indicated by the glass-and-panel door. Extending behind the main block to the northeast is a two-story ell that extends the block’s north wall. Projecting from the middle of the north wall is a circa 1910 flat-roofed entrance vestibule set on a brick foundation with a six-panel door facing the street. At the northeast corner of the house is a recent two-story addition, set on a concrete foundation and capped by a hip roof.

The front of the house extends nearly to the brick sidewalk. Parking areas paved with granite blocks are located on both the north and south sides of the house.

The land on which this house stands was part of a larger parcel extending from High Street to Prospect Street, which was sold by Benjamin Balch to Benjamin Wyatt and Richard Pike in 1798. What is now Fruit Street was laid out through the approximate center of the property sometime between September 1798 and January 1801.

The land that is now 9 Fruit Street was sold by Pike and Wyatt to Joseph Noyes, the 4th, on July 11, 1805 (Essex Co. Deed Book 181, Page 17). Noyes was a painter and paid $644.07 for the land. In April 1807 sold the land with a dwelling house thereon to Peter LeBreton, Jr., a Newburyport merchant and the son of a shipmaster and shipowner, for $3,500. Thus, the house was apparently built between July 11, 1805, and April 13, 1807. (In 1807, Noyes constructed later 2-4 Fruit Street and lived at 4 Fruit Street until about 1811.)

In December 1813, Peter Le Breton Jr. and his wife, Tabitha (Tabby), sold the house and property to Abraham Wheelwright (Book 206, Page 42). It was purchased by John Wells, Jr. in 1819 (Book 221, Page 65). In a curious transaction six years later, Peter Le Breton, Jr., repurchased the house from Wells on April 8, 1825, apparently in exchange for Le Breton’s property at 77 High Street (Book 238, Page 47). Le Breton continued to live at 9 Fruit Street until his death on March 5, 1829. Members of the Le Breton family continued to own the house until November 18, 1865, when it was conveyed to Susan M. Brown (County Book 699, Page 23-27). Mrs. Brown’s husband, Newman, was a coal dealer with a business at 13 Water Street. The Browns had previously lived at 2 Fruit Street.

In 1890, Mary and Susan Brown sold the property to John F. Young (Book 1296, Page 25). After Young's death, his widow, Hannah, sold it to Moses E. Wright and Mary Ina Wright in 1916 (Book 2345, Page 581). Moses Wright was a grocer and later served as treasurer of DeVeber Wright Co, Inc. at 50 State Street. The property remained in the Wright family ownership until 1973, when Charlotte Hersey sold it to the present owner, Frederick Barclay.