Far From The Ordinary- 6 Bedrooms ? 10 Fireplaces ? Ready To Move In in Salem, Massachusetts

COOK-KIMBALL HOUSE, 14 PICKMAN ST., SALEM
The 202-year-old Cook-Kimball House at 14 Pickman St. in Salem, Massachusetts, is more than a house. It is a work of art, a piece of history, and a superlative example of historic Salem?s Federal Period architecture and craftsmanship. And it has benefited greatly from its long-term family ownerships and occupancies in terms of meticulous maintenance, historic preservation, and painstaking restoration to its old-world opulence.
Attributed to leading Salem architect Samuel McIntire, the house was built in xxxx-09 for Salem painter Robert Cook Jr., his wife Hannah Gowan and their children, Robert III and Mary Ann. Cook, son of Salem fisherman and mariner Robert Cook Sr., was a descendant of Henry Cook, an English immigrant to Salem in xxxx. The house?s interior woodwork includes classic moldings and fireplace mantels with intricate carvings attributed to McIntire?s son, Samuel Field McIntire.
Following the death of Robert Cook Jr. in xxxx and Hannah in xxxx, their children sold the house to Capt. James Staniford Kimball, a seafaring merchant who commanded the brig Leander. (A watercolor painting by G. Carnellote of this ship is in a historical collection of the Essex Institute of Salem?s Peabody Essex Museum.) The Kimball family owned and occupied the house until xxxx. By xxxx it had been acquired by Arthur M. Feenan of Salem, who lived in it with his wife until their death in xxxx. In xxxx it was purchased by Roland and Mary L?Heureux, whose family has owned and occupied it over the past 60 years.
This 4,776-square-foot, three-story home has six bedrooms, 3½ baths, and 10 working fireplaces, one in almost every room. It has been fully restored to its Federal finesse, with its paneled pocket window shutters, its finely crafted spiral staircase, its crown moldings and some of its original wide-pine floors pristinely preserved. All of its chimneys were rebuilt and repaired in xxxx, and its roof was redone with architectural shingles that year. Now it offers the buyer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience living history in a livable home. For the house?s sophisticated floor plan lends itself to entertaining and providing comfortable living space for the contemporary family.
The Cook-Kimball House typifies McIntire?s square, symmetrical house designs for wealthy Salem merchants, with five bays of double-hung windows, black louver shutters, modillioned cornice and hipped roof. The Flemish bond brick façade is covered with ivy, which turns to a radiant red in the fall and has grown over most of the windows for privacy. The center entrance, framed by sidelights with delicate Adamesque husks and ribbons and an Ionic-columned portico with modillioned cornice, presents itself as an aedicula that symbolizes the aristocratic dignity of the house as a whole. The paneled door introduces the graceful staircase with curving rail, stick balusters and wave moldings, which was stripped and repainted to sharpen the original detail.
The central stairhall connects at right to the formal living room, which boasts a built-in unit of curio shelves, a yellow wall treatment, and a classic McIntire fireplace. Featured in the book The Wood Carver of Salem, the mantel is artfully carved with a row of beads along the top shelf edge, a dentil course of minuscule triangular incisions below the shelf, and a center relief of an eagle in a shield on a crossed array of horns, quills and a Torus-molded hatchet.
At left of the stairhall is the orange-walled master bedroom with original built-in glazed china cabinet. Both rooms access a comfortable central sitting room, which in turn exits to the wraparound rear deck that overlooks the spacious back yard formed by the house?s unique L-shape. The bedroom accesses a side deck of its own, as well as the back hall that interconnects the side deck, the kitchen and the sitting room.
The 180-square-foot eat-in kitchen retains its original brick fireplace and ceiling beams and is retrofit with modern appliances. The sink is situated in an antique vanity.
In back of the kitchen is the 344-square-foot formal dining room, which was renovated c.xxxx with colonial-style built-in china cabinets, brass chandeliers, and deep ceiling beams salvaged from another old house. A broad multipaned window brings in ample light and views of the historic neighborhood. A 27-square-foot full bath is also on this level.
The second floor is a full level of living in itself, with its own living room and kitchen and two bedrooms with shared bath.
The hipped roof grants the top floor a 6-foot-2-inch ceiling height. This level features a home office space with a wall unit of custom cabinets, shelves and running marble counter with central wet bar, installed 10 years ago. This serves two bedrooms with fireplaces, one with a built-in bookcase/cabinet unit by a window.
The basement has a concrete floor. The four-zone gas-forced hot water heating system was installed in October xxxx.
Situated on a 13,068-square-foot lot, the property includes two detached two-car garages, one at 14 Pickman St., the other at 4 Milk St. The latter is newly built in the style of a 19th-century New England carriage barn with a weathervane-topped louver cupola and a second-floor hayloft with hay-hoisting door and cantilevered pulley.
The house is within walking distance of numerous public transit options and popular tourist attractions in Salem. The Salem Ferry?s high-speed catamaran transports you to downtown Boston in 45 minutes and to Logan International Airport in 15 minutes. Also nearby are buses to the Blue Line at Wonderland in Revere and the Green and Orange lines at Haymarket in Boston, as well as the MBTA Commuter Rail to North Station. Across the street from the Commuter Rail is Salem?s new $106 million State Courthouse, slated to open this year.
One block from Pickman Street is the historic Salem Common. Near there are the Salem Witch Museum of exhibitions pertaining to the infamous Salem Witchcraft Trials of xxxx, the Peabody Essex Museum of paintings, sculptures and other fine art from the world over, and the House of the Seven Gables, made famous in Nathaniel Hawthorne?s novel of that name. Close by is Pickering Wharf, a waterfront village of antiques and crafts stores, boutiques and gift shops, cafes and restaurants, Dracula?s Castle, the Pickering Wharf Marina, a replica of the xxxx schooner Fame, and much more.
Also, there is a beach right down the street from Pickman Street, and you can see the water from the street when you walk out the door of 14 Pickman Street