Rotary Club learns history of Seven Gables

MARBLEHEAD-Seven just might be a lucky number for Salem’s House of Seven Gables this year.Jim Rose of the South Salem Neighborhood Association and Anita Blackaby, the Executive Director of the House of the Seven Gables, recently shared the history of the House of The Seven Gables and the House of the Seven Gables Settlement House, located at 114 Derby St., Salem, with Marblehead Rotary Club members.Their visit to the club took place on Thursday April 22. On April 21, 1910, exactly one hundred years ago this year, Caroline Osgood Emmerton, a Salem philanthropist concerned with human services and historic preservation, founded The House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association.Observing the increasing need to care for the influx of immigrants who were rapidly settling in Salem, she became a pioneer in the effort to provide social services for them. Emmerton bought the old Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, hired noted architect Joseph Chandler to help her restore the venerable structure, and opened it to visitors to help fund her Settlement House.The House of the Seven Gables Settlement House, modeled after the Jane Adams’ Hull House in Chicago, was developed to aid new residents to the surrounding Derby Street neighborhood advance both socially and educationally.The House of the Seven Gables will be hosting special programs throughout the year to celebrate the museum’s commitment to Preservation and Social Service. For more information please call 978-744-0991.