Nathaniel Hawthorne. Now there was a name that entered our homes in our late teens. Most of us read The Scarlet Letter (or at least skimmed the cliff notes) in our high school literature classes. Although Nathaniel Hawthorne is best known for The Scarlet Letter, he did write other novels, including one entitled The House of the Seven Gables. So where am I going with this? Well, Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, MA, and (AND) the house upon which he wrote this other novel is also located in Salem, MA. Now, if you recall, PDub and I visited Salem, MA at the end of the summer; while there, we toured The House of the Seven Gables house, once owned by Hawthorne's cousin, Susanna. Hawthorne was quite amused by the excessive number of gables and liked to write about odd, even haunting, subjects. Therefore, he used the house as a location in one of his novels. Now don't be haunted by the number of gables....no nightmares tonight!
First, what is a gable? A gable is the region of a wall that comes to a point.
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| This one has three gables. (2 visible and 1 not.) |
Second, what's this story about? Don't they make cliff notes for a reason? Wikipedia it (yes, I verbed that), if you are curious.....or maybe you could actually read it.
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| Fun fact: houses were painted black during this time period to keep the warmth in. Mind blown? |
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| Gable excessive? |
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| The Dubs visiting this historical house. |
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| Gabled out yet? |
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| A beautiful garden view of the bay. |
Hawthorne's true last name was actually spelled with the absence of the "w." His grandfather was an avid player in the witch hunts, and Nathaniel disliked his family for this history and did everything he could to part from it. One way was changing the spelling of his last name from "Hathorne" to "Hawthorne."
On the same property as the house with seven gables, Hawthorne's place of birth was also present. They actually moved the entire house to this location to draw even more tourists.
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| Need I explain this one? |
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| Based on my fun fact earlier, I'm sure these people were freezing during the winters living in their red house. |
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| Our bed and breakfast, the Morning Glory, was located right across the street from The House of the Seven Gables. One I highly recommend!! |
