The Pickering House
See you in June 2022!
We are closed for the season and will open again for regular Sunday tours on June 5, 2022. If you’d like to make an appointment for a private tour between now and then, please write to us at pickeringhouse1@gmail.com.
When seeing Salem, start where it all began. The Pickering Foundation welcomes you to an extraordinary place!
It is not only Salem’s oldest House, but also America’s oldest Home: home to a single family for over three and a half centuries; home to carpenters, farmers, patriots, military leaders, deacons, diplomats, linguists, scientists, and statesmen. And as homes will, it changed with the times.
Built in 1660 by settler John Pickering — a carpenter form Coventry, England — and his wife Elizabeth, it was once just a two-room farmhouse on a vast plot of land that ran all the way down to the seaport on the North River, encompassing what is today Chestnut Street and the McIntire District.
Over the next 350 years, the succeeding John Pickerings and their wives added wings, gables, and Gothic peaks. They raised ceilings, extended the roofline, and created the distinctive fence, to evolve into the warm and gracious home it is today.
You are cordinally invited to come and see a piece of Salem history that is very much alive!
Upcoming Events
Special Sunday Presentation: Pickering Letters
Sunday, February 27, 2022
The Collections and Archival committee has been VERY busy during the lockdown. Wait until you hear some of what they’ve uncovered from Colonel Tim, his son John6, and more. The ancestors of this old house were quite something . . . This lecture will be presented on Zoom. Reservations are a must! $10.00 members, $15.00 […]
3:00 pm at Zoom
$10.00 members, $15.00 non-members
Second Sunday Lecture: Donna Seger—The Practical Renaissance
Sunday, March 13, 2022
What sort of information did people in early modern England seek? In The Practical Renaissance: Information, Culture and the Quest for Knowledge in Early Modern England, Professor Seger explores the diffusion and reception of prescriptive publications over the 16th and 17th centuries. Published in an age of dynamic religious and political change, these texts demonstrate […]
1:00 pm at Zoom
$10.00 members, $15.00 non-members