The house at 8 Chestnut Street in Salem, around 1890-1910. Image courtesy of the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum, Frank Cousins Glass Plate Negatives Collection.
The house in 2023:
According to the MACRIS documentation for this house, it was built around 1805 by Daniel Gregg, and was originally a one-story building. It stood adjacent to the South Church, which was later lost in a fire, and it was used as a store. However, it was later purchased by John Stone, who expanded it around 1829 by adding the upper stories. He used it as a rental property for about a decade, before moving into the house in 1839.
During the second half of the 19th century, the house had a number of different owners and residents. The top photo was taken sometime around the turn of the 20th century by Frank Cousins, a photographer who used his camera to document the many historic homes in Salem. Not much has changed in this scene since then, and today the house still looks essentially the same as it did more than a century after the top photo was taken.