Nathaniel Hawthorne, the American author, was born in this very house, the Nathaniel Hawthorne Birthplace. This structure was relocated to the grounds of the House of the Seven Gables and restored by the non-profit House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association. Admission is free to Salem residents year-round and free to the general public during winter months; a fee is charged during summer months.
Once standing at 27 Union Street, the house was built sometime between 1730 and 1745 for a Boston mariner named Joshua Pickman, on land deeded to him by his father-in-law Joseph Hardy. The house may even have recycled structural timbers from a 17th-century Pickman house that stood here earlier. Hawthorne’s grandfather, Daniel Hathorne — note that the “w” was not yet added to the family name — lived here with his wife Rachel Phelps as early as 1765 and purchased the building in 1772.
After a courtship of more than six years, Nathaniel Hathorne Sr. married Elizabeth Clarke Manning on August 2, 1801, when she was already pregnant; she had known the family for many years. Notice these restored grounds spreading across the House of the Seven Gables.