Samuel McIntyre designed the Stephen Phillips House, the historic house and museum in the McIntire Historic District where you have paused. Listen for the layers of lives here: it began with Elias Hasket Derby, one of America’s first self-made millionaires from the sea trade. When Derby died in 1799, his daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Captain Nathaniel West, inherited his farm in Danvers and built a country house on the property, sparing little expense.
In 1806, shortly after that house was completed, a divorce forced Nathaniel off the property. Elizabeth’s death in 1814 left the house to her three daughters, and when one daughter died in 1819 Nathaniel inherited one-third of the estate. He then moved four rooms to Salem — the rooms that form part of the museum you see — and added a hallway, a third floor, and a back ell section.
In 1911 Stephen W. Phillips bought the house and brought five generations of family furnishings; he lived here until his death in 1955. The house remains as it was at that time, holding an eclectic collection that reflects the Phillipses’ extensive travels. Notice the façade, the added hallway, and the third floor and back ell just beyond.