East India Marine Hall

East India Marine Hall was constructed as the first permanent home of the East India Marine Society, the founding institution of the Peabody Essex Museum. Designed by Boston architect Thomas Waldron Sumner, the hall was formally dedicated on October 14, 1825, with a lavish dinner attended by President John Quincy Adams and numerous American dignitaries. Between 1825 and 1867, the society rented the first floor to businesses such as the Asiatic Bank and the Oriental Insurance Company, whose names are chiseled on the granite facade, while the second floor contained the society's museum. When the hall opened, the Essex Register called it "as chaste and beautiful a specimen of architecture as our country can exhibit," filled with "the rare and curious productions of nature and art from the four quarters of the globe." An 11-foot, 4,450-pound naval anchor, first installed in front of the hall in 1906, was a particularly appropriate symbol because an anchor was the emblem of the East India Marine Society. East India Marine Hall was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

Salem, Massachusetts · United States