Narbonne House

Built in 1672, the Narbonne House is one of the oldest houses in Salem and one of America’s few surviving middle-class homes from the 1600s. Its builder and first owner was a slaughterer, or butcher, and later residents included a weaver, a shoreman, a tanner, several seamen, and Sarah Narbonne, a seamstress who operated a tiny Cent Shop in the lean-to beside the house. Their lives left traces that recent archeological investigations have brought to light. By 1760, a small brick-floored dairy in the backyard kept milk and cheese cool. Between 1780 and 1820, prosperous owners built a handsome carriage house and narrowed the lean-to so a carriage could pass. In the 1870s, after the house was connected to city water mains, residents began filling their obsolete backyard wells with discards and trash. Altogether, the lot has yielded more than 142,000 artifacts of middle-class life in Salem.

Salem, Massachusetts · United States