Francis Merrifield Jr. bought this corner lot from his father, Francis Merrifield Sr., in 1792 (155: 108), and built the gambrel cottage which stands on the bank above the road. Mary Wade, daughter of Col. Nathaniel Wade of Revolutionary War fame, bought the property “with the buildings thereon” at a public auction in 1826 (251:83). Unmarried, she bequeathed her estate to her nephew, Francis H. Wade. The house remained in the Wade family well into the 20th Century.
This is one of three 5-bay gambrel-roofed capes in Ipswich. The other two are the 48 Turkey Shore Road, the Nathaniel Hodgkins House (1720), and 100 High Street, the Joseph Fowler House (1720 –1756). Gloucester and Rockport have dozens of three and four-bay gambrel capes, but the three in Ipswich are the only five-bay examples in our area.
The original part of the house had four rooms with wide pine floors resting on floor beams made from entire tree trunks, which have been replaced. Four fireplaces were sitting on a stone foundation. Each of the front rooms has exposed corner posts. Mary Wade’s nephew, Francis H. Wade, enlarged the kitchen and added a “summer kitchen.”
The front of the house retains the original two-over-two room floor plan. At the rear is a small ell with a cooking fireplace that was added in two stages to enlarge the original house.
Sources:
Historic Ipswich 