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Sargent House Museum

Gloucester, Italy

Sargent House Museum

The Sargent House Museum is a historic house museum located at 49 Middle Street, Gloucester, Massachusetts. The museum is open on weekends from Memorial Day to Columbus Day, and offers guided tours of the historic home, a small gift shop, and rotating exhibits in its exhibit space. The Sargent House

was built in 1782 for the feminist writer and philosopher Judith Sargent Murray and her first husband, John Stevens, a merchant in the West Indies trade. Judith's second husband, John Murray, the founder of the first Universalist Church in America, also lived in the house. The home is considered high Georgian because of its symmetrical floor plan, and includes Georgian details in its quoins, windows, cornices, and columns. The central stairway is an unusually fine example of the skill of 18th-century woodworkers. It has an undercut spiral newel, two types of spiral balusters on each step, and a long arched window enclosed by Ionic columns at the landing. This stair was almost purchased by the MET Museum in NY around 1915 for installation in one of their "period rooms." This spurred the former families and friends of the House to preserve it as a museum. The museum houses a small but exquisite...

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