Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1983. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“The Southwick House is a historic house in Peabody, Massachusetts. Probably built about 1750, it is one of the city's oldest surviving structures, and has a long association with a prominent local family.”
Wikipedia article Southwick House (Peabody, Massachusetts), CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 350 National Register listings in Essex County · listed in 1983 · category: Building · one of 2 National Historic Landmarks in Essex County.
National Register reference number.83003974- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Mattresses and Feathers Renovated. Goods Called For and Returned Promptly. No. 15 Walnut Street, Peabody, Mass. - Cleanliness not only is essential to health, but it also preserves and renders more endurable every kin i of fabric and cloth. This fact is equally true whether applied to garments or the carpets, bedding and similar household goods. Few people realize how much longer these materials could be made to last if cleaned more regularly and carefully. The Peabody Laundry and Steam Carpet Cleaning Works has now for nine years demonstrated its ability to handle every class ol work in these lines in the most modern and satisfactory style. The laundry business was established in 1883, and the entire enterprise has been under Mr. Charles A. Sanger's efficient management since 1884. Large and thoroughly equipped premises are occupied. A 12 horse-power engine and 30 horsepower boiler furnishes steam power, and the machinery throughout is of the latest and best type. The steam carpet beating department occupies a separate building. The^laundry work in all lines is guaranteed to be on a par with the best anywhere in this country, while the prompt service and low prices are points worth noting carefully. Of late years the services of the Steam Carpet Beating Works have been increasing steadily in popularity. The prices are as low as those afforded by any other kind of service, while in efficiency and thorough care the advantages of the Steam Beating Works are greatly superior to all others. They call for and deliver goods on request in Peabody, Salem and Danvers, taking in charge not only ingrains, tapestries, brussels, axminsters, wiltons, etc., but also fine rugs and laces, mat^tresses, feathers, and any household paraphernalia needing careful and thorough cleaning. An examination of the facilities and rates of these well conducted works will convince anyone of the superior advantages offered by them.
Flowers possess a perennial cliarm for all cultivated people, and it is one of the triumphs of modern skill that we are now enabled to obtain them in abundance at any season of the year. Among the floral establishments of Peabody and vicinity that of Mr. J. M. Ward has long held a prominent and esteemed position. The business was established by Mr. Ward in 1875 and has made steady progress under his management from the start. Four large green-houses are now utilized for the cultivation of the varied floral stock of this house, the space of 4,000 square feet being devoted entirely to this purpose. Every variety of favorite flowers, including choice roses, carnations, lilies, pansies, etc., etc., are kept constantly on hand. Cut flowers and bouquets are sold at unexcelled prices. Special attention is given to funeral and memorial designs. A fine variety of palms, ferns, selaginellas and all kinds of potted plants are ready for use at any time. The immense variety and beauty of Mr. Ward's siock. as well as his uniformly liberal prices, make it a matter both of pleasure and economy to make use of his large facilities in these lines. Mr. Ward is a native of England and one of Peabody's most substantial and esteemed business men.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 106 fires within 5 miles of Southwick House between
2003 and 2020, burning about 346 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 4 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Recreation and ceremony
31
Smoking
23
Debris and open burning
13
Equipment and vehicle use
11
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
8
Misuse of fire by a minor
6
Fireworks
5
Arson/incendiarism
4
Power generation/transmission/distribution
2
Natural
1
Railroad operations and maintenance
1
Other causes
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 10,043 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Southwick House between 1800 and
1975: 4,183 Plantae, 3,185 Animalia, 1,080 Fungi, 922 Chromista, 434 Unrecorded, 189 Bacteria, 50 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A B. Proper, A H HIGGINSON, A. A. Eaton and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
15 workings within 5 miles of Southwick House: 5 past producers, 5 plants, 3 producers, 1 unknown.
8 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Zirconium, Iron. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Peabody, the town this property stands in, in 47 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 22 thunderstorm wind, 11 hail, 6 flood, 4 lightning.
The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
In Lynn, Alley and Commercial streets experienced significant flooding. A car was stranded on Chatham Street. In Peabody, a car was stranded near Foster and Spring Streets. Shaws Lane and Oak Streets were flooded.
Several cars were stranded due to flooding on Canal Street in Salem, as well as at Salem State College. Urban flooding was more severe in Peabody, where Fountain Street was flooded and voluntary evacuations took place. Several streets near the center of Peabody were also closed due to flooding.
At 10:33 AM EST, Quail Road in South Peabody was closed due to flooding. At 10:52 AM EST, Lynnfield Street was closed due to flooding. At 11:07 AM EST, a car was reported trapped in floodwaters on Lynnfield Street. At 11:14 AM a car was trapped in floodwaters on Lake Street near U.S. Route 1; Lake Street was reported closed soon after. At 11:33 AM EST, a house on Batchelder Avenue was reported to have 4 feet of water in the basement.
Trees and wires were downed on Winona and Corey Drives, and Lake, Forest, Baldwin, Wheatland, and Lowell Streets. So many trees were downed on Lowell Street that the street was closed.
Trees and wires were downed on several streets in Lynn and Peabody, including on Greenwood Road in Peabody and on Herschel Street in Lynn. One of the trees on Herschel Street landed on a car.
In Peabody, a tree was down on a truck on Norfolk Avenue. A tree was down on power lines at both Lynnfield Street and Columbia Blvd. A tree was down on Bartlett Street.
Two trees down in Salem Willows Park. Numerous dime-size hail stones fell at approximately 1845 EST in West Peabody with one or two stones just under the size of a quarter as measured by the son of a NWS meteorologist. Rainfall in Peabody was 1.68 inches.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
3,197 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
The Southwick House, constructed c. 1750, faces southwest onto Lowell Street at the outskirts (northwest) of central Peabody. The surrounding neighborhood is fairly densely developed with a mix of residential and commercial buildings dating from the 19th through mid-20th centuries. The house is set back a few feet from the sidewalk at the front of a narrow rectangular lot (105' X 3500'). Associated with the house and located to the rear is a small wood-frame art studio constructed in 1976; it is a non contributing element in this nomination. Two outbuildings, of unknown date shown| on the Town Assessor's Map of 1932 , have since been demolished. Although traditionally dated c.
1660, the Southwick House appears to date stylistically from the mid-18th century and probably replaced an earlier house. It is a 2½ story center chimney, wood-frame, clapboard (new) structure set on a low fieldstone foundation with basement and capped with a ganbrel roof with asphalt shingles. The center entry of the symmetrical five-bay facade is simply framed with channelled moulding with rosette motifs at the corner blocks; this treatment appears to reflect an early 19th century modification. Fenestration throughout the house consists of 6/6 doublehung sash set in wide, moulded, projecting surrounds.
Narrow corner" boards and fascia complete the buildings' crim.: In plan, the original portion of the house (18 X 36 feet) is one room deep with two rooms on each story arranged on either side of the central chimney. Typical of this early design, the chimney containes two flues set side by side resulting in a rectangular stack above the roof. The west and east gable ends are pierced on each floor and the attic by one window.
(in one paragraph) Builder/Architect Unknown The Southwick House retains integrity of location, setting, design, materials, workmanship, and association. It is architecturally significant as an excellent and well preserved example of vernacular Georgian period architecture in Peabody. Historical importance is derived from its association with the early settlement of Peabody and with the Southwick family, whose members were prominent in local industry, agriculture, and commerce during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Southwick House thus meets criteria A, B, and C of the National Register of Historic Places. Among the first English colonists to settle in Peabody was John Southwick (1620-1672) a husbandman and Quaker.
He was born in England in 1620, son of Lawrence and Casandra Southwick, who migrated to the Colonies about 1630. After being banished from Danvers for their religious beliefs, the family settled in Peabody where Lawrence Southwick became a partner in the first glass manufacturing industry in America (1638) near present day Aborn Street. By or about the mid-17th century, John Southwick had acquired land and erected a house in the vicinity of the Southwick House. According to local tradition, the house standing at 151 Lowell Street today was erected by him in c. 1660,, however, visible architectural fea- tures do not substantiate a date that early. During the Quaker persecution of the mid-17th ( century Lawrence and Cassandra were both banished from Massachusetts.
John's commitment to the Quaker faith, is a little less clear, however, he did harbor members of the sect in his house and was fined 20 shillings a week while they remained there. He was also fined for being a Quaker in 1658 and his wife was repeatedly fined for not attending church up to 1663.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 83003974, 12 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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