Potatoes, onions and carrots! Oh, my!

With the guidance and expertise of a couple members of the museum staff, the students at Salem Prep - located at The Gables' Settlement House - planted a vegetable garden this spring! A fall crop of carrots, onions and potatoes were put in the front garden, and a pumpkin patch is also growing in the back garden...

It was decided that the smart approach would be to plant a crop to be harvested in the fall, as the students will be away on summer vacation until school resumes in the fall. Director of Salem Prep, Dr. Russell plans to make a delicious stew for the students with the harvested potatoes, carrots and onions. A perfect ending to their gardening toils.

As a bonus, planting the garden for the students was counted as community service! A win-win, for sure.

And, a quick early congratulations to the graduates of Salem Prep! The ceremony is tomorrow and we wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

Fun on The Fame!

The Gables, located just up the street from the Schooner Fame, wanted to share their upcoming schedule of events! They have some great events planned for this summer!

May 26 — Opening Day! First public sails of the season aboard the Schooner FAME at 2, 4, and 6 PM! Tickets are available online at schoonerfame.com or by calling 978-729-7600.

June 16 — Rum and Revolution! 6-8 PM. During the Revolution and the War of 1812, hundreds of privateers sailed from New England ports to strike a blow for liberty. Come see what all the fuss was about! Sample contemporary beverages such as grog and rum punch, hear live performances of 18th-century songs, and even dance a hornpipe! Tickets are available online at schoonerfame.com or by calling 978-729-7600.

June 30 — Tall Ships Welcome Cruise! What better way to see the Tall Ships than from the deck of the 1812 privateer schooner FAME! The Tall Ships and over 40 US Navy vessels are coming to Boston this summer to celebrate the bicentennial of the War of 1812. Join us on board FAME as well sail to Boston and accompany the Tall Ships into Boston Harbor. Tickets for this 7:00-2:30 event are available online at schoonerfame.com or by calling 978-729-7600.

July 1 — Open House aboard FAME, 11-1. Come celebrate the 200th anniversary of FAME's first privateering cruise during the War of 1812. FAME was the first American privateer to send in a captured vessel!

July 4 — Join for us our annual Fireworks Cruise, always our most popular event of the season! We'll depart Pickering Wharf at 6:15 for a two-hour sunset sail and then return to out dock in time to enjoy a front-row seat for Salem's fireworks! Tickets are available online at schoonerfame.com or by alling 978-729-7600

July 6 — Tall Ships Farewell Cruise! What better way to see the Tall Ships than from the deck of the 1812 privateer schooner FAME! The Tall Ships and over 40 US Navy vessels are coming to Boston this summer to celebrate the bicentennial of the War of 1812. Join us on board FAME as we sail along with the Tall Ships as they depart Boston Harbor. Tickets for this all-day event are available online at schoonerfame.com or by calling 978-729-7600.

July 13 — Rum and Revolution! 6-8 PM. During the Revolution and the War of 1812, hundreds of privateers sailed from New England ports to strike a blow for liberty. Come see what all the fuss was about! Sample contemporary beverages such as grog and rum punch, hear live performances of 18th-century songs, and even dance a hornpipe! Tickets are available online at schoonerfame.com or by calling 978-729-7600.

July 26 — Rum and Revolution! 6-8 PM. During the Revolution and the War of 1812, hundreds of privateers sailed from New England ports to strike a blow for liberty. Come see what all the fuss was about! Sample contemporary beverages such as grog and rum punch, hear live performances of 18th-century songs, and even dance a hornpipe! Tickets are available online at schoonerfame.com or by calling 978-729-7600.

August 10 — Rum and Revolution! 6-8 PM. During the Revolution and the War of 1812, hundreds of privateers sailed from New England ports to strike a blow for liberty. Come see what all the fuss was about! Sample contemporary beverages such as grog and rum punch, hear live performances of 18th-century songs, and even dance a hornpipe! Tickets are available online at schoonerfame.com or by calling 978-729-7600.

August 31 — Rum and Revolution! 6-8 PM. During the Revolution and the War of 1812, hundreds of privateers sailed from New England ports to strike a blow for liberty. Come see what all the fuss was about! Sample contemporary beverages such as grog and rum punch, hear live performances of 18th-century songs, and even dance a hornpipe! Tickets are available online at schoonerfame.com or by calling 978-729-7600.

September 2 — Gloucester Schooner Festival. Don't miss a chance to sail with tall ships, schooners, and classic yachts at this annual kill-your-camera-battery event! We will depart Salem at 8:30, sail to Gloucester to join the fun, serve lunch, and be back in Salem by 1:30. Tickets are available online at schoonerfame.com or by calling 978-729-7600.

The power of good!

Buy a ticket, help us do good work!

Your visit to The House of the Seven Gables funds community-building programs for at-risk youth and immigrant families. A significant portion of ticket sales is dedicated to funding projects that help us continue our century-old legacy of social service.

The Gables would like to thank the community for your ongoing support of our programs.

We proudly undertake this work with our community partners:

Express Yourself, Inc., Beverly, MA

Express Yourself introduces underserved young people to the worlds of music, dance, and the visual arts. This organization uses the power of creative arts to transform the lives of at-risk youth in the community and in Department of Mental Health treatment facilities.

Salem CyberSpace (a program of North Shore Community Action Programs)
Salem CyberSpace’s goal is to provide educational and career opportunities for underserved, primarily Latino youth. The second year of Salem CyberSpace’s partnership with The Gables has already begun, and the young people in the program attend college prep and SAT prep sessions three times a week in The Gables’ Visitor Center.

The Plummer Home for Boys, Salem, MA

The Plummer Home is a community-based group home for boys ages 12 - 18 and a pre-independent living program for boys ages 16 - 22. The Plummer Home has placed several young people at The Gables in a supportive, structured vocational training program that will provide teens with their first job experience. 

Eugene Masterson, Irish journalist talks about The Gables!

"Whether it’s shopping or a bit of history you’re after from a break, it’s hard to beat Boston

by Eugene Masterson

BOSTON is a favourite haunt of Irish holidaymakers who would like to take in a bit of history, shopping, entertainment and a home- from-home atmosphere. Popular culture has seen the likes of TV's Cheers and Ally McBeal and movies such as The Departed and The Town set in it, but it is also America's most interesting city in terms of its historical background.

New England's largest centre had a rich past before hundreds of thousands of Irish emigrants flocked to it in the 19th century..."

He goes on to talk about Salem and The Gables:

"...One part of American history I’ve always been fascinated with is the Salem witch trials from 1692.

The Witch Museum there gives a great account of the background to the deaths of the 19 innocent people who were accused of witchcraft during a time of hysteria in the town. Witchcraft paraphernalia fills the seaside town (you can get there by train, but a 50-minute ferry trip is more atmospheric).

The House of the Seven Gables is also worth seeing, as it is America’s oldest wooden house and the setting of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book of the same name.

While there, you can grab dinner at the funky 62 restaurant and lunch at the Seaport Café..."

We welcome visitors from everywhere! The Gables offers audio and written translations of our tours in French, Spanish, German and Italian.

Thanks for your virtual visit today.

Salem and The Wall Street Journal!

Last weekend, The Wall Street Journal's Acrostic puzzle clue "I" was of particular interest to The Gables' Executive Director, Anita Blackaby, and her husband!

Clue "I" you ask?

"Sitcom whose main character is honored with a statue in Salem, Massachusetts"

Of course, if you've spent any time in downtown Salem by restaurants, Fresh Taste of Asia, The Upper Crust and Cafe Polonia you would know the answer to that one is "Bewitched!"

If you are not familiar with this show, here is their official website!

http://www.bewitched.net/

We hope you enjoyed this nice tidbit about Salem! Thank you for your virtual visit to 7 Gables Gab!

(P.S. In case you were wondering Blackaby got the answer right on the puzzle!)

The Gables is Gorgeous!

The flowering trees are doing their duty at The Gables right now! And the garden inside the site is still stunning despite the tulips being past their prime! Even on this rainy, dreary day, the garden and amazing wisteria in full bloom are something to behold. If you have a chance for a visit, be sure to come by...

Also, a reminder about our upcoming lecture...Dr. Lucinda L. Damon-Bach will give her lecture on May 16, 2012 at 7pm. It is entitled “Catherine Maria Sedgwick’s Literary Legacy.” Admission is a suggested donation of $10 for members of The Gables, $15 for non-members.

Presented by Dr. Damon-Bach, Professor of English at Salem State University and co-editor of Catharine Maria Sedgwick: Critical Perspectives. Internationally acclaimed in the 19th century and admired by her U.S. contemporaries, Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s life and works inspired male and female readers alike. This lecture will focus on Sedgwick’s early novels, friendships, and interactions with fellow authors (including James Fenimore Cooper, Lydia Maria Child, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne), exploring her role as a founder of American literature.

Damon-Bach earned her Ph.D. in English, at the State University of New York at Buffalo and has received many honors including the National Endowment for the Humanities Long-Term Fellowship. Damon-Bach is currently at Salem State University, but has also taught at Boston College and was a preceptor for the Expository Writing Program at Harvard University.

Her second co-edited book, Transatlantic Women: Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers and Great Britain, with Beth L. Lueck and Brigitte Bailey, is forthcoming from the University Press of New England in July 2012. In addition to publishing articles on other nineteenth-century American authors, Damon-Bach has helped to organize many conferences on Sedgwick and her contemporaries, including “Transatlantic Women,” at the Rothermere American Institute of the University of Oxford, U. K., which spawned her most recent book. She has delivered a great number of presentations across the United States, from Hawaii and California to Michigan and Massachusetts.

For more information, please call The Gables at 978-744-0991.

Final Lineup for "Strong Women of The Gables" Lecture Series

Wednesday, May 16^th at 7:00 p.m.  Admission is a suggested donation of $10 for members of The Gables, $15 for non-members

Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s Literary Legacy  Presented by Lucinda L. Damon-Bach, Professor of English at Salem State University and co-editor of Catharine Maria Sedgwick: Critical Perspectives. Internationally acclaimed in the 19th century and admired by her U.S. contemporaries, Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s life and works inspired male and female readers alike. This lecture will focus on Sedgwick’s early novels, friendships, and interactions with fellow authors (including Cooper, Child, Emerson, and Hawthorne), exploring her role as a founder of American literature.

Wednesday, June 20^th at 7:00 p.m. Admission: $10 Members, $15 Non-Members 

Susannah Ingersoll and Her Role in the Business Community  Presented by Robin Woodman, Assistant for Harvard Art Museum Archaeological Exploration of the Sardis, Turkey Expedition. She is also a volunteer at The  

House of the Seven Gables.

Wednesday, July 18^th at 7:00 p.m.  Admission:  $10 Members, $15 Non-Members

Sophia Peabody and Her Sisters  Presented by Megan Marshall, winner of the Francis Parkman Prize and Pulitzer finalist for her book, The Peabody Sisters, Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism. This landmark book won wide critical acclaim. Her focus for this lecture will be on Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, wife of Nathaniel.

Saturday, September 22^nd, 2:00 p.m.   – (This is ‘Trails & Sails’ Weekend.)  Admission:  $10 Members, $15 Non-Members

The Strike for Bread and Roses, Lawrence, 1912   Presented by professional storyteller Sharon Kennedy, this performance will honor the women textile workers of Lawrence, Massachusetts in this centennial year.

Known as “The Strike for Bread and Roses,” their fight for better working conditions began as a women-led strike, but it inspired all the men to strike as well. Her performance will include the actual testimony of four fourteen year-old mill workers before the U.S. Senate.

Wednesday, November 7^th at 7:00 p.m.  Admission:  $10 Members, $15 Non-Members

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, a Notable Local Figure with International Connections  Louise B. Swiniarski, Education Department Professor at Salem State University, will focus  on Elizabeth Peabody:  her work, friends, and the literary salon she hosted on West Street in Boston.  She will also discuss Elizabeth’s relationship with her sister Sophia, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s wife.

Wednesday, December 12^th at 7:00 p.m. Admission:  $10 Members, $15 Non-Members

Out of the Parlor and Into the Light  Pianist Jacqueline Schwab will perform vintage 19^th century American parlor music, including Stephen Foster and Civil War songs, hymns, spirituals, and ballroom dances. Schwab is best known for her performances on Ken Burns’ Grammy award-winning Civil War documentary, as well as the Emmy award-winning Baseball and Mark Twain documentaries on public television.