Nahant Harbor Review - Nahant, Massachusetts USA

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NAHANT HARBOR REVIEW • MAY 2006 • Page 18Summer In NahantA collaboration of old photographs, letters and memories of those wholived and resorted on this seaside peninsula before us.Whaaat?!? It’snot BYOB???This house (rear view) was built circa 1829 and was lived in for many years by theCodman family. Later the Paiges enjoyed 339 Nahant Road. It passed into the Abbott-Lawrence family through the marriage of a Paige daughter and then into the Fay familywith the marriage of Hester Lawrence.Longfellow: Another Visitor to 339 Nahant RoadQuotes from Stanley Paterson’s research notes from Henry WadsworthLongfellow’s diary: In 1850, the Longfellows were boarding at “Johnathan Johnson’s, alow, long house in the village” (note: Johnathan Johnson’s house at that time was aboutwhere the Richland store is presently located—practically across the street from 339Nahant Road, of today.)Fanny Longfellow (Mrs. Henry W.) writes from Nahant to Emmeline Wadsworthon July 19, 1850, about a dinner in Nahant at her father’s partner in the textile complexin Lowell, Massachusetts, James Paige’s, “with a party of gentlemen.” In the center ofthe table was “a gigantic glass goblet filled with a hugemass of ice to drive away the flies...The talk was chieflyof wines, Mr. Paige producing one kind choice thananother.”One of the guests, William Boott, was “abusing thedisplay of silver as not proper for Nahant, all which hishost took in very good stride. After dinner we strolled inthe garden and some of the gentlemen were rather livelyfrom the effects of so much good wine, or sea air.”July 22 - HWL - “Had a delicious bath with thechildren. What if the sea-serpent had come in and made aLoccon of me! I forgot to record the beauty of the sky lastevening. Clouds came out of the sea, and piled themselvesup into th~ shape of a stag with antlers thrown back,flying at full speed. Later, the moon rose and lightningflashed from the cloud fortress, which had lost its resemblanceto a stag. Looking eastward, it flashed behind youlike a clocked :assassin brandishing his blade. So itseemed to me as I stood on Mrs. Paige’s piazza talkingwith her fair daughter, Harriet.”1851 - Again summering at Jonathan Johnson’shome on Nahant Road July 12 - HWL “After tea anotherstroll under Tudor’s trees on the main road to the Beach.Met Prescott hurrying home to tea... We were half hour atMrs. Paige’s and saw the sea from her piazza.”Architectural Significance339 Nahant Road is a Federal-style house withItalianate alterations, one of the earliest summer cottagessurviving in Nahant. It is a two-story, three-bay house,with a hipped roof and center chimney.The central entry is framed by sidelights and atransom, and is sheltered by a hipped portico with fretworksupports. Flanking the entry are two one-story bays(1873-1874). Small, one-story hipped ells exist at eachend elevation. Other features include brackets at firststorycornices and 6/6 sash.Historical SignificanceThe Codman-Paige-Lawrence-Fay-Jenkins estate isan example of Nahant’s early development of summercottages for Boston’s elite. It is located on the Town’smain road, close to the area of earliest construction.In January 1829, Stephen Codman purchased 3-1/4acres from Daniel Breed. Several months later there wereaccounts of lightning striking his barn, suggesting that thehouse was built that year. Codman conveyed a lot andcottage (351 Nahant Road) to his son, Henry, in 1839.Following his death (by 1845), the property was sold atauction to James W. Paige of Boston (1854). Paige wasinvolved in the textile manufacturers.The house was altered and enlarged in 1873-1874 byNahant builder J.T. Wilson. The family of Paige’s daughterand son-in-law, Abbot Lawrence, occupied the propertyuntil after 1896. By that time the estate included eightoutbuildings, such as a stable, a laundry and severaldwellings.A wing of the main house was removed and convertedto a separate house (345 Nahant Road) in 1939.In the 1850s, Daniel Webster was a frequent visitor to this summer home of theJames Paige family. He gave Mrs. Paige a brooch with a lock of his hair entwined in itwhich the Fay family still treasure today.
NAHANT HARBOR REVIEW • MAY 2006 • Page 19Daniel WebsterAnd His Many Visits to 339 Nahant RoadCirca 1874 Circa 1874Daniel Webster, though he never had a home atNahant, had very intimate relations here, in the family ofhis son’s father-in-law, Mr. James W. Paige. Mr. Paigethen owned what has since passed into the name of hisson-in-law, and been known as, the Abbott Lawrenceplace, opposite the Public Library on Nahant Road.In the year 1852, Mr. Webster failed of the nominationfor the presidency, at the Whig Convention in Baltimore.Shortly after this, and voicing the sympatheticconcurrence of his Nahant friends, in the general wave ofdisappointment which followed, Mr. Webster was given areception at the home of Mr. Paige, and the citizens ofNahant were invited there, to meet the distinguishedlawyer and statesman. (A meeting it was still cherished inthe memory of one, at least, as a privilege indeed.)From that time, Mr. Webster’s health was rapidlydeclined; and in October of the same year, he died at hishome in Marshfield, Massachusetts. Only a short timebefore his death, he was again at Nahant, where he wasseen one quiet Sunday evening, walking in the street, veryfeeble and leaning for support on the arm of his son’sfather-in-law, Mr. James Paige.If you have something you wouldlike to share on this page, pleasecontact the author:Summer In Nahantc/o Bumper GoodingPO Box 5, Nahant, MA 01908Or email: sumnerkimball@aol.comIn the political circles of 1846, no portrait painter was more in demand than GeorgePeter Alexander Healy. He was the choice of the fifteen New York Whigs—the dininggroup known as the Hone Club—to depict their champion, Daniel Webster (1782-1852).Philip Hone had feared that Healy “is so much in vogue that the time and price requiredfor our picture may be beyond our patience and money.” To their immense pleasure,however, Healy accepted the commission at a cost of $550, which included the frame.Webster posed in Washington as the long-winded debate about Oregon’s boundary gotunder way, and the exhausted senator at times dozed off during the sittings. The portraitwas received in New York on April 25. “This ‘counterfeit presentment’ of our honorarymember, the distinguished Massachusetts senator,’ wrote Hone, “is a great picture—thebest that has been done of him.”Daniel Webster by George Peter Alexander Healy (1813—1894), oil on canvas,1846. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; transfer fromthe National Gallery of Art; gift of Andrew W. Mellon, 1942.SOURCES: Above: 1846 Portrait of America, National Portrait Gallery, 150thAnniversary Publication. 1996.Text and photos for this article were provided by the Nahant Historical Society. Aspecial thanks go to Calantha Sears and Bonnie D’Orlando for their assistance.
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