Sometimes I like to start the stories of the historical buildings in Marblehead by finding something out of the ordinary for the town. Everyone knows that Marblehead is a nautical town with a storied connection to all things ocean, so why not look for something new.
The thing is, sometimes in this town, you just have to write about Marblehead and the sea.
14 Abbot St. is the address for the Chisholm House, named after William Chisholm, a distinguished mariner. While the first recorded acquisition of this land dates to 1877, according to the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System (MACRIS), when shoe manufacturer John Glover Parker obtained the parcel from his father-in-law, the only notable changes occurred on the property after Chisholm purchased it for $500.
According to Chisolm’s obituary in the Boston Globe, Chisolm immigrated to the United States from Nova Scotia. He gained his reputation working on a boat named the Mary Kimball, on which he made two trips, one as a sailor and one as a second mate. Aboard other ships and in a wide variety of roles, he was said to have “visited nearly all of the principal ports of the world.”
But he was not just a seaman. Chisholm also had a stint selling fertilizer made of guano (bat feces) to an island in the Pacific Ocean as an employee at a company in Boston. The obituary states that Chisolm was “the governor” of this island. He later continued his involvement in the guano trade with the same company in the Caribbean and South Carolina.
While the source of Chisolm’s wealth may have been on the grosser side, you could never tell from his house. Some of the original design remains in the house as it stands today, a gorgeous example of domestic Italianate architecture.
Italianate style was one of the four major revival styles of mid- to late-19th-century domestic architecture in the United States, and was just about to fall out of fashion in 1881, when Chisholm erected the building. Fortunately for us, Chisholm was not concerned with being on the cutting edge of architecture.