The Donton-Dodge House

William Donton (aka Donnton, Dounton), a mariner, and his wife Mary bought the lot on the corner of North Main and Summer Streets in 1695 and constructed a picturesque post-medieval-style house with overhangs and a saltbox rear addition. The house was an Ipswich landmark whose disappearance we still regret today.

William Donton was born in 1665, in Salem to William Dounton Sr. and his wife Rebecca. He married Mary Pickering before 1692 in Ipswich and built the oldest part of this house soon after. He died about 1701 in Salem at the age of 37.

The William Donnton House faced south. The asymmetrical front facade and the visible ridge in the roofline indicate that the right side was added later. A slight change in the pitch of the saltbox roof suggests that it too may have been an addition.

The property was sold to Joseph Holland by Dunton’s heirs, and he sold it to Dr. Francis Holmes on Jan. 31, 1755 (106: 98). Holmes, in turn, sold it to Ezekiel Dodge in 1775. This was known as the “Dodge House” for over a hundred years until the heirs of Manning Dodge sold it to grocer Theodore F. Cogswell in 1888 (1219: 504). Cogswell demolished the house and constructed the elegant Queen Anne house that still stands on the location today as a wedding present to his daughter Emiline and her husband George Farley, owner of the Farley and Daniels Shoe Company.