1764 Saunders HOUSE

The 1764 Saunders House stands proudly at the corner of Middle Street and Dale Avenue in Central Gloucester’s Historic District, which is in the National Register of Historic Places, and the State-designated Harbortown Cultural District. The Saunders House is an outstanding example of an 18th-century home and one of the grandest dwellings built in Gloucester. The house was constructed in 1764 by Thomas Saunders to reflect his high status and success in the community as a successful merchant and a representative to the Massachusetts General Court. Historians believe the plans for the house were acquired directly from England, a tradition favored by the era’s most prominent citizens.*

Before becoming the home of the Sawyer Free Library in 1884 thanks to Samuel Sawyer, the house passed through the hands of seven owners and underwent two major renovations. Captain John Beach, an Englishman who purchased the house in 1784, added two stories to the home, which was unprecedented in Gloucester at the time. A soaring octagonal observatory at the very top no longer exists, nor is there a visual representation remaining.*

General Pew, the house’s seventh owner, reimagined the property as a breathtaking Italianate Victorian mansion. He introduced elegant piazzas, striking roof balustrades, and a dramatic four-story tower to the front of the house. The base of the tower exists today, but was reworked in 1934 into the inviting front entry porch still evident today.

The Saunders House is unique in the grandeur of its rare 18th century architectural features and craftsmanship, coupled with the distinctive, large scale artistic murals added in subsequent years. Despite 262 years of use and many owners, remarkable original features have been preserved for modern visitors to admire. The original front facade is crafted from rusticated board intended to look like dressed stone. The original pedimented window frames and elaborate denticulated cornices still frame the building today.

Character-defining colonial elements in the interior that feature masterpieces of early American woodwork include:

*Prudence Paine Fish. Antique Houses of Gloucester (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2007) 29.
For a more extensive history, visit Prudence Fish’s article The Saunders House 1764, posted in Enduring Gloucester, January 4, 2017.
Historic Development and Preservation Guidelines, Finch & Rose, 2005.

WPA MURALS


Among the Sawyer Free Library’s treasures are the Saunders House murals painted as part of the Federal Art Project of the 1930s Works Progress Administration (WPA). These stunning artworks celebrate the unique marriage between Gloucester’s vibrant local arts community and an historic federal program.

The masterworks were painted by Frederick Stoddard (1861–1940) with assistance from Howard Curtis (1906–1989). Stoddard enjoyed a prolific national career, decorating landmark sites like St. Louis’s City Hall and Odeon Theater, the Bell Telephone Co., and numerous New York public schools before moving to Gloucester in 1922 to become a leader in the local art scene. He painted at least ten New Deal murals across Gloucester, including Give Us This Day our Daily Bread, for Central Grammar School now on display at O’Maley Middle School, three panels for the Eastern Avenue School, and a series of fish and animals in natural settings at the Forbes School.

Stoddard created scenes that characterize the feel of Gloucester, but without representing particular houses, wharfs, or streets. He applied his paint directly to the bare, uneven plaster walls. This unique technique gives the artwork an antique, textured appearance that beautifully harmonizes with the building’s historic charm.

The Saunders House murals titled “Scenes of the Region” present a unified story of the city’s origins across the walls, seamlessly blending:

The Visual Journey Up the Staircase

The Saunders House murals fill the walls of the grand central staircase on both the first and second floors. The unfolding visual journey includes:

The Vestibule: Flanking the Middle Street entrance are two panels, one capturing a traditional horse-drawn “jigger” wagon, while the other showcases the historic bluff-side stairway near Union Hill.
The First Floor Landing: At the foot of the stairs, visitors are greeted by bold, simple silhouettes of historic buildings and rocky shores. Keep an eye out for a classic local detail in the foreground: codfish drying on traditional wooden fish flakes.
The Ascent: Going up the stairway, the view opens up to majestic fishing boats with sails fully spread against the deep blue harbor and a distant shoreline.
The Summit: The horizon line is set high near the second-story ceiling and the diminishing sizes of the boats create an immersive sense of distance. This means that at the top of the stairs and over the balustrade, the horizon matches exact eye level. From this vantage point, the feeling of the size of the harbor comes alive, revealing the distant shore, the city layout, Rocky Neck, and Ten Pound Island. To the left, a sunny beach scene highlights the recreational feature of the place.
Dogtown Common: On the east wall of the second floor is a simplified representation of the remains of this almost mythical early settlement. Look closely to spot a crumbling cellar remnant, a distant silhouette of the famous “Whale’s Jaw” rock formation, a few scattered cattle, and resilient dwarf cedars.
East Wall Long Panel: The best view of the long panel on the first floor east wall is from descending the staircase. This expansive scene balances industry and agriculture. On the right, classic moored boats sit beside a wharf building where a small schooner is being built under the shade of massive trees. To the left, the scene shifts to rural life, showing an old farmhouse and a local farmer plowing his fields with a team of oxen.
Staircase Wall (“Done Fudgin”): On the first floor, a panel is inserted into the base of the staircase opposite the long panel. This artwork captures the historic harvesting of marsh hay. Workers loaded the hay onto flat-bottomed boats called gundalows and poled them up the Squam River. Poling was locally called “fudgin.” When the incoming tide finally took over the heavy lifting, the relieved workers were officially “done fudging”—a phrase that gave the historic local spot its enduring name.

Mural Restoration

In 2021, the Saunders House murals underwent a comprehensive, museum-quality restoration conducted by local master conservator Lisa Mehlin of Essex. The first phase of the project consolidated the original, fragile mural pigments, re-securing them directly to the underlying plaster walls to stop any ongoing degradation. In the second visual restoration phase, Mehlin expertly used specialized paints to seamlessly fill in gaps where the paint had flaked away.

Mehlin holds a Master of Art Conservation, and has seventeen years of experience in the conservation of oil paintings for government agencies, private institutions, and individual clients in the U.S. and Canada. She most recently completed work on the murals in The Stevens-Coolidge House & Gardens for the Trustees of the Reservations in North Andover.

The Saunders House Murals restoration project was generously funded through the Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Corporation’s trust funds.

ANDERSON ROOM MURALS


Located on the second floor of the Saunders House, the Anderson Room murals portray various maritime and fishing scenes, including many of Gloucester’s schooners fishing off northern Canada and Greenland surrounded by icebergs. The Anderson Room murals were completed in 1980 by Gloucester artist and educator Howard Curtis (1906-1989) who apprenticed with renowned artist Frederick L. Stoddard (1861-1940).

In 2022, the Anderson Room murals underwent a comprehensive, museum-quality restoration conducted by local master conservator Lisa Mehlin of Essex. The Anderson Murals restoration project was generously funded by the Citizens of Gloucester through a Community Preservation Act grant and the Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Corporation’s trust funds.

RESTORATION AND RENOVATION

The Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library is committed to enhancing the character of the City by preserving this significant historic and cultural community asset in Gloucester’s Historic District. The plans to restore and renovate the Saunders House preserve the significant architectural features for historic study and update the rooms for contemporary community use. The plans are being addressed in a phased approach as funding becomes available. The following projects have been completed and/or are underway:

Over $1M has been invested in Saunders House projects over the last five years with a significant portion funded from grants. These projects were made possible by Community Preservation Committee Grants, City of Gloucester’s Community Development Block Grants, and the Mass Cultural Council Cultural Facilities Fund Grant. We are also extremely grateful for designated contributions from generous private donors through the Library Corporation.

In the next phase of renovation, accessibility will be addressed with the addition of ADA-compliant restrooms and a lift between the first and second floors.

Currently, the Saunders House is only open for scheduled tours and festivals, such as the Middle Street Walk. We look forward to opening the Saunders House to the public in the near future and hope residents and visitors will be thrilled to see its grandeur on full display.