I recently visited Salem, Massachusetts, on a bright and sunny October day. If you know anything about this charming New England town, you can only fathom that I came right at its bustling and peak season.

Essex Street was mobbed with people, most of whom sported their own individualized styles of tall and pointy hats. While my behind-the-wheel husband coasted down the street at a snail’s pace, weaving in and out of the masses, I had the pleasure of observing what seemed like a very splashy witch runway of sorts.

Although curious about the whole Salem thing, it wasn’t its witchy reputation that brought me to visit the town on that particular fall afternoon.

“Home is where one starts from.”

~T.S. Eliot

A few years back, we visited some friends in Maine and had dinner with their next-door neighbors. Knowing my love for old houses, our friends prompted their neighbor to tell me about his family’s house in Massachusetts.

“It’s the oldest home in America,” he said proudly, and with that, I was immediately captivated.

“Wow! The oldest house in America!” I echoed with excitement, “That’s amazing!”

He stopped me with a lift of his finger. “It’s the oldest home in America,” he corrected. “There’s a difference.”

He proceeded to tell me all about this fascinating place that bore his last name. For the remainder of dinner, I was intrigued by this house, this home, in Salem, Massachusetts, called The Pickering House.

“If you’re ever in Salem, drop by!”

And drop by, I did.

“A house is made of brick and mortar, but home is made by the people who live there.”

~M.K. Soni

I’ve been blessed to have had the pleasure of visiting and writing about many old residences, all of which have their own extraordinary stories to tell. Having existed for sometimes multiple centuries, most of these houses have exchanged hands many times, some being reconstructed and changed altogether, even expanding into multiple housing units. And then there are the desolate dwellings, which have endured extended periods of vacancy and total abandonment in some cases. The houses that are fortunate to be rescued from such demolition destinies ultimately lead to a complete rebuild to save just a portion of their original standings.

But the home that rests on the corner of Pickering Street and Broad in Salem, Massachusetts has been spared all these seemingly inevitable old house fates.

In all its three hundred and sixty-plus years, The Pickering walls have never been silenced, its rooms never emptied, its homestead never discounted. In fact, The Pickering House has had the good fortune of bypassing the loneliness that almost all antiquated houses experience at one time or another: the absence of a family living in them. And while its continuous habitation employment in and of itself is pretty remarkable, the majority of the home’s longstanding inhabitants remained that of one family.

The History

Visiting The Pickering House, you won’t hear the typical Salem stories of ghosts and witches but instead, the history of this astounding house and the single family that called it home for more than three and a half centuries.

A young carpenter from England by the name of John Pickering first built his family home on the property back in 1640, which was later moved to another location. About twenty years later, another house was built by the second John Pickering. This two-room farmhouse would serve as the foundation for what would develop into the almost 4600 square foot dwelling known today as The Pickering House. 

“We’re the oldest house in Salem that is still occupied,” says Executive Director and current resident, Linda Jenkins, “And the oldest home in America with the same family consistently living it in for ten generations.”

Linda and her husband are the current caretakers. They have lived in The Pickering House since 2013, being one of only two resident families to inhabit the house that aren’t of Pickering relation. Before the Jenkins moved in, another previous Pickering Foundation board member had lived in the residence since 1998.

Linda gazes outside at the autumn afternoon through the parlor window as she tells me about moving into this magnificent home.

“The first couple of years we were here, I’m standing behind the door with a giant bowl of candy because I know what life is like on Chestnut Street and Essex Street on Halloween night,” she explained with a chuckle.

“All the kids from all the neighboring towns want to come and trick or treat in Salem. But nobody came. They were all just walking by! After Halloween, I said, ‘You know, it’s the darndest thing, we hardly got any kids!’ And then someone told me, ‘You never do. The house looks too scary!’ ” Linda laughed.

With moonlight casting off its high peaked roofs and pointed gables, The Pickering House might very well appear as one of the most haunting of all the Salem streets, but its Gothic character didn’t come until years later.

As the Pickering family grew, so did the house. Over the centuries, wings were added, ceilings heightened, and gables constructed, as the home welcomed generation after generation of the English carpenter’s descendants, each one tweaking the house to their needs and likings. But it is the sixth John Pickering to which we owe our gratitude for its captivating charm.

Falling in love with the Gothic Revival architecture while abroad, he brought back ideas and incorporated them into the home. The result is the stunning design that makes The Pickering House one of distinct beauty.

“To my understanding, it wasn’t very popular when he first did it,” Linda says of the home’s 19th-century Gothic makeover, explaining that the architecture was viewed back then as more of Catholic design in a still very Puritan population.

Over the years, there have been eighteen significant restorations, with the last structural addition in 1905.

“There is no place like home.”

~L. Frank Baum

But, of course, what makes the Pickering House so special is the Pickerings who once called it home. Among the many generations were carpenters and farmers, scientists and statesmen, deacons and diplomats, leaders and linguists. And the list goes on.

Perhaps the most well-known of all the Pickering inhabitants was Colonel Timothy Pickering of the family’s fifth generation. 

Colonel Timothy was appointed as Quartermaster General in the Revolutionary War, served as Secretary of War, Secretary of State, Postmaster General, was a senator of Massachusetts and was a member of the U. S. House of Representatives, among other notable accomplishments. He held quite the resume, indeed. 

“The most remarkable thing that I can relate is that Colonel Timothy served in Washington’s cabinet,” says Richard Pickering, who lived in the house eight years in his later teens and early twenties. “That puts things into perspective.”

Richard and his wife returned to the house in the early summers of the 1960s.

“My wife and I were caretakers during those summers, and with a new baby, my wife tended to the house tours.” 

For ten generations, The Pickering House was where the Pickering family lived, laughed, and loved together. According to Linda, Pickering family members continue to drop in on the ancestral home.

“I met her just the other day!” Amanda, the home’s docent, points out as we admire the Pickering’s most impressive family tree.

The spacious gardens of The Pickering House also hold history. The 2.5-acre lawn is the largest private yard in Salem and is home to oaks and blooms thriving today from over two hundred years ago.

To the best of The Pickering Foundation’s knowledge, the home has never been bought or sold, only passed down through inheritance in the family.

Today, The Pickering House is graciously presented as an exquisite museum house to be enjoyed and appreciated by all. Weekly home tours are offered and the house and grounds provide the perfect picturesque location for small weddings, receptions, showers, corporate events, or any celebration or gathering of your choosing.

“If you’re ever in Salem, drop by!” 

Come and visit the spectacular Pickering House, a three hundred and sixty-one-year-old legacy that differentiates a house from a home.

For more information on The Pickering House or to schedule a visit,

CLICK HERE