Hall from Robert Hooper House, Danvers, Massachusetts
Overall (length of East & West walls): 22 feet 1 1/8 inches
Overall (length of North & South walls): 23 feet 8 3/4 inches
These dimensions include the depth of the window seats
- 212
During the Revolutionary War, Hooper, a British Loyalist, permitted the British commander-in-chief, Lieutenant General Gage, to use the house as his headquarters before the historic Battles of Lexington and Concord in April of 1775. When official business was not being conducted, it was said that the Hall was used to entertain gentry favorable to the royal cause. Despite Hooper's early commercial success, he died bankrupt due to wartime shipping boycotts and his allegiance to Britain. Thus, the Hall is an enduring symbol of pivotal events in the Colonies' quest for independence.
With a generous grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Museum has been able to return the room to its original dimensions and its original light blue paint color. For more information, please see labels inside.
Robert “King” Hooper (1711-1790), The Lindens House, Danvers, MA, about 1754-1774;
With Messrs. Champion & Dickason, London, England, 1774-1790 [1];
With William Burgess, 1790-1793 [2];
Purchased from Burgess by Samuel Sewall, 1793-1789;
Purchased from Sewall by Benajah Collins, The Lindens House, Danvers, MA, 1798-1820;
Collins House Seminary, The Lindens House, Danvers, MA, 1840s;
Francis (b. 1822) and Helen (née Bloodgood, 1834-1911) Peabody, The Lindens House, Danvers, MA, 1860-1911;
By descent to their son Jacob C.R. Peabody (b. 1866), The Lindens House, Danvers, MA, 1911-1914;
Purchased from Peabody by Ward Thoron;
Purchased from Thoron by the dealer Leon David, Boston, MA, by 1933;
Purchased from Leon David through Israel Sack, Inc. by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1933.
NOTES:
[1] [Due to his Loyalist ties and support leading up to the American Revolutionary War, by 1774 Hooper had mortgaged his properties, including the The Lindens House, Danvers, MA, because of bankruptcy. Hooper did not have title to the house; however, he was allowed to remain in possession until his death. See: Curatorial file and Hooper’s inventories.]
[2] [ William Burgess was consigned to sell Hooper’s mortgaged properties for the benefit of Champion and Dickason. See: Curatorial File and Essex County Deeds. V. 152, fols. 17-21.]
Thomas Tileston Waterman, The Dwellings of Colonial America. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1950), 264-65.
Dorothy Pratt and Richard Pratt, The Second Treasury of Early American Homes New York: Hawthorn Books, 1959), 101; 104-105.
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 236.
Carol Ann Shindler, ed., “Fireplaces,” Better Homes and Gardens Guide (Des Moines, IA: Meredith Corporation, 1975), 23.
Robert G. Miner, ed., Colonial architecture in Massachusetts: from material originally published as the White pine series of architectural monographs, edited by Russell F. Whitehead and Frank Chouteau Brown (New York: Arno Press, 1977), 87.
Kathleen Luhrs, “American Museums Grow,” The Magazine Antiques, (June 2009): n.p.“Clipping (xerox) NAMA curatorial files.”
Lynsy Smithson-Stanley, “Eye Level: Hooper Hall,” KC Star Magazine, (June 28, 2009): n.p. “Clipping (xerox) NAMA curatorial files.”
Douglas Brenner, “American Heritage,” Architectural Digest 71, no. 2 (February 2014): 88; 93.
