I’m trying to figure out when exactly this house was built, and by whom. The real estate papers said 1803. Previous owners said 1800. I haven’t found anything definitive yet, but two mornings at the Salem Registry of Deeds did shed a little light on it.
The earliest deed I’ve found so far (1837) refers to it as “the store”. It was two rooms on the bottom floor, two rooms on the second floor, with an attic. Maybe being a store explains why it has a small central chimney? Only needed for heat and not for cooking? So maybe people didn’t live in here until later. An addition was made in 1837. One room down, one room up, tacked on to the south side of the house, both with fireplaces. The roof of the addition is slightly shorter and it looks as if the house is a telescope and the addition could slip into the main part of the house. For the addition, we have some real data. In the foundation is this marker 
It reads: S. Adams N. Rowley CGT 1837
So the addition was probably paid for or done by a Samuel Adams (not THE Samuel Adams), born June 17, 1811, son of Benjamin Adams 3rd and Lois Perley, all of New Rowley (now Georgetown). The CGT is interesting. I think it’s someone’s initials and scanning the Rowley births before 1849, there is only one person listed as having those initials — Caleb Greenleaf Tyler. To me it looks like he was taking credit for carving the stone, but maybe he was the actual builder. Here’s what this site has to say about CGT -
Caleb Greenleaf Tyler, son of Jacob and Lavinia (Barker), born in Haverhill, Oct. 18, 1805.
Caleb is probably related to John Greenleaf Whittier, American abolitionist and poet, who was also from Haverhill. And Caleb’s son, Charles E. Tyler, bought this house fifty years after his father carved his initials in that stone. Here’s what we know about Charles E. Tyler.
He purchased this home in 1887, for his retirement it seems.
