George Peabody House Museum

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The George Peabody House Museum is dedicated to the life and deeds of 19th century U.S. entrepreneur and philanthropist, George Peabody. The museum is located at 205 Washington Street in Peabody, Massachusetts (formerly South Danvers), and shares that location with the Peabody Leather Museum.

Located at 205 Washington Street in Peabody, Massachusetts, the George Peabody House Museum is a preservation of American history. Within its walls back in 1795, George Peabody was born in what was then South Danvers.

International merchant and financier, benefactor of numerous philanthropies both in the United States and in England, first American named honorary citizen of London, George Peabody never departed from the principles of frugality and humility on which he was reared.

The George Peabody House Museum celebrates the life and deeds of this amazing man. It is dedicated to preserving the legacy of him and of the history of Peabody's leather industry.

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[edit] Who was George Peabody?

GEORGE PEABODY was born on February 18, 1795 in what was then South Danvers, Massachusetts. Because his family was of modest means, Peabody became an apprentice to a general store owner, Captain Proctor, at age eleven. Through his duties at the store Peabody learned many important business skills, including accounting, customer service and marketing; these abilities learned at the store helped him throughout his business career. At age fifteen- armed with a suit and five dollars from his former employer- Peabody began his career.

Business Career

After spending time working with his brother in Newburyport and volunteering in the War of 1812, Peabody moved to Baltimore, Maryland, to work for the wholesale dry goods firm of Riggs & Peabody. By 1827, Peabody traveled to London, England, buying and selling goods within the international trade circle. Ten years later, he set up residency there.

In London, Peabody's merchant banking firm was the most well known and trusted of the American businesses, partially due to his success in a risky loan of eight million dollars to the State of Maryland. Peabody's firm dealt largely with American businesses buying and selling raw materials that fueled the Industrial Revolution. After he retired in 1864, Peabody's partner reconfigured the firm and named it J. S. Morgan and Company, the predecessor to the famous New York financial institution, JP Morgan Chase.

[edit] Dedication to Philanthropy

Peabody's success in business meant he acquired great amounts of wealth, which he set out to contribute to many worthy causes near the end of his life. The primary recipients of his monetary donations were educational institutions such as the Peabody Institutes in Peabody, Danvers, and Baltimore, the Peabody museums at Harvard, Yale, and Salem, Massachusetts, and the George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee. Not forgetting the city of London- where Peabody spent over thirty years of his life- he created the Peabody Donation Fund (now the Peabody Trust) which would house the working poor of London.

[edit] Life in England

George Peabody was well-loved in England. In gratitude for his gift of the Peabody Donation Fund, Queen Victoria gave him a miniature portrait of herself (now on display at the Peabody Institute, Peabody) and offered to make him a knight. He respectfully declined this honor because he would be forced to renounce his American citizenship in return. Instead of knighthood, Peabody received the freedom of the City of London and ordinary citizens collected enough money to erect a statue of him behind Royal Exchange (London).

[edit] Death in 1869

George Peabody died on November 4, 1869 in London. After being buried in Westminster Abbey for one month, he was removed and brought to Peabody, where he is buried at Harmony Grove Cemetery.

[edit] George Peabody's Philanthropic Giving

George Peabody generously supported many institutions over the course of his life.

Southern Education Fund, 1867.........................................$3,384,000

Peabody Donation Fund, 1862...........................................$2,500,000

Peabody InstituteBaltimore, Maryland, 1857........................$1,400,000

Peabody Institute, Peabody, Massachusetts, 1852.......................$217,000

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology,Harvard, 1866.............$150,000

Peabody Museum of Natural History,Yale, 1866.........................$150,000

Peabody Museum (now Peabody Essex Museum)

Salem, Massachusetts, 1867............................................$140,000

Peabody Institute, Danvers, Massachusetts, 1856.......................$100,000

Memorial Church, Georgetown, Massachusetts, 1866......................$75,000

Washington & Lee University, 1869.....................................$60,000

Peabody Library, Georgetown, Massachusetts, 1866......................$30,000

Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, 1866........................$25,000

Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, 1866...................................$25,000

Massachusetts Historical Society, 1867................................$20,000

Maryland Historical Society, 1866.....................................$20,000

Vatican Charitable Hospital, 1868.....................................$19,300

Peabody Library Association, Georgetown, D.C., 1867...................$15,000

Newburyport Public Library, 1867......................................$15,000

Peabody Library, Thetford, Vermont, 1866..............................$10,000

Kanes Artic Expedition, 1852..........................................$10,000

US Sanitary Commission, 1864..........................................$10,000

Peabody High and Holten High Schools Medal Funds, 1854 & 1867.........$4,600

Note: Values reflect actual donation amount at the time of giving and are not adjusted for inflation.

[edit] History of the House

In 1769, John Southwick, Jr., was the owner of a parcel of land where the museum now sits. He gave the vacant twelve acre lot to his daughter, Hannah, and her husband, Daniel Purinton, a cordwainer. Mortgage records from 1786 indicate there was a chocolate mill on the property, and, by 1794, records mention "other building" but not specifically "mills."

In April of 1795, Daniel Purinton sold the land and buildings to Thomas Peabody. It is possible that the Peabody family had been renting the property for over a year, and that George Peabody was born in the house during the rental period, although this cannot be confirmed.

On May 13, 1811, Thomas Peabody died, leaving his oldest son, David, as executor. There were three mortgages on the land and buildings at the time of Thomas's death. David took out two mortgages on the property in 1812: to Jesse Emerson in January, and to Mary Titcomb of Newburyport later in the year.

On November 22, 1816 George Peabody bought the family homestead from his brother for $109. He paid off the Titcomb mortgage in the summer of 1817, which allowed his mother to remain living in the house.

In 1832, two years after his mother's death, George Peabody sold the property to David Shove for $1,465. After the sale, George Peabody never owned another property in his life; he only rented.

Elijah Upton, a glue manufacturer with a factory complex at the corner of Washington Street and Allen's Lane, owned the land until 1883, when it was sold to Charles B. Farley. By this point the house had been divided into two separate apartments, which Farley rented out to a produce peddler, a carpenter, and a stable hand.

In 1919, the Peabody Historical Society erected a plaque and post honoring the house as the birthplace of George Peabody; the memorial still exists today.

In 1919, Charles Farley sold the house to the American Glue Company, which housed its workers there for many years. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Eastman Gelatin employees called it home.

In 1989, the City bought the house from Eastman and turned it into the George Peabody House Museum.

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