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Yin Yu Tang House

Chinese-American cultureHistoric house museums in MassachusettsHouses in Salem, MassachusettsPeabody Essex Museum
Yin Yu Tang House
Yin Yu Tang House

Yin Yu Tang House (蔭餘堂) is a late 18th-century Chinese house from Anhui province that had been removed from its original village and re-erected in Salem, Massachusetts. In North America it is the only example of historic Chinese vernacular architecture. As such it provides an example of the type of dwelling an average family in China would have lived in. The Yin Yu Tang (Hall of Plentiful Shelter) was built in the late eighteenth century during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). A prosperous merchant surnamed Huang built a stately sixteen-bedroom house in China's southeastern Huizhou region, calling his home Yin Yu Tang House. This Chinese merchant commissioned the construction of the house in the province of his birth, Anhui, China. The five-bay, two-story residence was typical of its region, built of timber-frame construction, with a tile roof and exterior masonry walls of sandstone and brick. The house is about 47 feet 6 inches by 52 feet 5+1⁄2 inches not including the kitchens. In addition to sixteen bedrooms there are also two reception areas, a storage room, and a courtyard in the center. There are also large intricately carved wooden panels that cover the inner windows on the first floor.The house survived economic and political upheavals, and was home to eight generations of the Huang family. By the mid-1980s the house stood empty. Local and national authorities, with the endorsement of the original owner's descendants, gave permission for the house (and its contents) to be relocated to the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts. The house opened in June 2003 as a permanent exhibit at the PEM. A children's book titled Piece by Piece was written by Susan Tan and illustrated by Justine Wong. It follows a young girl's adventure through the museum and Yin Yu Tang House as she searches for a lost blanket. It was published by PEM and Six Foot Press in 2019.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Yin Yu Tang House (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Yin Yu Tang House
Charter Street, Salem

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N 42.521194444444 ° E -70.892166666667 °
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Yin Yu Tang

Charter Street
01970 Salem
Massachusetts, United States
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Yin Yu Tang House
Yin Yu Tang House
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Essex Institute Historic District
Essex Institute Historic District

The Essex Institute Historic District is a historic district at 134-132, 128, 126 Essex Street and 13 Washington Square West in Salem, Massachusetts. It consists of a compact group of properties associated with the Essex Institute, founded in 1848 and merged in 1992 into the Peabody Essex Museum. Listed by increasing street number, they are: the Crowninshield-Bentley House, the Gardner-Pingree House (a National Historic Landmark), the John Tucker Daland House, and the Phillips Library (the latter two are physically connected). The John Ward House, which fronts on Brown Street but shares the 132 Essex Street address, is another National Historic Landmark within the district. The Andrew Safford House at 13 Washington Square West, built in 1819, was said to be the most expensive home in New England at the time.The principal buildings of the district are the Daland House and the Phillips Library, the latter of which was the main Essex Institute building. The Daland House was built in 1851, the Library in 1857, and the combination now serve as the library and research facility of the Peabody Essex Museum. The Library is a two-story building, although the second floor is two normal stories high (with suitably large windows), and originally served as exhibition space.The area behind the Phillips Library and south of Brown Street is a garden area that includes two other historical structures: the Vaughan Doll House, a modest late 17th century one-room structure that may have been a Quaker meeting house, and the Lyle-Tapley Shoe Shop. They both stand near the John Ward House, which faces into the garden as well.Just to the east of the Daland House stands the Gardner-Pingree House, an elegant Federal mansion built in 1804 by noted Salem architect Samuel McIntire. To its east, at the corner of Essex and Washington Square West, stands the Bentley-Crowninshield House, a c. 1727 Georgian house that was relocated from a site across Essex Street in 1860. The Andrew-Safford House is behind the Bentley-Crowninshield House, facing Salem Common.The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972; all of the properties in the district were also included in the Salem Common Historic District in 1976. On December 8, 2017, much to the dismay of Salem residents, Dan L. Monroe, PEM's Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Director and CEO, issued a press release announcing that the 42,000 linear feet of historical documents will be permanently relocated to Rowley, MA and Plummer Hall and Daland House, the two historic buildings which had housed the Phillips Library, will be utilized as office and meeting space.