William Pulcifer was a dry goods storekeeper who built the combination storefront, office and residence building at 34 North Main Street in 1836. This gable-roof Federal style building is the only brick residence in the Meetinghouse Green historic District, and one of few pre-Civil war brick buildings remaining in Ipswich.
From MACRIS, the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System:
William Pulcifer bought this lot in 1836 (293:140) and erected the brick building soon thereafter. The building was called the “new brick block” in the 1830’s and it was a bee-hive of activity. As waters described the scene (p. 579, vol. II) In the upper floor the Ipswich Register was printed, and Mr. L.E. Cole, a portrait painter, had rooms. On the street floor were several stores. Samuel Hale, under the startling caption, “Not Dead Yet”, announced that he would make a permanent business in Ipswich , and continued to manufacture boots and shoes “at the sign of the Golden Boot in the New Brick.”
William Pulcifer had a store here and sold broad-cloths and satinettes, boots and shoes, and had on hand 5,000 Cape Good Hope sheepskins, “sumac tanned, and a lot of wool suitable for saddlers and upholsterers.”
Sources:
- Philander Anderson, Map of Ipswich, 1832.
- T.F. Waters, Ipswich in the Mass. Bay Colony, vol. I, p. 349, vol. II, p. 579
- MACRIS, the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System
Historic Ipswich 