This is my family's home, not merely a property I own for rental purposes. As such, I am careful to rent it to visitors who will appreciate and respect its history and the care I have put into preserving both the house and its furnishings. However, it's a comfortable house meant to be lived in, and it's important to me that guests relax and enjoy it as much as my children and I do.

I've had an eclectic and interesting work life, including being an international banker on Wall Street, head of a wine importing and distributing company (yes, for a time I got paid to drink wine), a business workout and turnaround consultant, and now a real estate broker.

I was raised on the North Shore of Boston, but have traveled extensively around the world. I have degrees from Georgetown University and University of Chicago, and have been a Fellow and faculty member at Harvard University. I have lived in New York, London, Chicago, Washington, and Cambridge before moving to Salem 20 years ago. I was attracted to Salem not just for its outstanding history and culture, but because, if one is so inclined, there is something fun and different to do here every day. There are always music, literary events, museum shows, history talks, political events, and lively restaurants and bars. I also enjoy the opportunity to bike, run, stand-up paddleboard, sail, kayak, practice yoga, and many other active lifestyle activities available in Salem.

One of the reasons I rent out the house is to help pay for the large expense of maintaining a house like this, and also to give people who may not otherwise have the opportunity or inclination to own this kind of property themselves a chance to experience it firsthand.. However, I also do it because I have met some wonderful and fascinating people this way. I look forward to meeting you.

I had been looking at houses to buy for about a year, and found some that were interesting but, none that were exactly right. I knew as soon as I drove up to this house that it was the one. As a high school student, I attended a few balls and parties at Hamilton Hall, the Federalist meeting hall a couple of hundred yards down Chestnut Street. I was fascinated that I was attending parties in the same room in which historical figures like the Marquis de Lafayette had been to parties. I had taken the trolley tour that describes the historic homes of Chestnut Street, and knew that fascinating people had lived on the street in the past - Thomas Saunders, the venture capitalist who provided Salemite Alexander Graham Bell with the funds to start his telephone company; Ernest Fenellosa, the Japanese Imperial Commissioner of Fine Arts, Frank Benson, the Impressionist artist; Stephen Phillips, King Kamehameha of Hawaii's first attorney general, charged with writing an American style constitution for that country. I knew that what was to become my own house had been first lived in by Leverett Saltonstall, the first Mayor of Salem. It made me wonder what famous visitors to Salem may have been entertained right here.

The lovely yard and garden are also an appealing aspect of this home.

I have lived in this home for over twenty years now, and I still notice new details that never caught my eye before. There are the ten fireplaces, some with carved and columned wood mantels and surrounds, some with marble, some with soapstone inserts, one with brass. There are the 54 windows, some with bulls-eye glass, most with the original, slightly wavy period glass, and even one with antique graffiti - JA Tuckerman scratched into it. The Tuckermans lived here in 1860. There's the three story suspended spiral staircase, so amazing a technological feat in 1810 architects have been writing about and studying it ever since.

The ability to reside on a lovely residential street, yet be within walking distance of Salem's vibrant downtown allows one to easily take advantage of Salem's wonderful museums, historic, artistic, and cultural attractions, waterfront, restaurants and shops.

Few people are fortunate enough to have the experience of living in a home like this, which many people liken to a museum more than a traditional house. It's even rare to have the opportunity to stay in one. I enjoy sharing that others. This is your chance to experience it, too.