In his time, Old John catered to the Irish and German workingmen—carpenters, tanners, bricklayers, slaughter-house butchers ... to remain completely in the background. At first customers ...

The old house, once neglected and sagging, has moved center stage. Saved from a bulldozer almost 40 years ago in Ipswich, Massachusetts, this 18th-century Georgian-style dwelling has itself found ...