The Jacob E. Spring Mansion, also known as Porphyry Hall, is a high-style estate house located in Danvers, Massachusetts, that is one of the finest and most unique in the state! The house was built in 1880 forJacob Evans Spring (1825-1905), who was born in Brownfield, Maine, and at the age of twenty, he went to Argentina and amassed a fortune in the wool business in Buenos Aires between 1845 and 1865, when he returned to the United States. Jacob and his wife,Sara Duffy, would purchase a large farm in Danvers and began planning for their family country home.Their residence was built on a high hillover two years and constructed of over 40 types of stones of irregular size and color with door and window sills of Nova Scotia freestone with arches of the doors and windows and corners of brick. The mansion was designed by architectGeorge M. Hardingof Boston, and built by several skilled masons over many months. Mr. Spring named his estate, Porphyry Hall with Porphyry meaning an igneous rock with large crystals in a fine-grained matrix; suitable for the walls of their mansion. The Springs lived lavishly at this home and spent nearly all of their fortune, selling the property after just ten years to theXaverian Brothers, who opened it asSaint Johns Normal College. In 1907, the compound was re-organized as a Catholic boys prep school. In 1915,a chapelwas added to the rear of the building, constructed from gray fieldstone to blend with the main house. Have you ever seen a building like this?