Just visited the North Shore of Boston. Many of the houses in Salem and Beverly have pineapple icons over their doors or integrated into the architecture in some fashion.
What is the significance of the pineapple? Were they simply luxury items so they served as a status symbol?
It's iconography from the era of the whaling industry. According to the Nantucket Chamber of commerce,
The symbol of the pineapple, which is used in the hospitality industry, flourished on Nantucket. Sea Captains coming home after long voyages to the Pacific brought this tropical fruit and proudly displayed it in front of their homes to announce their return. The pineapple signified the house was open to guests to welcome the captain home.
I believe it has become vestigial since.
Interestingly, the pineapple is also seen as a motif in a great deal of 18th-century domestic items, both common and luxury. Certainly the modern "Colonial Williamsburg" has lots of them on dishes, mugs, blankets, etc. The explanation I recall hearing is that the pineapple at that time represented an exotic fruit and was therefore symbolic of wealth and worldliness, and therefore hospitality. Or so I was told by my tour guide.
Interestingly, candied preserved pineapple was a popular "sweetmeat" in the 18th and 19th centuries, and was somewhat easier to get in the Americas, since they were mostly grown in the Caribbean islands.