Salem is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem was one of the most significant seaports trading commodities in early American history. Prior to the dissolution of county governments in Massachusetts in 1999, it served as one of two county seats for Essex County, alongside Lawrence.
The House of the Seven Gables is a 1668 colonial mansion in Salem, Massachusetts, named for its gables. It was made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1851 novel The House of the Seven Gables. The house is now a non-profit museum, with an admission fee charged for tours, as well as an active settlement house with programs for the local immigrant community including ESL and citizenship classes. It was built for Captain John Turner and stayed with the family for three generations.
The Nathaniel Hawthorne Birthplace is the home where American author Nathaniel Hawthorne was born. The structure is located in Salem, Massachusetts, having been relocated to the grounds of the House of the Seven Gables and restored by the non-profit House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association. Admission is free to Salem residents year-round and to the general public during winter months; a fee is charged during summer months.
The Salem Maritime National Historic Site is a National Historic Site consisting of 12 historic structures, one replica tall-ship, and about 9 acres of land along the waterfront of Salem Harbor in Salem, Massachusetts, United States. Salem Maritime is the first National Historic Site established in the United States. It interprets the Triangle Trade during the colonial period, in cotton, rum, sugar and slaves; the actions of privateers during the American Revolution; and global maritime trade with the Far East, after independence. The National Park Service manages both the National Historic Site and a Regional Visitor Center in downtown Salem. The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior.
Leverett Saltonstall, was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts who also served as Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, President of the Massachusetts Senate, the first Mayor of Salem, Massachusetts and a Member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College.
Benjamin Pickman Jr. was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.
The Peabody Museum of Salem (1915–1992), formerly the Peabody Academy of Science (1865–1915), was a museum and antiquarian society based in Salem, Massachusetts. The academy was organized in part as a successor to the East India Marine Society, which had become moribund but held a large collection of maritime materials in a museum collection at the East India Marine Hall, built in 1825 on Essex Street. The Peabody Museum was merged with the Essex Institute to form the Peabody Essex Museum in 1992. The East India Marine Hall, now embedded within the latter's modern structure, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 in recognition of this heritage, which represents the nation's oldest continuously-operating museum collection.
The Gardner–Pingree House is a historic house museum at 128 Essex Street in Salem, Massachusetts. It is judged to be a masterpiece of Federal architecture by the noted Salem builder Samuel McIntire, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972 for its architectural significance. It is owned by the Peabody Essex Museum as part of its architectural collection.
The Chestnut Street District is a historic district bounded roughly by Bridge, Lynn, Beckford, and River Streets in Salem, Massachusetts. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and enlarged slightly in 1978. The district contains a number of architecturally significant works of Samuel McIntire, a builder and woodworker who had a house and workshop at 31 Summer Street, and who designed and built a number of these houses, and others that display the profits made in the Old China Trade by Salem's merchants. The district is a subset of a larger locally designated McIntire Historic District.
The Crombie Street District in Salem, Massachusetts encompasses a small residential enclave in a now urbanized part of central Salem. It consists of seven houses and one church, located at 7-15 and 16-18 Crombie St., and 13 Barton Street. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The Historic Derby Street Neighborhood, also known as the Derby Waterfront District in Salem, Massachusetts encompasses a historically significant portion of the waterfront area of the city. It encompasses properties along Derby Street, which parallels the waterfront, eastward from the Salem Maritime National Historic Site to its junction with Fort Avenue, and includes properties on the side streets between Derby and the waterfront. In addition to the National Historic Site, it includes the House of Seven Gables, a National Historic Landmark District.
The Essex Institute Historic District is a historic district at 134-132, 128, 126 Essex Street and 13 Washington Square West in Salem, Massachusetts. It consists of a compact group of properties associated with the Essex Institute, founded in 1848 and merged in 1992 into the Peabody Essex Museum. Listed by increasing street number, they are: the Crowninshield-Bentley House, the Gardner-Pingree House, the John Tucker Daland House, and the Phillips Library. The John Ward House, which fronts on Brown Street but shares the 132 Essex Street address, is another National Historic Landmark within the district. The Andrew Safford House at 13 Washington Square West, built in 1819, was said to be the most expensive home in New England at the time.
The Nathaniel Felton Houses are a pair of historic houses at 43 and 47 Felton Street in Peabody, Massachusetts. The Peabody Historical Society owns and operates the homes as historic house museums.
The Washington Street Historic District encompasses a fashionable 19th-century residential area near downtown Peabody, Massachusetts. It extends along Washington, Holten, and Sewall Streets, and is where business and civic leaders of the community built their homes. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
Salem Common Historic District is a historic district bounded roughly by Bridge, Derby, and St. Peter's streets, as well as Collins Cove in Salem, Massachusetts, United States.
Dudley Leavitt Pickman (1779–1846) was an American merchant who built one of the great trading firms in Salem, Massachusetts, during the seaport's ascendancy as a trading power in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Pickman was a partner in the firm Devereux, Pickman & Silsbee and a state senator. Among the wealthiest Salem merchants of his day, Pickman used his own clipper ships to trade with the Far East in an array of goods ranging from indigo and coffee to pepper and spices, and was one of the state's earliest financiers, backing everything from cotton and woolen mills to railroads to water-generated power plants. Pickman also helped found what is today's Peabody Essex Museum.
The Pickman House is a first period structure located on Charter Street in Salem, Massachusetts, behind the Peabody Essex Museum. As no published dendrochronology study has been done, the exact build date of this home is disputed. In either case the house is thought to have stood during the Salem witch trials of 1692 and 1693. The house is now part of a group of properties that form the Charter Street Historic District. It has been described by the Massachusetts Historical Commission as a rare surviving example of 17th century architecture. The house was restored by Historic Salem, Inc. in 1969 and purchased by the Peabody Essex Museum in 1983. It’s listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
This is a timeline of the history of the city of Salem, Massachusetts, United States.
Richard Saltonstall Rogers was an early American shipping merchant and was possibly the inspiration for a character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.
