Gedney and Cox Houses

Salem ( SAY-ləm) 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. Today Salem is a residential and tourist area that is home to the House of Seven Gables, Salem State University, Pioneer Village, the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, Salem Willows Park, and the Peabody Essex Museum. It features historic residential neighborhoods in the Federal Street District and the Charter Street Historic District. The city's population was 44,480 at the 2020 census.Salem is widely noted for the infamous Salem witch trials of 1692. Some of Salem's police cars are adorned with witch logos, a public elementary school is known as Witchcraft Heights, and the Salem High School athletic teams are named the Witches. Gallows Hill Park was originally believed to be the site of the executions during the Witch Trials, but in 2016 a site nearby called Proctor's Ledge was identified as the true site of the executions. Gallows Hill Park now serves as a town park, with baseball fields, tennis courts, and other amenities.

Hamilton Hall is a National Historic Landmark at 9 Chestnut Street in Salem, Massachusetts. Designed by noted Salem builder Samuel McIntire and built in 1805–1807, it is an excellent instance of a public Federal style building. It was built as a social space for the leading families of Salem, and was named for Founding Father and Federalist Party leader Alexander Hamilton. It continues to function as a social hall today: it is used for events, private functions, weddings and is also home to a series of lectures that originated in 1944 by the Ladies Committee.Hamilton Hall is a three-story brick structure at the corner of Chestnut and Cambridge Streets, with its gable end front facing Cambridge Street. The brick is laid in a Flemish bond pattern. The entrance facade is five bays wide, with a center entry consisting of double doors sheltered by a Greek Revival porch added c. 1845. This rectangular portico has a flat roof, supported at each corner by two Doric columns. The first floor of the long side (facing Chestnut Street) consists of six bays, of which five are windows and one is a door. The upper level (equal in height to the upper two levels on the front facade) consists of five large Palladian windows set in a slightly recessed arch. Above each of these is a panel with decorations carved by McIntire. The outer four have a swag design, while the central one features an eagle and shield.Construction of the hall was funded by a group of Salem's Federalist merchant families, and cost $22,000. Originally, retail spaces at the entrance on the ground floor housed vendors who sold goods for use in the events held in the upstairs function space. The second level ballroom features an unusual curved balcony and a sprung floor suitable for dancing.The building was declared a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. It is a contributing property to the Chestnut Street District, and part of the local McIntire Historic District, in which a high concentration of McIntire's works are found.

The Pickering House (circa 1664) is a First Period Colonial house at 18 Broad Street, in Salem, Massachusetts' McIntire Historic District. The house was owned and occupied by ten successive generations of the Pickering family including Colonel Timothy Pickering. This house is believed to have been the oldest house in the United States continuously occupied by one family. However, in 1998, the Goodhue family moved into the house, with Albert Goodhue as the primary caretaker. It is located at 18 Broad Street, Salem, Massachusetts and is open to the public under the auspices of the nonprofit Pickering Foundation. Across the street is the Broad Street Cemetery, one of the three oldest in Salem.

The John P. Peabody House is a historic house at 15 Summer Street in Salem, Massachusetts. Built in 1868 by Salem merchant John P. Peabody, it is a rare early example of Colonial Revival architecture. The two story wood-frame house is three bays wide, with a slate gambrel roof. The centered front door is sheltered by a portico supported by Doric columns. The second story center window reinforces focus, being enlarged slightly by sidelights as compared to the other windows on the facade. The roof is pierced by three dormers, the outer ones with pointed gables and the central one with a rounded pediment reminiscent of the then-fashionable Second Empire style.The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. It is now owned by the Salem Inn, which also owns the nearby West Cogswell House.

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.Crombie Street was laid out in 1805 by Benjamin Crombie, who owned a tavern on nearby Essex Street. He sold off all of that property by 1819, at which time only two of the surviving houses (#9 and #15 Crombie) had been built. The house at #9 was built by Crombie c. 1809, and was occupied and eventually purchased by Joel Bowker, a leading Salem merchant and developer (one of Bowker's properties survives on Essex Street near the Peabody Essex Museum). The house is an elegant brick Federalist that was altered in the 1860s with the addition of Italianate styling. The house at #15 is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame building that has retained its Federal styling.The William Pike house, at 18 Crombie Street, is a c. 1770 house that was moved to Crombie Street in 1830. It is a 2+1⁄2-story Georgian house with a gambrel roof. William Pike was an abolitionist and an associate of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who played an important role in the Underground Railroad.

The Joshua Ward House is a historic house in Salem, Massachusetts. The three-story Federal style brick house, built in 1784, is one of the first brick houses in Salem. Its interior woodwork was done by noted Salem builder and woodworker Samuel McIntire, including an original staircase that is the oldest surviving staircase created by him. George Washington is reported to have specifically requested staying in this house when he visited Salem in 1789.The building has an austere brick exterior laid in Flemish bond. Its four chimneys were damaged by storms in its early years, and again in the 1938 New England Hurricane. The house was used in the 19th century as a tavern. It was built on the same site as the former home of Sheriff George Corwin, famously associated with the Salem witch trials.The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and included in the Downtown Salem District in 1983.In 2015 it was turned into a hotel.

The West Cogswell House is a historic house at 5-9 Summer Street in Salem, Massachusetts. It is an example of the Greek Revival style of architecture that was common in 19th century Salem. The house is a group of three brick Greek Revival rowhouses that were built in 1834 by Nathaniel West, one of Salem's leading sea captains and merchants. Each building is three window bays wide, with a recessed side entry framed by a wooden portico; the right two unit entries are adjacent, and sheltered by a single portico. The buildings were at one time the home of American Civil War general, and later Mayor of Salem William Cogswell.The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. It is now operated as a hotel called the Salem Inn, which also owns the nearby John P. Peabody House.

The Salem YMCA is a historic YMCA building at 284-296 Essex Street in the Downtown Salem District in Salem, Massachusetts. Its large building is an anchor of the western end of Salem's business district, of which Essex Street is a major component, and is one of the finest Classical Revival buildings in Salem. The Salem YMCA was first organized in 1858, and it commissioned the construction of this building in 1898. The three story brick and limestone building was designed by Walter J. Paine, and has retained most of its exterior styling. The ground floor was designed to house primarily retail establishments, with the YMCA entrance highlighted by an ornate entablature supported by twin columns on either side. Entrances to the retail establishments are also indicated by building bays that project out less prominently than the main entrance. The ground floor is built in limestone, while the upper floors are predominantly brick. The building originally had a loggia on top of the roof, but that was removed in the 1950s.Faced with declining enrollments through the 1970s, the YMCA sold part of the second and third floors to the Salem Housing Authority, which converted that area to senior housing. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

The Salem Athenaeum, founded in 1810, is one of the oldest membership libraries in the United States. The Athenaeum is located at 337 Essex Street in Salem, Massachusetts in the McIntire Historic District. In 2023, the athenaeum successfully completed a restoration project for the historic building. They are currently raising funds to make the building more accessible to meet modern library standards.

The Shepard Block is a historic rowhouse at 298–304 Essex Street in Salem, Massachusetts. It consists of a row of four brick residences, which were built in 1851 by Michael Shepard as an investment. Each unit is three bays wide and 3.5 stories high; windows on the second and third floors feature granite lintels, while the ground floor of each was modified in the 19th century to accommodate retail storefronts. The roofline of each unit is punctured by two clapboarded gable end dormers, and there are slender rectangular brick chimneys that rise between the units, and on the end facing Summer Street.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

The Jonathan Corwin House, known locally as The Witch House, is a historic house museum at 310 Essex Street in Salem, Massachusetts. It was the home of Judge Jonathan Corwin (1640–1718), and is the only structure still standing in Salem with direct ties to the Salem witch trials of 1692. Corwin bought the house in 1675 when he was 35, and lived there for more than 40 years; the house remained in the Corwin family until the mid-19th century.

The Ropes Mansion (late 1720s), also called Ropes Memorial, is a Georgian Colonial mansion located at 318 Essex Street, located in the McIntire Historic District in Salem, Massachusetts. It is now operated by the Peabody Essex Museum and open to the public. The house was built for Samuel Barnard, a merchant. In 1768, Judge Nathaniel Ropes, Jr., purchased the house from Barnard's nephew. The Ropes family then inhabited the house until 1907, when the house was given to the Trustees of the Ropes Memorial for public benefit. Although altered through the years and then restored, the house looks much like its original form, with a symmetrical facade of two stories, three small pedimented gables through the roof, roof balustrade, and modillioned cornice. (Compare it to the Crowninshield-Bentley House and the Peirce-Nichols House, also in Salem.) In 1807, however, its interior was extensively renovated. In the mid-1830s five rooms and the central hall were remodelled, and today's doorway installed (with details inspired by Asher Benjamin's pattern book). In 1894 the house was moved away from the street and further modified internally. A large, fine garden was added behind the house in 1912. It was featured in the 1993 Disney film Hocus Pocus and the 2021 novel "Salem's Ropes."