Joshua Ward House

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.

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.

Downtown Salem District is a historic district roughly bounded by Church, Central, New Derby, and Washington Streets in Salem, Massachusetts. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and represents a major expansion of the Old Town Hall Historic District, which was listed in 1972.When first listed in 1972, the district consisted of a cluster of buildings around Salem's Old Town Hall on Derby Square and Essex, Washington, and Front Streets. The Essex Street pedestrian Mall was closed off to vehicular traffic in 1976 and was made open only to pedestrians and delivery vehicles. The 1983 expansion significantly enlarged the district to encompass a significant portion of Salem's historic downtown. It includes two properties previously listed individually on the National Register: the Joshua Ward House, and City Hall, both on Washington Street.

City Hall is a historic government building located in the Downtown Salem District of Salem, Massachusetts. The Greek Revival building was constructed in 1838, designed by architect Richard Bond (1797–1861). Salem City Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The City Council Chamber Room is located on the 2nd floor of Salem City Hall, serving as the site of bimonthly city council meetings and other regular board and commission meetings.

Count Orlok's Nightmare Gallery is a horror film museum in Salem, Massachusetts. The collection is owned by James Lurgio and includes life-sized sculptures of several horror movie monsters, as well as movie props and life masks of various horror actors and directors.

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 Rufus Choate House is a historic house at 14 Lynde Street in Salem, Massachusetts. It is primarily recognized for its association with lawyer and Federalist Party politician Rufus Choate (1799-1859), who lived here from about 1825 to 1834. It is a three-story Federal style wood-frame house that was built in 1805 by Ebenezer Beckford, a Salem merchant and real estate developer. Beckford, and later his same-named son, owned the property until 1841.The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

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 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 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 Gedney and Cox Houses are historic houses at 21 High Street in Salem, Massachusetts. The earliest part of the Gedney House was built c. 1665, and the houses were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. They are owned by Historic New England, which offers limited tours.

Great House in Cape Ann was a seventeenth century structure built by colonists in present-day Gloucester, Massachusetts. It was later disassembled and moved to Salem, Massachusetts, to be the Governor's house.