Salem, Massachusetts

Salem City Hall

Salem City Hall is a Greek Revival landmark completed in the 19th century, with a granite and brick façade that still serves as the center of municipal decision-making. The tall windows, pilasters, and masonry detailing make it a key civic anchor for any downtown streetscape improvements or façade preservation projects.

Historic city hall building with classical columns

Phone: (978) 745-9595

Official Site

Peabody Essex Museum

The Peabody Essex Museum combines historic brick structures with contemporary additions, creating a campus that illustrates how modern design can knit into a traditional urban fabric. Its galleries, courtyards, and glazed atria are a reference point for large-scale envelope renovations and museum-quality climate control retrofits.

Museum courtyard with glass and brick architecture

Phone: (978) 745-9500

Official Site

Salem Maritime National Historic Site

Salem Maritime National Historic Site preserves a collection of 18th- and 19th-century waterfront structures, including warehouses, wharves, and residences. The complex is a living case study in coastal masonry conservation, timber-frame restoration, and the challenges of maintaining historic envelopes in a marine environment.

Historic harbor with wharf and sailing vessel

Phone: (978) 740-1650

Official Site

Salem Custom House

Overlooking Derby Wharf, the Salem Custom House is a brick Federal-era government building with granite trim and a distinctive cupola. Its solid masonry walls, wood windows, and ornamental detailing illustrate period construction methods that are frequently referenced in envelope repair and historically appropriate window replacement projects.

Historic brick customs building with cupola

Phone: (978) 740-1650

Official Site

Salem Armory Regional Visitor Center

Housed in the former Salem Armory, this visitor center reuses a 19th-century military structure as a public information hub. The brick façade, large arched openings, and adaptive reuse work make it a model for converting institutional buildings into modern public facilities while respecting historic character.

Historic armory-style building repurposed as visitor center

Phone: (978) 740-1650

Official Site

Old Town Hall

Old Town Hall, set on Derby Square, is an early 19th-century brick municipal building that now houses the Salem Museum on its ground floor. Its symmetrical façades, granite steps, and multi-pane sash windows provide a textbook example of downtown civic restoration, from masonry repointing to slate roofing and stair rehabs.

Historic brick town hall in a public square

Phone: (978) 744-0000

Official Site

Salem Witch Trials Memorial

The Salem Witch Trials Memorial is a contemplative stone landscape where simple granite benches and rough-hewn walls carry the names of those executed in 1692. Its minimalist design shows how site walls, inscriptions, and paving can be used to create powerful civic spaces with low-maintenance materials.

Stone memorial walls and benches in a landscaped setting

Phone: N/A

Memorial Page

Charter Street Cemetery (Old Burying Point)

Established in the 17th century, Charter Street Cemetery is one of the oldest European burial grounds in the country. Its slate and sandstone markers, stone walls, and narrow paths highlight the conservation issues that come with centuries-old carved stone, ground settling, and low-impact visitor circulation.

Historic cemetery with old headstones and trees

Phone: (978) 745-9595

Official City Page

The Witch House (Jonathan Corwin House)

The Witch House is a 17th-century timber-frame home with steep gables and dark clapboards, once owned by witch trials judge Jonathan Corwin. As a museum, it offers a close look at early New England framing, wood joinery, and period interiors—valuable context for restoration carpenters and preservation architects.

Dark timber-frame colonial house with steep gables

Phone: (978) 744-8815

Official Site

The House of the Seven Gables

Built in the 17th century and later made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the House of the Seven Gables showcases complex gabled roofs, wooden cladding, and waterfront siting. The campus demonstrates how historic house museums manage structural stabilization, shingle replacement, and coastal weatherproofing over time.

Seaside colonial mansion with multiple gables

Phone: (978) 744-0991

Official Site

Ropes Mansion and Garden

The Ropes Mansion is an 18th-century Georgian residence with a formal rear garden, now operated by the Peabody Essex Museum. Its white clapboards, paneled entry, and restored interiors exemplify high-style domestic architecture, while the garden walls and paths show how landscape and building restoration can be coordinated.

Elegant historic white mansion with formal garden

Phone: (978) 745-9500

Official Page

Phillips House (Historic New England)

Phillips House on Chestnut Street retains its early 19th-century streetscape, complete with carriage house and period detailing. The wood siding, sash patterns, and interior finishes make it a strong precedent for rehabilitation in tightly regulated historic districts and for sensitive mechanical upgrades in legacy homes.

Historic brick and clapboard house on a tree-lined street

Phone: (978) 744-0440

Official Site

Hamilton Hall

Hamilton Hall is a Federal-style assembly hall designed in the early 1800s, featuring brick walls, refined woodwork, and a distinctive ballroom. The building is a key example of community-led preservation, including structural upgrades and accessibility retrofits that protect its historic shell.

Elegant brick hall with classical detailing

Phone: (978) 744-0805

Official Site

Salem Public Library

Salem Public Library occupies a historic building with later additions, creating a layered envelope of brick, stone, and glass. Its reading rooms and façades illustrate how public libraries can modernize interiors and building systems while preserving a traditional civic presence on the street.

Historic library interior with bookshelves and arches

Phone: (978) 744-0860

Official Site

Salem Common

Salem Common is a nine-acre historic green bordered by 18th- and 19th-century homes and a wrought-iron fence. As a long-standing public open space, it shows how landscape design, lighting, and perimeter fencing can evolve while maintaining the historic setting of surrounding residential and institutional buildings.

Large historic park with trees and open lawn

Phone: (978) 744-0171

Official City Page

J. Michael Ruane Judicial Center / Essex County Superior Court

The J. Michael Ruane Judicial Center is a modern courthouse complex that shares a block with older court buildings, creating a judicial campus. Its stone and glass exterior, structured plazas, and integration with historic neighbors offer a guide for large-scale public construction in sensitive historic contexts.

Modern courthouse building with stone and glass façade

Phone: (978) 744-5500

Official Court Page

Salem Willows Park

Salem Willows Park is a historic 19th-century seaside park with pavilions, shorefront walks, and an adjacent arcade. Its mature trees, shoreline structures, and small commercial buildings highlight issues of coastal resilience, boardwalk maintenance, and recreation facility upgrades in a legacy public park.

Seaside park with trees, path, and shoreline

Phone: (978) 745-0251

Official City Page

City Hall Annex

The City Hall Annex at 98 Washington Street consolidates many of Salem’s planning, health, and administrative offices in a downtown commercial block. This adaptive use of a multi-story structure demonstrates how older office buildings can be reconfigured to support contemporary municipal services while keeping historic streetwalls intact.

Multi-story municipal office building on a downtown street

Phone: (978) 745-9595

Official City Page

Derby Wharf and the Friendship of Salem

Derby Wharf extends into Salem Harbor with a long brick and stone pier, providing a mooring for the replica tall ship Friendship of Salem. The site demonstrates large-scale waterfront masonry maintenance, wharf stabilization, and integration of interpretive structures in an exposed coastal environment.

Historic wharf with sailing ship at the pier

Phone: (978) 740-1650

NPS Page

Pickering House

Pickering House is a First Period Colonial home dating to the 1600s, long associated with the Pickering family. Its timber framing, steep rooflines, and later Victorian modifications make it a layered case study in how historic residences evolve and how preservation projects address multi-era fabric.

Gabled colonial house with wooden siding and fence

Phone: (978) 744-4777

Official Site

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