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Survey of
Historic Sites and Buildings

	SALEM MARITIME NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE Massachusetts	Salem Maritime NHS
Location: Derby Street, Salem; address, Custom House, Derby Street, Salem, Mass. 01970. Salem Maritime National Historic Site

This National Historic Site preserves a group of structures surviving from the period of the town's maritime greatness. Salem and other New England shipping interests played a significant role in the colonial and early republican economy. Sailing vessels based on Salem plied the sealanes of the world, beginning early in the 17th century, building the commerce upon which Yankee prosperity came to rest. Salem and other New England ports engaged in the important "triangular trade" with Africa and the West Indies. During the Revolution, Salem provided a base for privateers that ravaged British shipping, and for nearly three-quarters of a century afterward, through the era of the great clipper ships, Salem continued to function as one of New England's most important ports. The increasingly large sailing vessels of the mid-19th century, however, could not use the shallow, landlocked harbor, and the town gradually surrendered its prominence to other ports.

The Derby House, shown here, is the oldest surviving structure of the formerly important port of Salem. The house is a unit of Salem Maritime National Historic Site. (National Park Service)

Derby Wharf, extending nearly 2,000 feet into Salem Harbor, was built in 1762 and restored in 1938. Opposite the wharf is the Custom House, built in 1819, where Nathaniel Hawthorne worked on "The Scarlet Letter." The Derby House (1761-62), home of a prominent shipping family of the 18th century, is the oldest surviving house in Salem. Other structures help to illustrate the significance of maritime activities to the development of early America.