I grew up in Danvers, lived in Salem for more than 30 years, and my grandmother, Lillienne I. Field, opened Field Real Estate here in 1944. So when people ask me what makes Salem different from other North Shore communities, my honest answer is the history. It isn't something tucked away in a museum. It's in the brick sidewalks, the Federal-style mansions on Chestnut Street, the wharves along Derby Street, and the 17th-century First Period homes you can still buy and live in.

This year, 2026, Salem marks 400 years since its founding, and the city is celebrating with its yearlong Salem 400+ commemoration. It felt like the right moment to walk through the highlights of Salem, Massachusetts history, drawn largely from the City of Salem's own historical record, and to talk about what that history means if you're thinking about buying or selling a historic home here.

Naumkeag to Salem: The Founding of a "City of Peace"

Long before English colonists arrived, the area was known as Naumkeag, a traditional Native American fishing site. In 1626, Roger Conant and a small group of settlers moved here from a struggling fishing settlement on Cape Ann. That makes Salem the second-oldest settlement in New England, founded four years before Boston.

A larger group of colonists arrived in 1628 under Captain John Endicott. Most were Puritans, and they renamed the settlement Salem, a name tied to Jerusalem and the Hebrew word for peace. That's why you'll still hear Salem called the "City of Peace," and why the city seal carries a dove holding an olive branch.

When Salem Was Most of the North Shore

Today Salem covers roughly eight square miles. In early colonial times, though, it took in a large share of what we now call the North Shore. Over the next century, piece after piece was set off as its own town. If you live in any of these communities, your roots trace back to Salem:

As a North Beverly resident, I get a kick out of the fact that my own town started as a neighborhood of Salem. It's a good reminder of how connected these communities have always been, and it's one reason I work across the whole region, from homes for sale in Salem, Beverly, Danvers, and beyond to the smaller towns further up the coast.

1692: The Salem Witch Trials

No history of Salem is complete without 1692, and it deserves to be told carefully. By the 1670s, tensions were building between rural Salem Village (now Danvers) and the wealthier, more commercial Salem Town. Salem Village formed its own church and brought in a controversial minister. At the same time, the colony had lost its charter, local government was unsettled, and people were dealing with frontier conflict, a smallpox outbreak, and harsh weather. Fear was everywhere.

In January 1692, several young girls in Salem Village said they were being afflicted by unseen forces. On February 29, the first arrest warrants were issued for Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborn. Interrogations began the next day. In May, Governor William Phips created a special Court of Oyer and Terminer, and the first trial, of Bridget Bishop, was held on June 2. She was hanged on June 10.

Over the summer and early fall, the executions continued: five people on July 19, including Rebecca Nurse; five more on August 19, including John Proctor and George Jacobs Sr.; and eight on September 22. On September 19, Giles Cory was pressed to death under stones. Several others, including Sarah Osborn, died in jail. In total, 19 people were hanged, Giles Cory died under torture, and at least five more died while imprisoned.

Governor Phips dissolved the special court on October 29, 1692, and the remaining prisoners were released by May 1693. In 1711, the colony reversed the convictions of many of those who had petitioned the court. The work of clearing names went on for centuries. Elizabeth Johnson Jr., the last person convicted, was officially exonerated in 2022.

In 2016, researchers confirmed Proctor's Ledge as the site of the 1692 hangings, and the city dedicated a memorial there in 2017. Today, Salem's approach to this chapter is one of remembrance: the memorials honor the people who were accused, and the story is told as a warning about fear, rumor, and the loss of due process.

Leslie's Retreat: Salem's Revolutionary Moment

Most people know about Lexington and Concord. Fewer know that Salem had its own standoff with British troops almost two months earlier. On February 26, 1775, Colonel Alexander Leslie marched British soldiers to Salem to seize cannon and military supplies hidden in North Salem. Local patriots raised the drawbridge at the North Bridge, blocking the troops. After a tense negotiation, Leslie's men were allowed to cross a short distance, found nothing, and turned back without a shot fired. Many historians regard this as the first armed resistance to British authority in the colonies.

"To the Farthest Port of the Rich East": Salem's Golden Age of Trade

After the Revolution, Salem's ships went where few American vessels had gone. They pioneered trade with India and opened commerce with China, Africa, Russia, Japan, and Australia. For a time in the early 1800s, Salem was among the wealthiest ports in the country, and its merchants built the grand homes that still line its historic streets.

The pepper trade is a great example. In the late 1790s, Captain Jonathan Carnes brought the schooner Rajah home from Sumatra with a cargo of pepper, and Salem went on to dominate that trade for decades. According to the City of Salem, the last bulk pepper cargo from Sumatra arrived on the brig Lucilla on November 6, 1846, and whole peppercorns were still being called "Salem pepper" in Australia a century later.

That motto says a lot about how Salem saw itself. The seal, adopted by ordinance in March 1839, shows a ship under full sail approaching an East Indies shore, with the dove and olive branch above. It's the same seal the city uses on official documents today. However, there is currently controversy around the seal. It was argued that the design is an outdated racial stereotype. They stated it reduces a diverse region to an inaccurate and oversimplified caricature. The Salem City Council recently voted 8-2 to replace the city's 1839 official seal following a multi-year debate over its depiction of a 19th-century Sumatran merchant.  The city is working on designing a new, more inclusive official logo.

You can still walk this history. Salem Maritime was the first National Historic Site in the United States, established in 1938, and it has since been redesignated Salem Maritime National Historical Park. Just up the street, the Peabody Essex Museum traces its roots to the East India Marine Society, founded by Salem captains in 1799 to display the objects they brought home from their voyages.

1836: Salem Becomes a City

Residents talked about changing from a town to a city government as early as 1805, but nothing happened for three decades. In January 1836, a town meeting was called, a committee with three members from each ward recommended the change, and the selectmen petitioned the General Court. Governor Edward Everett approved the act establishing the City of Salem on March 23, 1836, and on April 4 citizens voted overwhelmingly to accept the charter at what we now call Old Town Hall. Salem became the second incorporated city in Massachusetts, after Boston.

The original government had a mayor and a two-chamber council. It changed to a commission form in 1913, then in 1916 to the "Plan B" mayor-and-council structure the city still uses.

A City Hall Built Without Raising Taxes

Salem's City Hall on Washington Street has one of my favorite backstories. In 1837, under President Andrew Jackson, the U.S. Treasury had a surplus of nearly $40 million and distributed it to the states, which passed it on to cities and towns. Salem's share was nearly $34,000. The new City Hall and its furnishings cost about $22,878, so the building was paid for without taxing residents.

The cornerstone was laid on September 6, 1837, and the City Council first met there on May 31, 1838. Architect Richard Bond gave it a dressed granite facade, giant pilasters, carved laurel wreaths, and mahogany front doors. The gilded eagle on top is a copy of an original carved by Samuel McIntire, Salem's celebrated architect and woodcarver. Upstairs, the Mayor's office and City Council Chamber remain essentially unaltered since 1838, and the Council still uses the original furnishings. The building also holds city records going back to 1634 and a 1686 deed from the heirs of Nanepashemet confirming the town's title to its land.

Architecture, Hawthorne, and the Great Fire

Salem's wealth from the sea shows up most clearly in its houses. The House of the Seven Gables, built in 1668 for Captain John Turner, became famous through Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1851 novel. Hawthorne was born in Salem in 1804 and worked as surveyor at the Custom House in the late 1840s, an experience he wrote about in the introduction to The Scarlet Letter.

Samuel McIntire's influence runs all through the McIntire district, especially Chestnut Street, where merchant families built large Federal-style homes in the early 1800s. Those streets survived largely intact, but other parts of the city did not. On June 25, 1914, the Great Salem Fire destroyed about 1,376 buildings and left thousands of people without homes or jobs. Much of the city was rebuilt in the years that followed, which is why you'll find early 20th-century homes and triple-deckers not far from 18th-century captains' houses.

Why Salem's History Still Matters for Buyers and Sellers

In my 25+ years selling homes on the North Shore, I've seen how much Salem's history shapes its real estate. Buyers relocating from California or the Midwest are often surprised to find they can live in a house older than the country itself, a short walk from a commuter rail station with direct service to Boston's North Station. Local buyers value the walkable downtown, the harbor, and the sense that every street has a story.

For sellers, that history is a real asset, but only if it's presented well. A home's provenance, original architectural details, and any historic-district documentation belong front and center in the marketing. Buyers of historic homes tend to do their research, and they respond to sellers who've done theirs. If you own an older Salem home and are curious what it might be worth today, a free home valuation is a good first step, and our seller net proceeds calculator can help you plan.

First-time buyers shouldn't feel that Salem's historic neighborhoods are out of reach, either. Condos in converted historic buildings are a common entry point. Our interactive first-time homebuyer guide walks you through the process from budgeting to closing.

Frequently Asked Questions About Salem, MA History

Jim Armstrong, REALTOR®, SRES®, ABR®, GREEN

Jim leads the Armstrong Field Group at Aluxety Real Estate and has been licensed in Massachusetts since 2000. He's a Massachusetts Certified Real Estate Instructor who grew up in Danvers, lived in Salem for more than 30 years, and now lives in North Beverly. His family's real estate roots go back to 1944, when his grandmother, Lillienne I. Field, founded Field Real Estate in Salem. Jim specializes in historic, waterfront, and luxury properties, estate sales, and senior transitions across Essex County.

Historical information adapted in part from the City of Salem, Massachusetts. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, used under the licenses noted.