{"nrhp_refnum":"78000481","name":"Ward, Joshua, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"148 Washington St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Salem","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.52025320400003,"lon":-70.89605578599998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-02-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story brick Federal-style mansion at 148 Washington Street, Salem, Massachusetts, built between 1784 and 1787 for merchant Joshua Ward. It later gained commercial additions and served as a boarding house and hotel.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the only remaining harborfront mansion from the height of Salem's importance as a seaport. Its interior is attributed to Samuel McIntire and includes Salem's earliest surviving McIntire box stairway. George Washington also stayed in the house during his visit to Salem on October 29, 1789.","narrative":"Joshua Ward, a Salem merchant, shipowner and patriot, built this square, three-story brick mansion at 148 Washington Street between 1784 and 1787, after buying the lot in 1781 and removing an earlier house. The Federal-style building has Flemish bond brickwork, molded brick trim, a broken hip roof and twelve fireplaces. Its interior finish is believed to be the work of Samuel McIntire, and the stair is Salem's oldest surviving McIntire box stairway. The house once looked over Salem Harbor, but filled land and new streets changed its setting. It remained a dwelling into the mid-19th century, then gained a storehouse in 1855 and was used as a boarding house and hotel from 1891 to 1937. A storefront was added in 1921. George Washington stayed in the northeast chamber on October 29, 1789. Although altered, the house was listed as the only surviving harborfront mansion from Salem's seaport peak.","period_of_significance":"1784-1787","architect_builder":"Samuel McIntire (believed to have designed the interior finish)","architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":[],"status_note":"At the time of nomination the storefront was vacant, part of the Ward House was rented, and the entire property was for sale.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:55.060942-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/70/7949/63794970/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/78000481.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000481/bc4f0e50f2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000481/bc4f0e50f2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Swampyank at en.wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joshua_Ward_House_in_Salem_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Swampyank at en.wikipedia</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joshua_Ward_House_in_Salem_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794970","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Ward_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6290305"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/ward-joshua-house-78000481/"}