Derby Waterfront District

Salem's Derby Waterfront District is a densely built 25-acre area along Derby Street and the streets leading toward the harbor. Federal-period buildings predominate, mixed with some from the eighteenth, late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and three from the seventeenth. Most are clapboard, with several fine brick examples. Derby Wharf was begun in 1762, and the area flourished from about the Revolution to the 1820s, when Salem's trade declined because the harbor was too shallow for clipper ships. Merchants and gentry lived on the north side of Derby Street, while counting rooms, warehouses, sailmakers' lofts and wharves lay opposite. Notable buildings include the Simon Forrester House, designed by Samuel McIntire in 1791, the brick Benjamin Crowninshield House of 1810, the Custom House of 1819, and the Derby House of 1761. The district also contains the Salem Maritime National Historic Site and the House of Seven Gables complex. It is listed as the center of Salem's maritime activity and a well-preserved reminder of its seaport past.