Federal Street District

This block of Federal Street in downtown Salem, between Washington and North Streets, forms a compact district of about 1.83 acres. Large institutional buildings line the north side: the granite Greek Revival Old Essex County Courthouse of 1841, the brick Superior Courthouse of 1862 remodelled in 1889 in the Romanesque Revival style, and the Classical Revival Registry of Deeds of 1909. The First Baptist Church of 1805, one of only fifty brick structures in Salem in 1806, received Italianate detail in 1850. Facing them is a row of houses ranging from a Georgian gambrel-roofed house of about 1760-1790 to Greek Revival, Italianate and Mansard examples, plus a Colonial Revival house of about 1900. The contrast in scale between public buildings and houses defines the character of the block. The Tabernacle Church of 1923 replaced earlier meetinghouses on a Congregational site dating to 1777. The district enlarges an earlier listing of the three county buildings and protects their surroundings.