About Salem Maritime National Historical Park
On March 17, 1938, the Salem waterfront became the first place in the country to be designated a National Historic Site. The site covers about nine acres along Derby Street and includes twelve historic structures, with a downtown visitor center a short walk away. The National Park Service describes its subject as more than 600 years of New England maritime history and the global stories that flowed through the port, from the colonial coastal trade to the decades after the Revolution when Salem ships carried the town's commerce around the world. On July 16, 2025, under Public Law 119-25, Congress redesignated it Salem Maritime National Historical Park.
The buildings along the wharves map that story. Derby Wharf, built in 1762 and extended in 1806, reaches into the harbor and ends at the Derby Wharf Light of 1871. Facing it is the Custom House of 1819, where federal officers collected import duties; Nathaniel Hawthorne, who worked there, wrote about the eagle on top of the building in The Scarlet Letter (1850). Nearby stand the Derby House, built in 1762 by Captain Richard Derby, and the Hawkes House, begun in 1780 and completed around 1800. The oldest structure is the Narbonne House of 1675. Tied up at the wharf is Friendship of Salem, a full-size replica of a 1797 East Indiaman built in 1997.
Salem Maritime has a sibling park, Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site, and it runs a program of free events on the American Revolution in Salem and Essex County.
Collections and Research Services
The park holds a museum collection of furnishings, maritime objects and documents connected to its buildings, and its website presents that material under People, Places, Stories and Collections headings. It is not a public archive, and researchers tracing Salem families or ships should expect to use the park's online material and then move to the city's and state's manuscript libraries. For a Salem house, the park's own buildings show how much can be learned about a structure's dates and owners; our guide to finding out when a house was built covers the same methods, and free family history research lists the Massachusetts vital and probate records to search next.
Planning Your Visit
Everything here is free; the Park Service states that "all buildings and programs are free," and Derby Wharf and the grounds are open around the clock. Building hours are seasonal. According to the park's basic information page, the Salem Armory Regional Visitor Center and the Waite and Peirce park store are open daily from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm between May 10 and November 14; the Derby House is open Wednesday through Sunday from 9:30 am to noon from May 10 to September 20; and the Narbonne House is open Wednesday through Sunday from 1:30 to 4:30 pm until September 20 and from 1 to 4 pm until November 14. The Custom House, Public Stores and Scale House are also open to visitors. Check nps.gov/sama or call (978) 740-1650 for winter hours and ship access. Two other Essex County and Merrimack Valley sites on this directory are worth the drive: the Historical Society of Old Newbury in Newburyport and Lowell National Historical Park.
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