The Federal Street District is a residential and civic

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...

. It is an expansion of an earlier listing of the Essex County Court Buildings on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1976. In addition to the former county court buildings included in the earlier listing, the district expansion in 1983 encompasses the entire block of Federal Street between Washington and North Streets. It includes buildings from 32 to 65 Federal Street, as well as the Tabernacle Church at 50 Washington Street. The original court was built in 1785. The Old Granite Courthouse, also known as the County Commissioner's Building, was built in 1841 in the

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

architectural style. Adjacent to that is the Superior Court, pictured below. Built in 1862, the Superior Court is an

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

structure that was later remodeled into the

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

style of architecture. A large new court has been constructed down the street. Most of the residential properties on this block of Federal Street were built between 1810 and 1900. The notable exception is #47, which is a Georgian gambrel-roofed house built in the second half of the 18th century. Most of the houses are either Italianate or Second Empire in their styling; there is one Colonial Revival house, #62, built 1900. The Tabernacle Church, which abuts Federal Street but faces Washington Street, is a Georgian Revival structure built in 1923. File:Salem Old Granite Courthouse.JPG, Old Granite Courthouse (c. 1841) File:Salem Superior Court.JPG, Superior Court (1889) File:Registry of Deeds and Probate Court.jpg, Registry of Deeds (1909) File:Salem Courts Law Library.jpg, New law library converted from a Baptist church (1806)

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic districts in Essex County, Massachusetts Salem, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Salem, Massachusetts Government buildings completed in 1785 County courthouses in Massachusetts Neoclassical architecture in Massachusetts Greek Revival architecture in Massachusetts Romanesque Revival architecture in Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

See also

References