19th and 20th Century Salem

American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4th, 1804, at the peak of Salem's prosperity. The son of a sea captain, Hawthorne watched the decline of Salem's involvement with lucrative foreign trade and the rise of industry in Salem. While working in the Custom House, which is open to the public, Hawthorne wrote his novel The Scarlet Letter. Rumor has it that Hawthorne discovered the red "A" in the attic of the custom house where he worked. Another Hawthorne novel, The House of the Seven Gables made famous the home of his cousin, Susannah Ingersoll. Today the House of the Seven Gables Settlement site includes the famous mansion and Hawthorne's birthplace and is open to the public.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Salem evolved into an important manufacturing and retail center. Irish and French Canadian immigrants poured into Salem to work on its new leather and shoe factories or at the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company, Italian and Eastern European immigrants began arriving in the early 1900s to take advantage of Salem's prosperity. By 1914, the population of Salem had swelled to 40,000.

In 1914 a fire swept through Salem, destroying more than 400 buildings. The Great Salem Fire left 3,500 families homeless.

Into the Future

A shift in Salem’s redevelopment philosophy to preservation in the 1970s was one of the forces that helped stimulate Salem’s budding tourism industry. Tourism, along with health care and higher education, is one of the foundations of the current Salem economic base. With one of the highest concentrations of historic sites,museums, cultural activities, fine dining and shopping in Massachusetts, Salem is America's Bewitching Seaport with a little history in every step.

Connected to Boston by train and bus and ferry, Salem's 38,000 residents and its one-million visitors are able to easily enjoy the best of both Salem and Boston.