Come with us to explore the Salem Maritime Historic Sites, The Salem Armory, and SO MUCH MORE!!
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00:17Hello and welcome. Today I'm feeling a little crabby.
00:22So, to lift my spirits, we're going to go to the Salem Maritime National Historic Site.
00:28It's a National Park Service here in Salem, Massachusetts.
00:33So come along with us and see what we can see.
00:38Can you tell which witch is which?
00:41Heh heh. Yeah, I'm going to get in trouble for that one.
00:45Well, the one on the left, that is Elizabeth Montgomery from the television show Bewitched.
00:52And the one on the right, well, you know.
00:57Your destination is on the right.
01:00The GPS takes you to your first stop, the 1770 Pedrick Storehouse.
01:06The free on-site parking is a little difficult, but we found a spot.
01:12I'm guessing so.
01:14Today we're going to explore the Salem Maritime National Historic Site.
01:21The day we were here, a lot of places were under repair and restoration.
01:26So they ask us to be patient, but by the time you get here, hopefully they'll be done.
01:33But at least we'll be able to give you kind of an overview of what we saw and what to expect.
01:39And here's my friend Davis again to give you specifics on the places we visited.
01:45The Pedrick Storehouse was built in Marblehead, just across the harbor from Salem, in 1770 by Thomas Pedrick.
01:52In 1904, this building was purchased by the Marblehead Transportation Company after plans for restoration of the building were unsuccessful.
02:00The National Park Service accepted the building in 2003 and began several years of conservation on the original 18th century timbers.
02:08The replica tall ship, Friendship of Salem, is docked at Derby Wharf and was designed to present the appearance an original 1797 Salem-built vessel.
02:18The keel was laid in Scarano Shipyard in Albany, New York in 1996 and uses modern technology and materials to meet today's safety and accessibility requirements.
02:28Friendship of Salem represents New England's influential role in the development of global and domestic maritime trade and in the economic and political development of the United States.
02:38Since those two things weren't open to the public at the moment, Elias got a little bored, so we decided to walk down the wharf to the Derby Light Station.
02:52The Derby Wharf Light Station has aided navigation in Salem Harbor since it was first lit in 1871.
02:58Originally, the light was powered by an oil lamp shining through a Fresnel lens.
03:04Fresnel lenses are designed to focus and intensify light and are rated by orders from first-order lenses that are used in the largest seacoast lights and are almost 9 feet tall to sixth-order lights that are about 17 inches tall.
03:17For many years, Derby Wharf Light had one of only 17 sixth-order Fresnel lenses in the United States.
03:24Today, the 300-candle power light is solar-driven and flashes red every 6 seconds.
03:30One of four lighthouses used to navigate Salem Sound, the Derby Wharf Light Station is the wharf's only original surviving structure.
03:38The lighthouse is located on the end of Derby Wharf.
03:41It is approximately 12 feet square and about 20 feet high from the base to the top of the cupola.
03:47For those of you who are wondering, yes, there are handicapped available bathrooms around the wharf.
03:54Now, unfortunately, today, the custom house is closed for renovation.
04:00But a good thing is, it's closed because they're renovating.
04:04So, by the time you get here, it'll be nice, fresh, and new.
04:09Sometimes open for tours, but unfortunately not the day that we were there, is the 1780 Hawks House.
04:18The building of the structure was commissioned, but never lived in, by Elias Haskett and Elizabeth Derby.
04:25Later, Benjamin Hawks, a shipbuilder, purchased and altered the unfinished house in 1800.
04:34The Narbonne House was built in 1675 for Butcher Thomas Ives.
04:38It is a remarkable example of a middle-class family home of the 17th and 18th centuries.
04:44The tallest section of the building is the original house.
04:47It still has its original pointed, or peaked, roof and its original brick chimney.
04:51When the house was first built, it only had a single room on the first floor, called the hall, a single room on the second floor, an attic, and a shallow root cellar.
05:00Later owners added a kitchen on the back of the house, and a smaller addition on the side that has a parlor on the first floor and a chamber on the second.
05:08The house is named after Sarah Narbonne, whose grandfather purchased the house in 1780.
05:14Sarah was born in the Narbonne House and lived there for her entire life, which stretched nearly the length of the 19th century.
05:20She died in 1895 at the age of 101, and her unmarried daughter Mary continued to live in the house until her death in 1905.
05:29In 1963, the National Park Service purchased the historic building from the family of Mary Narbonne's nephew, Frank Hale.
05:36One of the things that makes this building so special is its history of nearly 300 years of continued occupation, 200 years of which are members of one family.
05:45In keeping with modern preservation practices, the Narbonne House has not been restored to one time period.
05:50Instead, Salem Maritime is preserving it as an architectural study house to show how the structure changed over the nearly 330 years of its existence.
05:59Walking to our next destination, we saw some pretty interesting stuff, as you see here.
06:09The Salem Armory Regional Visitor Center, at the time we visited, was open Monday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed Tuesday.
06:20On Wednesday through Friday, it was open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
06:29And take it away, Davis, for more information.
06:33The Salem Visitor Center, located on New Liberty Street in downtown Salem, was originally the Salem Armory.
06:40It was the headquarters and training facility for the 2nd Corps of Cadets, which traces its history back to the late 18th century.
06:47In 1982, the beautiful 1880s Gothic Revival building was nearly destroyed by fire.
06:53The remaining drill shed was converted into the Salem Armory Visitor Center in 1994.
06:59The area between the drill shed and the corner of New Liberty and Essex Streets was turned into Armory Park, a park honoring the veterans of Essex County.
07:07In the Salem Armory Visitor Center, National Park Service staff and volunteers provide information on historic sites and other places of interest throughout the Essex National Heritage Area.
07:18Visitors can learn more about Essex County from the exhibits.
07:22A free orientation film is played at 10.15 a.m., 12 p.m., and 2 p.m.
07:28The film named Salem Witch Hunt is played at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. to which tickets are required.
07:35Books and gifts are available for purchase in the Salem Maritime National Historic Site Park Store.
07:43The Leitapley Shoe Shop, which was built around 1830, is a 10 foot by 10 foot vernacular outbuilding, also known as a 10 footer.
07:55Very few 10 footers survive today, so we were very lucky to see this one.
08:03Dating back to 1684, the John Ward House is one of the finest surviving 17th century buildings in New England.
08:12Commonly known as First Period or Post-Medieval style, the house is characterized by the extremely steep pitch of the gables, a large central chimney, asymmetrical façade, battened doors, diamond-paned leaded casement windows, and second story overhang.
08:34The first Quaker Meeting House was built during the autumn of 1688 by Quaker Thomas Mall. Much of the building was constructed using old timber repurposed from other buildings.
08:48The current building, erected in 1865 to resemble a Post-Medieval or First Period structure, is a reconstruction of the Quaker Meeting House and may contain some of the original timber framing. It is a very early example of an architectural recreation.
09:11Built in 1762 as a wedding present, the Derby House was the home of Elias Hascot Derby and Elizabeth Derby for the first 20 years of their marriage. They lived here with their seven children and at least two enslaved people of African descent. Hascot, Elizabeth, and their children lived here during most of the Revolutionary War.
09:30As part of the war effort, Hascot converted many of his family's cargo vessels to privateers. The wealth that the Derbys amassed from privateering was the foundation of the Great East India Trade that Hascot and others pioneered after the Revolution. The Derbys sold this house in 1796 to Captain Henry Prince who built the West India Goods Store next to the house in the early 1800s.
09:53The princes lived in the house until 1827. After that time, the house had numerous owners during the remainder of the 19th century. For a while, it was used as a tenement house and multiple families lived in the building. Many of those families were members of the Polish community who came to work in the nearby mills.
10:13In the early 20th century, the Derby House was purchased by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England, who restored the home to its 18th century grandeur. In 1937, they transferred the house to the newly formed Salem Maritime National Historic Site, thus giving us an opportunity to tour its splendor today.
10:34Well, thank you, Davis, for all your help today.
10:37You are very welcome.
10:39It was a very long, but very educational and very enjoyable day for all of us. If you're ever in Salem, Massachusetts, don't forget to do, of course, the touristy stuff, but also the Salem Maritime National Historic Site and the Armory and, of course, the other stuff you saw in this video. I think you will be glad you did.
11:02We look forward to seeing you back here for other future adventures in Massachusetts and other areas unknown. And, as always, have a great day.