Salem’s Derby Street hides a fort, a tall ship, and seals most tourists never find

There’s more than a mansion on Derby Street

Most people who visit Salem walk through the House of the Seven Gables, take a photo on the waterfront, and head back to their car.

That’s a shame, because the corridor stretching out from that doorstep at 115 Derby Street is one of the most layered waterfronts in New England.

A half-mile public wharf, a tall ship back from the shipyard, a fort built in 1643, harbor seals, century-old popcorn, and a city marking its 400th birthday are all within a short walk. Keep going past the Gables and the real trip starts.

Salem’s ships once sailed to China and Sumatra

English settlers established Salem in 1626, making it one of the oldest European settlements in the country.

By the late 1700s, merchant ships were sailing out of this harbor to China, India, Sumatra, and Russia, and the wealth they brought back built much of what you see today.

The original Friendship, a 171-foot merchant vessel launched here in 1797, made 15 voyages to the Far East, South America, and Europe before the British captured her in 1812.

The grand homes, the institutions, the waterfront itself — Salem’s trading era paid for all of it.

Walk half a mile straight into the harbor

Derby Wharf stretches about half a mile from Derby Street out into Salem Harbor, and the whole thing is free and open to the public.

The path is flat gravel with interpretive panels along the way explaining Salem’s old trade routes. At the end, the Derby Wharf Light Station marks where the wharf runs out of land.

The lighthouse first went into service in 1871 to guide merchant ships safely in, and it’s the only original structure on the wharf that survived.

Sit out there with open water on three sides and the Gables campus at your back.

The first National Historic Site in the country is right here

Salem Maritime became the first National Historic Site in the United States on March 17, 1938. In 2025, it was redesignated as a National Historical Park.

The nine-acre site just steps from Derby Wharf holds 12 historic structures, including the 1762 Derby House, the West India Goods Store, and the U.S. Custom House, where Nathaniel Hawthorne worked as a surveyor and found the material that shaped his writing.

Everything in the park is free, including ranger-led programs and access to the wharf and lighthouse. There’s no reason to walk past it.

A tall ship is docked and waiting for you

The Friendship of Salem is a full-size replica of that original 1797 East Indiaman merchant vessel, built by the National Park Service in the late 1990s.

She sits at Derby Wharf and reopened for free public visitation on July 30, 2025, after coming back from a multi-year repair project at a Gloucester shipyard.

Walk the decks, talk with NPS rangers about what those voyages actually looked like, and watch the crew rig her out in preparation for the city’s 400th anniversary.

It’s a working ship, not a museum replica behind a velvet rope.

Salem Willows has been a public park since before the Civil War

Two miles north of Derby Street, Salem Willows sits on Salem Neck, an almost 25-acre seaside park the city designated for public use in 1858.

The white willow trees that give the park its name were planted around 1800.

A streetcar company opened an amusement area in 1880, and traces of that era remain in a penny arcade, a pier, and a row of take-out stands along a stretch locals call The Line.

Two small beaches face the harbor, and old willows shade the picnic areas and benches. It’s the kind of place that feels like it belongs to the town, not to tourism.

Popcorn made on the same spot since 1906

The E.W. Hobbs stand has been selling popcorn, saltwater taffy, and ice cream at Salem Willows since the 1890s. The taffy is made on-site using a vintage spiraling machine you can watch from the sidewalk.

A gas-fired rotary popcorn popper has been running in the same spot since 1906, and four generations of the Hobbs family have kept it going. Locals have been lining up for those batches for over a century.

The chop suey sandwich is another Salem Willows specialty with deep roots here, historically connected to the Salem Willows food tradition. Get one while you’re there.

Fort Pickering has stood at this harbor since 1643

Winter Island is a roughly 54-acre peninsula at the mouth of Salem Harbor, connected to Salem Neck by a causeway and just a few minutes from downtown.

Fort Pickering was first established here in 1643, putting it among the oldest coastal defense sites in the country.

It served through the Anglo-Dutch Wars, the French and Indian War, the Revolution, the Civil War, and into World War II. The city converted the land into a public park in 1972.

The horseshoe-shaped granite ramparts and earthworks are still standing, and the site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Camp overnight where the lighthouse meets the harbor

Fort Pickering Light has stood at the edge of the fort grounds since 1871, looking out over Salem Harbor. Waikiki Beach, a small public beach on the island, offers swimming and open views across Salem Sound.

A campground runs from May through November, with tent and RV sites, some of them overlooking the water.

A public boat ramp provides direct access to the Sound, and kayakers launch from here to work their way along the coastline. Not many people know you can spend the night on a 54-acre island this close to downtown Salem.

Harbor seals surface between the islands

Salem Sound supports harbor and gray seals year-round, with rare hooded seals occasionally turning up in Massachusetts coastal waters.

In winter, common eiders, buffleheads, red-breasted mergansers, brants, and common loons come down from northern breeding grounds and settle in the Sound.

Striped bass run through the shallow water from spring through fall, drawing anglers from across the region.

Salem Sound Coastwatch, a local conservation organization, monitors the health of the Sound and runs seasonal wildlife identification sessions open to the public if you want a guide to what you’re seeing.

Paddle past the Gables from the water side

Kayak and paddleboard rentals are available on Salem Harbor, with self-guided outings and guided historical tours along the waterfront.

Guided paddles take you past Winter Island, the old Collins Cove shipyard site, and the Salem waterfront, with your guide filling in the history as you go.

The harbor water runs calm and beginner-friendly, and some outfitters run family-specific sessions and sunset paddles.

From out on the water, you get angles on the Gables campus, Derby Wharf, and the harbor islands that you simply can’t get from the street.

Salem turns 400 in 2026 and the waterfront is the center of it

Salem is marking its quadricentennial throughout 2026 under the banner Salem 400+, a year-long commemoration that recognizes both the 1626 English settlement and the Naumkeag indigenous community that was already here.

The Friendship is being rigged at Derby Wharf as a centerpiece, with the park service preparing her for full public programming through the anniversary year.

The celebration coincides with America’s 250th anniversary, so two major commemorations are running at once on the same stretch of waterfront.

Salem’s layout is compact enough that you can move through 400 years of history in a single afternoon on foot.

Visit the House of the Seven Gables in Salem

The House of the Seven Gables sits at 115 Derby Street in Salem, about 16 miles north of Boston. The mansion is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with guided tours running throughout the day.

A separate grounds pass covers the gardens and exterior campus if you’d rather skip the mansion tour. Salem Maritime National Historical Park is a short walk east at 160 Derby Street.

Winter Island is about 1.5 miles northeast of downtown. Salem Willows is roughly two miles north on Fort Avenue.

You can reach Salem by car, MBTA commuter rail on the Newburyport/Rockport line, or by seasonal ferry from Boston’s Long Wharf.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• The country’s oldest National Historic Site sits on Salem Harbor and it costs nothing to visit
• The last witch trial house in Salem is still standing 330 years later
• Salem, Massachusetts turns 400 this year and it’s so much more than the witches