Old Salem Historic District has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The district possesses national significance as an exceptional reflection of the culture of German immigrants who established the theocratically governed, Utopian Town of Salem. The town maintained itself through time by adaptation, innovation, industrialization, and secularization of the town government and economy. The district is also significant as an archaeological site and as a pioneering effort to restore and preserve the buildings and landscape of the Town of Salem.