Salem Willows

Salem Willows took its name from European white willow trees planted there in 1801 to create a shaded walk for patients recovering at the old smallpox hospital. The area later became a park, and in the first half of the 20th century Restaurant Row along the park’s north shore was known for fresh seafood popular with locals and visitors until the last restaurant closed in the late 1960s. A carousel with carved flying horses was another attraction, and the area operated then, as now, as an amusement center. Although the restaurants and carousel are gone, summer visitors still come to enjoy the seashore, arcade, picnic grounds, and recreational facilities. Ahead lies Salem Sound, dotted with city-owned islands, the largest of which is Baker’s Island, home to a substantial summer community and the site of a navigational beacon since 1798. Across the entrance to Salem Harbor to the south are the headlands of Marblehead, while across Beverly Harbor to the north the shore extends toward Gloucester and Cape Ann. Salem Willows has long served as a seaside promenade popular across Essex County, Boston, and beyond. The area also has residential and historical importance: a tenting ground established in the mid-19th century gave way to summer cottages that became the center of a distinctive year-round neighborhood. Beyond that neighborhood, across a causeway, lies Winter Island, which has been used for fish drying, shipbuilding, and public executions. Since the 1640s a fort there, now called Fort Pickering, has guarded the mouth of Salem Harbor, and from the Civil War until 1971 most of Winter Island was under federal authority, most recently as a Coast Guard base. Inland on the high ground at the center of Salem Neck stands Fort Lee, originally built in the 1740s and, with Fort Pickering, protecting Salem’s sea approaches for more than two centuries.

Salem, Massachusetts · United States