McIntire District Painters — Chestnut, Federal, Broad and Essex Streets

The city named this district after the architect and woodcarver Samuel McIntire in 1981. According to the National Park Service walking-trail brochure, it covers Broad, Chestnut, Essex, Federal and the streets that connect them, and its buildings span the mid-17th century through the early 20th. Chestnut Street is also listed on the National Register as the Chestnut Street District.

Chestnut Street was laid out between 1796 and 1805 and widened to 80 feet around 1805. The brochure dates much of its architecture to the 1805–1825 Federal period and notes that the first houses there were typically wood, with brick coming into fashion by the 1820s. Federal Street is older, established in 1766 along the south bank of the North River, and mixes Georgian and Federal houses with later Victorian ones. At 108–118 Federal Street, three houses from the 1780s (the Leach-Nichols, Page-Lawrence-Farrington and Orne-Prince houses) form what the brochure calls one of the few surviving Federal streetscapes in Salem: two- and three-story wooden houses set very close to the sidewalk.

The styles keep changing as you walk. The Pickering House at 18 Broad Street dates to 1651 and was reworked in Gothic Revival style in 1841. The Lee-Benson House at 14 Chestnut Street (1834–35) is cited as one of Salem's earliest Greek Revival examples. The Bertram-Waters House at 370 Essex Street (1855, enlarged 1888–89) carries heavy Italianate trim and tall windows, and 30 and 48 Chestnut Street show the Colonial Revival of 1896 and 1909. For a painter, that means one block can hold Federal fanlights, Greek Revival pilasters, Italianate cornice trim and Colonial Revival porticos, each with its own profile to protect.

Census figures confirm how old this part of the city is. Tract 2042, which takes in Chestnut and Broad Streets along with blocks outside the district, reports 68.5% of its units built in 1939 or earlier. Tract 2045, which includes parts of Federal and Essex Streets, reports 60.8%.

Color changes need a Certificate of Appropriateness

Because this is a local historic district, Salem's Historical Commission guidelines require a Certificate of Appropriateness for paint colors visible from a public way, covering windows, doors, porches and storms. A repaint in the existing colors falls under a Certificate of Non-Applicability. The Commission asks for a paint chip or chart with a color application and does not mandate a fixed palette. Interior work is outside its jurisdiction.

Carved and molded trim

McIntire himself made his living after 1790 mainly as an ornamental woodcarver, decorating doorways, windows and mantelpieces for Salem merchant families, according to the NPS brochure. Exterior entrances and window surrounds from that era are wood, and paint buildup softens their profiles, so prep around them means careful hand scraping rather than fast surface work, followed by thin finish coats that keep the detail readable.

Restrictions on paint removal

The Commission's paint guideline states that a Health Department permit is needed before any paint removal, that electric sanding of exterior surfaces is prohibited, and that abrasive blasting needs a Board of Health variance. On houses built between 1651 and 1909, lead in the old layers should be assumed; our lead-safe painting page explains the federal work practices.

Wood and brick on the same street

The brochure says Chestnut Street’s earliest houses were typically wood and that brick became fashionable by the 1820s, so an exterior scope here might be full siding and trim on one house and only trim, sash, doors and cornice on a brick house a few doors away.