Salem Willows Painters — Salem Neck, Juniper Point and Bay View Avenue

Salem set aside 35 waterfront acres on Salem Neck as a public park in 1858, named for white willows planted there in 1801. Salem State University's archives describe what followed: a stick-style pavilion in 1874, an amusement park on an adjacent lot in June 1880, and a Boston Globe account counting about 100 cottages that families occupied in the summer months.

The house lots next to the park have their own origin. According to Historic Salem Inc., grocer Daniel B. Gardner Jr. bought 45 acres of former farmland in September 1875 and filed a plan for cottage lots, the area that became known as Juniper Point. The plan created more than 50 residential lots, and over 20 sold in a single day that November. One of the early houses, 126 Bay View Avenue, was built around 1876 for merchant Alfred Peabody and is recorded in the state inventory as SAL.3484.

Gardner’s deeds barred shops, stores, public houses, saloons, boarding houses and stables on the lots, and reserved a ten-foot strip along the high-water line as a public promenade. Historic Salem reports that those stipulations have been upheld, so the house lots were set apart from the park’s pavilion and amusements from the start.

The census tract that covers the Willows also includes Derby Street, so its numbers describe a wider area, but they still point to old housing: 84.3% of its units were built in 1939 or earlier, and only 2.7% date from 2000 or later. Just over half of occupied units, 54.1%, are owner-occupied.

Houses that started as seasonal cottages

The lots were planned in 1875 for summer cottages. On any house whose original section has been added to over the years, each part can have its own siding, trim and coating history, so prep is worked out wall by wall rather than for the house as a whole.

Lots close to the shoreline

The park was laid out on Salem Neck waterfront, and the Juniper Point deeds reserved a promenade along the high-water mark, so many of these lots sit close to the water. On elevations that face it, sills, the lower siding courses and exposed trim are the first places to check for peeling, and coating choice and timing deserve more thought than on a sheltered inland street.

Old coatings under newer ones

With over four in five units in the surrounding tract built before 1940, layers applied before 1978 can contain lead. Porch rails, window trim and doors that get scraped need lead-safe handling, described on our lead-safe painting page.

No local historic district review

The Willows is not one of the four local historic districts Salem lists, so the Historical Commission’s paint-color review does not apply; the city’s district maps confirm any single parcel. Color choice is a matter for the owner and any association or deed terms that apply, not a city permit.