Salem has four local historic districts where even a paint color goes before a commission. We plan around that, then do the work with one crew.
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Salem's merchants built Federal mansions along Chestnut Street and around the Common, and Samuel McIntire carved the woodwork in many of them. A lot of that work is still inside those houses, per the city's 2015 preservation plan.
Then the Great Fire of 1914 burned through a big piece of the city. The rebuild left brick Colonial Revival houses on Franklin Street in North Salem and the Classical Revival brick apartment blocks of the Point. Later booms filled in Gallows Hill, Witchcraft Heights and West Salem in the 1950s and 1960s.
So one Salem week can mean scraping 19th-century clapboards in South Salem and hanging drywall in a 1960s ranch. We like that. It keeps us careful.
Salem layers city review on top of the state building code. These are the ones that touch our trades most.
In the McIntire, Derby Street, Lafayette Street and Washington Square districts, exterior changes visible from a public way need a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Salem Historical Commission before work starts. Applications go through the city's online permit system, due 16 days before a meeting.
[1][2][3]Inside the districts, the Commission reviews paint colors, including windows, doors, porches and the colors of storm doors and windows. Include a paint chip. Repainting in the same colors is ordinary maintenance and gets a Certificate of Non-Applicability instead.
[1]The guidelines steer modern additions like decks to the less important sides of a house. A porch addition needs full elevation drawings showing railings, balusters, materials and paint color, and period porches shouldn't be left unpainted.
[1]Salem's updated Wetlands Protection and Conservation Ordinance took effect March 28, 2022. It sets a 25-foot no-disturbance zone and a 50-foot mitigation zone measured from a resource area, and it covers isolated wetlands and vernal pools.
[1]Salem's Inspectional Services takes building, plumbing and gas permit applications through an online system, with card or check payment built in. You need an email address to use it.
[1]One statewide building code. Massachusetts uses a single building code for every town: 780 CMR, now in its tenth edition. Your local building department enforces it and issues the permits. source
Dig Safe before digging. State law requires notice to Dig Safe at least 72 hours before digging, not counting weekends and legal holidays. That includes holes for deck footings. Call 811. source
Federal-era houses on and around Chestnut Street. Local historic district, so exterior changes and colors are reviewed.
The city's strongest set of early 1900s Classical Revival brick apartment buildings, put up after the 1914 fire.
Queen Anne, Shingle style and Colonial Revival homes. Lafayette Street runs through it as a local historic district.
Craftsman bungalows, Colonial Revival homes, Ranches and Capes near the Swampscott line.
Includes the brick Colonial Revival single and two-family prototypes on Franklin Street from the post-fire rebuild.
Both named in the FEMA flood map revisions the city got approved in 2017.
Paint, carpentry, tile, floors and decks from the same people, so the historic paperwork and the work itself stay in one set of hands.
Most requested in SalemHouse PaintingHouse painting in Salem, MA, including homes in the McIntire, Derby Street, Lafayette Street and Washington Square historic districts.Historical Commission applications are due 16 days before a meeting and are filed through the city's online system. Tell us early and we'll help pull together the paint chips and photos.
Check the city's district maps: there are four, McIntire, Derby Street, Lafayette Street and Washington Square. If your house is in one, outside changes you can see from the street go to the Historical Commission.
Plan on at least one meeting cycle. The Commission meets the first and third Wednesday of the month and wants applications 16 days ahead. Simple Certificates of Non-Applicability can sometimes be signed by the clerk without a full hearing.
The owner can be fined up to $500 per day, according to the Commission's guidelines. The Commission also won't grant a hardship certificate for a problem the owner created, so it's cheaper to apply first.
Yes. Vinnin Square, Witchcraft Heights, North Salem and the Willows get the same crew and the same habits. We're based in Malden and give free written estimates anywhere in the city.
Area not listed? Call 781-866-6546. We travel for the right job.
Local rules change. We link the official pages so you can check the current version, and we confirm what your job needs when we come look.
Send a request or give us a ring. We'll come out to Salem, look at the job and give you a written price. Free.
