Editing Salem, Massachusetts (section)

===Legacy of the East Indies and Old China Trade===

{{Further|Peabody Academy of Science}}
The [[Old China Trade]] left a significant mark in two historic districts, [[Chestnut Street District]], part of the [[Samuel McIntire]] Historic District containing 407 buildings, and the [[Salem Maritime National Historic Site]], comprising 12 historic structures and about 9 acres (36,000 m<sup>2</sup>) of land along the waterfront in Salem. [[Elias Hasket Derby]] was among the wealthiest and most celebrated of post-Revolutionary merchants in Salem. Derby was also the owner of the Grand Turk, the first New England vessel to trade with [[China]] and the second, after the ''Empress of China,'' to sail from the United States. Thomas H. Perkins was his supercargo and established strong ties with the Chinese and garnered the Forbes fortune through his illegal opium sales.

Salem was incorporated as a city on March 23, 1836,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.salempd.org/history.htm |title=Salem history |publisher=Salempd.org |date=2010-05-13 |access-date=2012-11-10  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130112082322/http://www.salempd.org/History.htm |archive-date=2013-01-12 }}</ref> and adopted a city seal in 1839 with the motto "''Divitis Indiae usque ad ultimum sinum''", [[Latin]] for "To the rich East Indies until the last lap." [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] was overseer of Salem's port from 1846 until 1849. He worked in the U.S. Custom House across the street from the port<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.salemweb.com/guide/tour/attract5.shtml |title=Salem Massachusetts – Sites and Attractions Tour |publisher=Salemweb.com |access-date=2012-09-03}}</ref> near Pickering Wharf, his setting for the beginning of ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]''. In 1858, an [[amusement park]] was established at Juniper Point, a peninsula jutting into the harbor. Prosperity left the city with a wealth of fine architecture, including [[Federal architecture|Federal-style]] mansions designed by one of America's first [[architect]]s, Samuel McIntire, for whom the city's largest historic district is named. These homes and mansions now make up the greatest concentrations of notable pre-1900 domestic structures in the United States.

Shipping declined throughout the 19th century. [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] and [[New York City]] eclipsed Salem and its [[silting]] harbor. Consequently, the city turned to manufacturing. Industries included [[Tanning (leather)|tanneries]], shoe factories, and the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company. The [[Great Salem Fire of 1914]] destroyed over 400 homes and left 3,500 families homeless but spared the historic concentration of Federal architecture on Chestnut Street. A memorial plaque on a drugstore building marks the former site of the Korn Leather Factory, which burned in the fire.