The Great Salem Fire of 1914: The Day a Third of the City Burned

It started around 1:37 in the afternoon, an explosion at the Korn Leather Factory on Boston Street in the Blubber Hollow neighborhood, and burning chemicals spread the fire fast in hot, dry summer wind. The blaze ran about fifteen hours before firefighters contained it early on June 26.

By then the fire had crossed roughly 250 acres, leveled about a third of the city, destroyed 1,376 buildings, and left 18,000 to 20,000 people without homes. Three people died, around sixty were hurt, and the damage was estimated near $15 million, a staggering sum for the time.

Here is the part that surprises people: roughly 90% of Salem's historic structures survived, including Chestnut Street and the McIntire Historic District. The fire hit dense working-class neighborhoods and the factory district hardest, not the grand old streets.

That is why a buyer in Salem can still stand in front of a Federal-era house and feel like the history skipped a century. Owning one of those homes is a different commitment than a modern build, and the Ask Kathleen answer on historic homes and the historic district commission guide cover what that really means.

The rebuild changed Salem in ways you can still read on the map. The city adopted stricter building codes that pushed brick and masonry, widened streets, and modernized its fire department. Most of the leather factories were never rebuilt, and Salem's industrial era effectively ended.

What took its place is the Salem you see today: a residential city built around history and, later, tourism. Different neighborhoods rebuilt in different decades, which is why the housing stock varies so much street to street. The Salem community page and the living in Salem answer map out where that variation sits.

Every town on this coast has a story like this, one that shaped which houses exist, how old they are, and how they were built. Seeing Salem's story made me a better guide for buyers there, and I love telling it.

If an older home's upkeep worries you, the owning an older home answer is worth a read, and the witch trials article covers the city's other famous chapter.