Along Essex Street at 134-132, 128 and 126, plus 13 Washington Square West, a compact row of historic buildings in Salem forms the Essex Institute Historic District. This is the Essex Institute Historic District, a cluster associated with the Essex Institute, founded in 1848 and merged in 1992 into the Peabody Essex Museum. Listed by increasing street number you can pick out the Crowninshield-Bentley House, the Gardner-Pingree House—a National Historic Landmark—the John Tucker Daland House, and the Phillips Library, the latter two physically connected.
Nearby the John Ward House fronts on Brown Street but shares the 132 Essex Street address and is another National Historic Landmark. At 13 Washington Square West stands the Andrew Safford House, built in 1819 and said at the time to be the most expensive home in New England. The principal buildings here are the Daland House, built in 1851, and the Phillips Library, built in 1857; the Library was the main Essex Institute building and today the two serve as the library and research facility of the Peabody Essex Museum.
The Library is a two-story building. Notice the connected facades and the sweep of Washington Square West nearby.