Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1888.
“The Salem Laundry is a historic laundry building at 55 Lafayette Street in Salem, Massachusetts, United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as "Salem Landry".”
Wikipedia article Salem Laundry, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 480 National Register listings published here for Essex County · listed in 1983 · category: Building.
Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
The chapter on Salem City in History of Essex County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1888 names Salem. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
Captain Endicott was ashore at the time, receiving pepper to be sent on board. Observing something unusual in the conduct of those aboard the ship, Captain Endicott determined to return to her at once, but hardly had he started with his men when crowds of Malays began to assemble on the banks of the river, brandishing their weapons and otherwise menacing him. At the same time three Malav boats, with forty or fifty men each, came out of the river and pulled toward the ship. Convinced that the only way to recover the ship was by obtaining assistance from some other vessel, Captain Endicott directed his boat's course to Muckie, a port about twenty-five miles distant, where he knew two or three American vessels were lying. Arriving there, he found three vessels, among them the brig " Governor Endicott," of Salem, H. H. Jenks, master, and the ship " James Monroe," J. Porter, master, of New York. These vessels proceeded at once to Quallah-Battoo. The " Friendship " was meanwhile in the possession of the Malays, who plundered her of the specie and every other movable article. Four of her crew jumped overboard at the time of the attack, and swam a distance of two miles before they could find a safe place to land. After wandering about in the bushes, almost without food, for three days, they found a canoe, and made their way to the residence of a friendly native, named Po Adam, who furnished them with clothing and carried them aboard one of the American vessels. Upon the arrival at Quallah-Battoo of the three vessels, before mentioned, an attack was made upon the town, and the " Friendship " was boarded and recaptured. Her voyage having been broken up, the "Friendship" returned to Salem, where she arrived July 16, 1831. About a year thereafter the United States frigate " Potomac," before referred to, bombarded Quallah-Battoo as a punishment for the conduct of the natives towards an American vessel.
Passage source: History of Essex County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1888.
Another Salem vessel, the " Eclipse," had a somewhat similar experience on the coast of Sumatra in 1838. While the mate and four hands were ashore, a party of Malays boarded the vessel and killed the captain, Charles P. Wilkins. The crew, finding themselves overpowered, escaped, some by ascending the shrouds, and some by jumping overboard and swimming ashore. The Malays then plundered the ship of specie, opium and everything else of value, and departed with their ill-gotten gains. The men aloft descended, lowered their boat, and rowed to a French bark lying at an adjoining port. The next morning the crew returned to the vessel, and during the night they set sail and left the island. The "Eclipse" had a sad ending. She sailed from Sumatra July 10, 1849, under command of Captain Daniel Cross, and was never after heard from. She had on board a cargo of pepper, consigned to Tucker Daland and Henry L. Williams.
Passage source: History of Essex County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1888.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Salem City - 67,733 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 53 fires within 5 miles of Salem Landry between 2006 and 2020, burning about 173 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 3 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 18 |
| Smoking | 8 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 7 |
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | BEVERLY |
| 4 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | BEVERLY |
| 27 September 2020 | Smoking | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 27 September 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 21 September 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 21 September 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 17 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | PEABODY |
| 9 August 2016 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | LYNN |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 9,544 specimens collected within 10 miles of Salem Landry between 1800 and 1975: 3,805 Plantae, 2,876 Animalia, 1,255 Fungi, 932 Chromista, 459 Unrecorded, 155 Bacteria, 62 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A B. Proper, A H HIGGINSON, A. A. Eaton and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.
| Image | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Rhodocollybia prolixa var. distorta (Fr.) Antonín, Halling & Noordel. | 1800 | R. B. Mackintosh | Peabody |
| Erysiphaceae | 1803 | A. B. Seymour | ||
 | Brasenia schreberi J.F.Gmel. | 1821 | not recorded | Pleasant Pond, Wenham, Mass. |
 | Lecanora tartarea (L.) Ach. | 1839 | E. Tuckerman | Manchester |
 | Ochrolechia yasudae Vainio | 1839 | Tuckerman, E. | [USA] Manchester, Massachusetts. |
 | Desmarestia viridis (O.F.Müll.) J.V.Lamour. | 1841 | C. E. Pease | Marblehead |
 | Polysiphonia urceolata (Lightfoot ex Dillwyn) Greville | 1841 | F. S. Collins | Revere Beach, Revere, MA |
 | Splachnum ampullaceum Hedw. | 1843 | A. Gray; W. S. Sullivant | Manchester |
 | Carex caryophyllea Latourr. | 1847 | C. Dewey | Salem |
 | Carex muhlenbergii Kunth ex Boott | 1847 | F. M. B. Boott | |
 | Ceramium rubrum C.Agardh | 1848 | E. Hodges | |
 | Cladophora rupestris (L.) Kütz. | 1848 | H. W. W. Bailey | Little Nahant, MA |
All 9,544 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Salem Landry: 5 plants, 1 unknown, 1 producer, 1 past producer. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Zirconium, Thorium, Tungsten. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Facility) Travers Labs Refinery--Beverly, Ma. | Mercury, Silver, Gold, REE | Plant | ||
| Hale Engineering Co--Danvers, Ma. | Tungsten | Plant | ||
| Thiokol Ventron Div--Danvers, Ma. | Thorium | Plant | ||
| Thiokol Ventron Div--Beverly, Ma. | Zirconium | Plant | ||
| Ventron Corp--Beverly, Ma. | Zirconium | Past Producer | ||
| Swampscott Plant | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Plant | ||
| Swampscott Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Unknown | ||
| Swampscott Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Salem, the town this property stands in, in 10 storm reports between 1993 and 2023: 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 2 flood, 1 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2011 | Flash Flood | North Salem | $2,500,000 | Numerous streets were closed due to flooding. In addition, numerous vehicles were reported stuck in water on roads throughout Peabody; occupants had to be rescued and vehicles towed. Parts of Route 128 were impassable due to flooding. The Peabody police station was flooded, damaging training rooms, telephones, three police cruisers, and two motorcycles. Several houses were flooded near the intersection of Washington and Granite Streets. The Lahey Clinic was flooded with 4 to 6 feet of water in the basement and several inches of water in the 1st floor hallways. The fire chief estimated that at least 100 houses and 40 businesses were damaged. In addition, at least 100 basements throughout town were flooded. Flooding was extensive enough that schools were closed. |
| August 2008 | Flood | Salem | $25,000 | In Salem, Swampscott Road was closed due to flooding and three cars were stuck in floodwaters on Highland Avenue. Cars were stuck in floodwaters on Stettson Road in Swampscott. In Marblehead, West Shore Drive was impassable and closed from Cornell Road to Lafayette Street. In addition, a building was flooded on Salem Street and a house was flooded on Smith Street. |
| October 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | North Salem | $10,000 | A tree was downed onto a house on North Street by thunderstorm winds. |
| July 2023 | Flood | North Salem | - | In Salem, Pearl St bridge was closed due to flooding. |
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Salem | - | Trees down on Nichol Street. |
| August 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Salem | - | Two trees down in Salem Willows Park. Numerous dime-size hail stones fell at approximately 1845 EST in West Peabody with one or two stones just under the size of a quarter as measured by the son of a NWS meteorologist. Rainfall in Peabody was 1.68 inches. |
| May 2006 | Hail | Salem | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Salem | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Salem | - | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Hail | Salem | - | no account filed |
1 paper published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
| Newspaper | Published |
|---|---|
| The American Gazette, Or, the Constitutional Journal | 1776 |
United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
When this property was proposed for the National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is, and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain. It is reproduced in full on its own page, word for word and never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s typewriter's.
The whole case file for this property - 1,129 words, 8 pages, reproduced complete.
Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 83000583, 8 pages, held by the National Archives in Record Group 79. See the catalogue record.
Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Charter Street Historic District | under 500 feet | 1975 |
| Old Town Hall Historic District | under 500 feet | 1972 | |
 | Downtown Salem District | 0.1 miles | 1983 |
 | Peabody Museum of Salem | 0.1 miles | 1966 |
 | Joshua Ward House | 0.1 miles | 1978 |
 | Bowker Place | 0.1 miles | 1983 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 83000583 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Essex County | All 480 listed properties in this county. |
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