Essex

Formed May 10, 1843 (1^st county)

Essex County (743,159), Salem (41,340), Lynn (90,329) 

The Modern masonry and concrete courthouse in Salem was built in 2011 to replace the 1862 courthouse.  It sits on Federal Street at Washington Street.  Massachusetts Highway 107 is one block to the north of the site.  Joan E. Goody designed the current courthouse.  There are also Gloucester, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lynn, Newburyport, and Peabody augmenting courthouses.  The county gets its name from Essex, England.  The county seat’s name is a derivative of the Hebrew for “peace.”  Essex County was the birthplace of 3 Massachusetts Governors, Elbridge T. Gerry, Endicott Peabody, and Francis W. Sargent.  The county was formed on May 10, 1843 as an original county with Salem as the only county seat. 

Essex County doesn’t have a unified government as each township governs.  Seventeen District Court Judges and Nine Probate/Juvenile Court Judges serve Essex County.  Essex County is in the northeast part of the state.  Boston, Massachusetts is southwest and Manchester, New Hampshire is northwest of the county.  The county center is 14.4 miles North of Salem nearer Rowley.  The county is surrounded clockwise by New Hampshire and the Atlantic Ocean and Suffolk and Middlesex counties. 

The area of the county is 829 square miles.  It is 6 out of 14 in the state.  It ranks 3 out of 14 in population in the state.  It has a density of 896.45 persons per square mile making it 4 out of 14 in the state.  Essex County has 63.2% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 93 cuts the northwest from New Hampshire, north, to Middlesex County, west.  Interstate Highway 95 travels northeast to southwest through the county from New Hampshire to Middlesex County.  Interstate Highway 495 originates and goes southwest, Middlesex County.  United States Highway 1 parallels Interstate Highway 95 from New Hampshire to Middlesex County.  The county is shaped like the State of Alaska.  Salem is in the southeast corner of the county.  Lynn is southwest of Salem in the southern tip of the county.  Salem is the county seat and Lynn is the largest city.  Salem is 5.6% of the county population while Lynn is 12.2% of the county population.  This county is in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Salem