The Charter Street Historic District encompasses a small remnant of the oldest part of Salem, Massachusetts that has since been surrounded by more modern development.

It stands just east of the cemetery entrance on the south side of Charter Street.

It is most significant for its association with writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, who courted his future wife Sophia Peabody in the house, which was owned by her father.

The house and the adjacent cemetery feature in a number of Hawthorne's works, most notably the unfinished Doctor Grimshawe's Secret: A romance.

[2] The cemetery is a roughly rectangular plot of land that has been used as a burying ground since at least 1637.