The Salem doorway, like all institutions, architectural or otherwise, was the fruit of a gradual process of evolution or development from simple forms to those more elaborate and complete, and kept pace more or less evenly in this process with the changing character of the buildings of which it formed a part. Almost two hundred years elapsed between the hasty erection of the first log cabins at Naumkeag in 1626 to the culmination of the Colonial vogue in 1818. Yet, two hundred years is a very brief time in which to complete a process of evolution such as this--comparing the rude aperture closed by its swinging shield of slabs, which formed the doorway of the earliest Salem dwelling, with the ornate, dignified, and beautiful entrance to a typical Salem home at the expiration of the period, with classic columns, fluted pilasters, carved rosettes and festoons, spreading fanlight with its spider-web tracery of leading, and paneled door set off by latch and knocker of shining brass. The truth is that this was a process of assisted evolution; for skilled English craftsmen, workers in wood and in iron were among the earliest settlers at Salem; they were familiar with the architectural forms and designs of the homeland; and working in the tractable material of white pine, they reproduced with increased effect the patterns which in the old country were necessarily wrought in stone. The business of ship-building, rapidly increasing in the port, gave occupation to large numbers of carvers in wood, who produced ornate decorations in the captains’ cabins, and the famous figureheads which graced the bows of the old-time clippers. At off-seasons, these craftsmen found occupation in the builders’ trade; and thus in many ways the evolution of the ornamental doorway and porch was hastened. It is possible to roughly divide the architecture of Old Salem into four or perhaps five general periods, which are determined by the type of dwelling most frequently erected during the time. As a matter of fact, these periods blend or overlap so that there is no sharp and distinct demarcation between them; it is sufficient to say that the doorways of Old Salem took form and character in keeping with the changing type of dwelling, simple with the simplicity of the structure, becoming more elaborate as the house became more ambitious and pretentious, and reaching their climax in ornateness with the three-story square mansions of brick which characterized the closing years of the Colonial period.