 It includes about of land between John Ward Avenue and the Merrimack River, on which stand four buildings; there is also an archeological site, the remains of a late 17th-century homesite, on the property.The colonial history of the property begins in the 1660s, when it was the home of Elizabeth Ward and Nathaniel Saltonstall, grandson of early Massachusetts settler Richard Saltonstall, and one of the judges of the Salem witch trials.The Saltonstall family held the property in the late 18th century, when a parcel with the house on it was taken by mortgage foreclosure by George Watson, brother-in-law to Richard Saltonstall.