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Salem, Massachusetts

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Salem, Massachusetts
City
Salem Maritime National Historic Site
Salem Maritime National Historic Site
Official seal of Salem, Massachusetts
Seal
Nickname: 
The Witch City
Location in Essex County in Massachusetts
Location in Essex County in Massachusetts
CountryUnited States
StateMassachusetts
CountyEssex
Settled1626
Incorporated1626
A City1836
Government
 • TypeMayor-council city
 • MayorKimberley Driscoll
Area
 • Total18.1 sq mi (46.8 km2)
 • Land8.1 sq mi (21.0 km2)
 • Water10.0 sq mi (25.8 km2)
Elevation
9 ft (3 m)
Population
 (2000)
 • Total40,407
 • Density4,986.0/sq mi (1,925.1/km2)
Time zoneUTC-5 (Eastern)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-4 (Eastern)
ZIP code
01970
Area code351 / 978
FIPS code25-59105
GNIS feature ID0614337
Websitehttp://www.salem.com/

Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County.Template:GR Home to Salem State College, Salem Willows Park and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem is a residential and tourist area which includes the neighborhoods of Salem Neck, South Salem and North Salem, and Witchcraft Heights.

Many people associate the city with the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, which the city embraces both as a source of tourism and culture — police cars are adorned with witch logos, a local public school is known as the Witchcraft Heights Elementary School, the Salem High School football team is named The Witches, and Gallows Hill, a site of numerous public hangings, is currently used as a playing field for various sports.

Arthur Miller's 1952 play The Crucible dealt with the witch trials of the 1690s. The play, and the 1996 film version with Winona Ryder and Daniel Day-Lewis, were popular and commercial successes.

Salem was one of the most significant seaports in early America, and it boasts the first National Historic Site designated by Congress, Salem Maritime National Historic Site, which protects Salem's historic waterfront.

Tourists know Salem as a mix of important historical sites, New Age and Wiccan boutiques, and kitschy Halloween-themed and/or witch-themed attractions. The most recent (and controversial) addition of significance is a bronze statue of the Samantha Stephens character (played by actress Elizabeth Montgomery) of the "Bewitched" television program in Salem's Lappin Park on June 15, 2005.

History

File:House of the Seven Gables (front angle) - Salem, Massachusetts.JPG
The House of the Seven Gables.

Salem was founded at the mouth of the Naumkeag River in 1626 by a company of fishermen from Cape Ann led by Roger Conant, and incorporated in 1629. The name 'Salem' is related to the Hebrew word 'shalom' and Arabic word 'salam', both meaning 'peace'. Conant was later supplanted by John Endecott, the governor assigned by the Massachusetts Bay Company. Salem originally included much of the North Shore, including Marblehead, set off in 1649. A delusional Dorothy Talbye was hanged in 1638 for murdering her daughter, as at the time Massachusetts's common law made no distinction between insanity (or mental illness) and criminal behavior.[1] Most of the accused in the Salem witch trials lived in nearby 'Salem Village', now Danvers. Salem Village also included Peabody and parts of present-day Beverly. Middleton, Topsfield, Wenham and Manchester-by-the-Sea, too, were once parts of Salem. One of the most widely known aspects of Salem is its witchcraft history, starting with Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, and their friends playing with a venus glass and egg.

On February 26, 1775, patriots raised the drawbridge at the North River, preventing British Colonel Alexander Leslie and his 300 troops from seizing stores and ammunition hidden in North Salem. During the Revolution, the town became a center for privateering. By 1790, Salem was the sixth largest city in the country, and a world famous seaport—particularly in the China trade. Codfish was exported to the West Indies and Europe. Sugar and molasses were imported from the West Indies, tea from China, and pepper from Sumatra. Salem ships also visited Africa, Russia, Japan and Australia. During the War of 1812, privateering resumed.

Prosperity would leave the city with a wealth of fine architecture, including Federal style mansions designed by one of America's first architects Samuel McIntire, for whom the city's largest historic district is named. These collection of homes and mansions from Colonial America are now the greatest concentrations of notable pre-1900 domestic structures in the United States.

Incorporated a city on March 23 1836 [1], Salem adopted a city seal in 1839 with the motto "Divitis Indiae usque ad ultimum sinum"—"To the farthest port of the rich East." Nathaniel Hawthorne was overseer of the port from 1846 until 1849. He worked in the Customs House near Pickering Wharf, his setting for the beginning of The Scarlet Letter. In 1858, an amusement park was established at Salem Willows, a peninsula jutting into the harbor. It should be noted that up until the War of 1812, the port of Salem Massachusetts was the center of trade in America.

But shipping would decline through the 19th century. Salem and its silting harbor were increasingly eclipsed by Boston and New York. Consequently, the city turned to manufacturing. Industries included tanneries, shoe factories and the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company. More than 400 homes burned in the Great Salem Fire of 1914, which began in the Korn Leather Factory leaving 3,500 families homeless. The fire ripped into one part of the city but Chestnut Street, City Hall and other historic buildings were spared by the fire, thus leaving much of Salem's architectural legacy intact, which helped it develop as a center for tourism.

  • Peabody House, c. 1905
    Peabody House, c. 1905
  • Salem Harbor in 1907
    Salem Harbor in 1907
  • Lafayette Street in 1910
    Lafayette Street in 1910
  • Naumkeag Mills, c. 1910
    Naumkeag Mills, c. 1910

Geography

Salem is located at 42°31′1″N 70°53′55″W / 42.51694°N 70.89861°W / 42.51694; -70.89861Invalid arguments have been passed to the {{#coordinates:}} function (42.516845, -70.898503).Template:GR

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 18.1 square miles (46.8 km²), of which, 8.1 square miles (21.0 km²) of it is land and 9.9 square miles (25.8 km²) of it (55.09%) is water. Salem Harbor faces north onto the Danvers River, a tidal inlet of Massachusetts Bay. There are two ways into Boston, Commuter Rail [2] or Salem High Speed Ferry [3].

Demographics

Essex Street in c. 1920

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 40,407 people, 17,492 households, and 9,708 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,986.0 people per square mile (1,926.1/km²). There were 18,175 housing units at an average density of 2,242.7/sq mi (866.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 85.37% White, 3.15% African American, 0.22% Native American, 2.00% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 6.74% from other races, and 2.47% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11.24% of the population.

There were 17,492 households out of which 24.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.8% were married couples living together, 13.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.5% were non-families. 34.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 2.95.

Pickering House in c. 1905

In the city the population was spread out with 20.2% under the age of 18, 10.4% from 18 to 24, 33.4% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, and 14.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 86.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $44,033, and the median income for a family was $55,635. Males had a median income of $38,563 versus $31,374 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,857. About 6.3% of families and 9.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.2% of those under age 18 and 7.9% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Salem State College is the largest state college in Massachusetts (note that State Colleges are separate from the University of Massachusetts system), with 7,000 undergraduates and 2,500 graduate students; its campus comprises 108 acres and 33 buildings. It hosts a regular Speaker Series, featuring major invited speakers.


Transportation

Salem has a station on the MBTA Commuter Rail's Newburyport/Rockport Line, and is served by numerous MBTA Bus lines which connect to the train station. The cost of a Commuter Rail ticket to Boston is $5.25.

No limited-access highways serve Salem, but Massachusetts Route 1A passes through downtown, and the city is close to Interstate 95, Route 1, and Route 128.

Between late spring and early autumn, the High Speed Salem Ferry operates between Salem and the New England Aquarium in Boston. In 2008, a permanent ferry terminal is to be constructed at the Aquarium.

Tourism

Salem Witch Museum

Since the decline of the city's industrial base, tourism has become an increasingly important part of Salem's economy. Tourism based on the 1692 witch trials dates back to at least the first half of the 20th Century, when dry goods merchant Daniel Low sold souvenir spoons with witch images. Such tourism expanded significantly in the 1970s, when the television comedy Bewitched filmed several episodes there. The Halloween movie Hocus Pocus was also filmed in Salem. Witch-related tourism expanded significantly in the 1990s, and the city added an official "Haunted Happenings" celebration during the October tourist season. In 2007, the city launched the Haunted Passport program which offers visitors discounts and benefits from local tourist attractions and retailers from October to April. The goal of the program is to get visitors to come back to Salem after Halloween and experience businesses that may not be directly tied to Halloween. Thousands watched in 2007 as Mayor Kim Driscoll started a new trend with a massive fireworks display that kicked off at 10 p.m Halloween. [4].

In recent years, tourism has been an occasional source of debate in the city, with some residents arguing the city should downplay witch tourism and market itself as a more upscale cultural center. Several steps have been taken in this direction, including the designation of a portion of the city's waterfront as a National Historic Site (the country's first).

In 2000 a replica tall ship Friendship[5] was finished and sailed to Salem harbor where she sits today. The Friendship is a classic reconstruction of a 171-foot three-masted Salem East Indiaman trading ship that was originally built in 1797. The original construction of the Friendship started in 1796 by shipbuilder, Enos Briggs, and registered in 1797 to merchants Jerathmiel Peirce and Aaron Waite.

The Peabody Essex Museum is a leading museum of Asian art and culture and early American maritime trade and whaling; its collections of Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese art, and in particular Chinese export porcelain, are among the finest in the country. Founded in 1799, it is America's oldest continuously operating museum. In 2003, it completed a massive 200 million dollar renovation and expansion, designed by architect Moshe Safdie, and moved a 200-year-old 16-room Chinese [6] house from the Shanghai area to the grounds of the museum. The Museum's architecture collection also includes a number of historical houses around downtown Salem.

In 2005, the conflict came to a head over plans by the cable television network TV Land [7] to erect a bronze statue of Elizabeth Montgomery, who played the comic witch 'Samantha' in the 1960s series Bewitched [8]. A few special episodes of the series were actually filmed in Salem, and TV Land said that the statue commemorated the 35th anniversary of those episodes. The statue was sculpted by StudioEIS under the direction of brothers Elliott and Ivan Schwartz. Many felt the statue was good fun and appropriate to a city that promotes itself as "The Witch City," and contains a street named 'Witch Way'. Others objected to the use of public property for what was transparently commercial promotion. Some felt that the statue trivialized history by encouraging visitors to recall a sitcom rather than the tragic Salem witch trials. The statue was later vandalized with red spray-painted "X"s over the face and chest, and flags placed in the statue's hands.

Points of interest

Nathaniel Hawthorne by Bela Pratt

Notable residents

File:Roger Williams House, Salem, MA.jpg
Roger Williams House (or "The Witch House") in c. 1910


Sister Cities

[2]

Further reading

  • In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, Mary Beth Norton, Knopf, 2002, hardcover, 432 pages, ISBN 0-375-40709-X

References

  1. ^ Albert Christophe. "The Romantic Story of the Puritan Fathers: And Their Founding of NewBoston". Retrieved 2007-11-14. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
  2. ^ http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_7308345
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