Salem Common (Salem, Massachusetts)

 park  Add category

The SCNA is one of Salem's oldest neighborhood associations. The Salem Common Neighborhood is defined roughly as illustrated in the map below.

scna.green-arrow.net/Map.jpg

The Common Fence.

history courtesy of Alan Hansom
"The Fence Around the Common" Sidney Perley's History of Salem speaks of the Common before the 1800s. "The entire area was unenclosed, and horses, cattle, duck, geese, hens, stray pigs and other animals roamed at will." Another Salem historian, Joseph Felt, writes of it in 1845: "Its surface now wears a very different aspect from what it did prior to 1801. Then it had quite a rural appearance, having several ponds and hillocks.... Towards the close of the year, last mentioned, a number of our generously disposed inhabitants applied to the town for leave to have it leveled at their own charge. The request was allowed. The work was energetically advanced and well done the ensuing spring.... There were elevations, on the premises, sufficient to fill the hollows.... At the same time trees, chiefly poplar, were planted on each side of the walks, which were taken up, 1817, and their places supplied by elms.

So changed, the Common was called, by order of the selectmen, 1802, Washington Square. In 1805, contributions were made by individuals and the town, for the erection of its eastern and western gates. Being designed, arched, and ornamented by Mr. Samuel McIntire, a noted architect, they do much to honor his taste.



The MacIntire Arch, an early daguerreotype
(see scna.green-arrow.net/History.php)

A contract was made, 1817, for a substantial railing to succeed the one which had enclosed the mall. Thus altered, this portion of the Common lands adds much to the worth and beauty of its environs. It confers an obligation on this community, to remember the promoters of its improvements with sentiments of esteem." (page 196-197,

The Annals of Salem, volume I) In the Peabody-Essex museum hangs a painting by George Ropes titled Salem Common on Training Day, 1808. The fence around the Common in the painting appears to be made of whitewashed wooden rails. And, indeed, in Webber and Nevins' Old Naumkeag it states that "the whole was enclosed with a railing of oak [in 1801]." So if a new fence was commissioned in 1817 to replace it (probably because of damage sustained from the "great gale of 1815;" see below), George Ropes' painting shows the first fence that was ever around the Common. But is the "substantial railing," that replaced it in 1817, the one we have now? No! The Salem Historic District Study Committee Report, Vol. II (1967) states that the present iron fence was erected about the same time the Western gate was taken down...in 1850 (page 155). And in Old Naumkeag (published 1877) is an engraving that shows the iron gates as they are today." In 1850 the present iron fence was substituted for the wooden railing." (Osgood and Batchelder's Historical Sketch of Salem, published 1879, page 32). By 1850 the "substantial railing" of 1817 had become rather insubstantial.

The weather damage was so great to the arches (built around 1805) and the second railing (built 1817) that all of it had to be removed. The Preservation Restriction, on file in the City Planner's office, states that the McIntire carvings were given to the Essex Institute at that time for safekeeping. In the present day, in the first floor meeting room of the Peabody Essex Museum's Phillips Library, on the four walls, can be seen most of these carved motifs, including the medallion of George Washington that was on the western gate and another one that includes a depiction of a Native American, presumably Naumkeag (the original Salem tribe).

" On Monday evening May 27, 1850 the City council appropriated $7,000 for the erection of a substantial iron fence around Washington Square. The new fence including the gateways was erected under the direction of Messrs. Denio, Cheney and co. of Boston. The work is done in a most excellent and perfect manner; the pattern of the iron fence is neat and not elaborate; the gateway on the westerly side presents a beautiful appearance, and the effect of the whole is very fine." (The Salem Directory by George Adams, 1851). The Visual/Design Assessment of the Salem Common Fence on file in the City Planner's office states," Surrounding the Common is a mid 19th-century cast iron fence (MHC #947). The octagonal cast iron posts are capped by foliate urns with pine cone-like tops. The iron pickets alternate two designs which are topped by diamonds or spears. At the base of the fence are continuous x's decorated by rosettes." Salem Common has only had three fences in its more than 300 year (recorded) history (including the first 100-plus years in which it had no fence at all). Looking carefully at the Ropes painting, the gates by McIntire can be seen on the far left and on the far right behind the tall Lombardy poplars (replaced nine years later by elms, as mentioned above, after a great gale on Sept. 23, 1815 destroyed them). In the foreground where the booths are lined up (on what is now Washington Square South) can be seen people of the day strolling about; the gate on the left is to the west, or would today be just diagonal from the Witch Museum. The early days of photography actually provide us with a view of the western arch -- the more elaborate one. In Figure 214 of the book Mr. Samuel McIntire, Carver, The Architect of Salem by Fiske Kimball (1940), is a daguerreotype of the arch taken before 1850. This book can be found in the "Salem Room" of the Salem Public Library. The actual plate is at the Peabody-Essex Museum, although age has rendered it scarcely recognizable (you can make out more details of it in the reproduction of it in Kimball's book). One of McIntire's gold leaved eagles originally sat atop the arch; it had already been removed, though, by the time the 1850 daguerreotype was taken. But it was still on top of the arch at least as late as 1839; it can be seen in a woodcut made of the arch at that time. The eagle had been moved at some point to the top of City Hall. However, after suffering hurricane damage sometime after 1940, it was removed from there and replaced with an exact gold-leaved replica (pictures of the original eagle are in Figures 367 and 368 in the above-mentioned book about Samuel McIntire). The arch that stands on the north side of the Common today, within the fence, has on it a plaque that states it was erected July 4, 1976 and that it is a small replica of the gate that stood at the west entrance to the Common from 1805 to 1850. Comparing it to the daguerreotype, it can be seen it's a faithful replica except for the proportions of the swirls that come off the two sides. It was built by Raymon Parga in commemoration of America's bicentennial. In the early 1980's the condition of the iron fence had so deteriorated that measures were taken to save it. It was felt that its poor condition was inviting further vandalism. A DEM grant provided over a million dollars for its restoration, along with other sources providing funding as well. "A plan was formulated maximizing the Fence's space-defining function and sense of completeness while minimizing disruption of the in-place historicity of materials." (from the Preservation Restriction on file in the City Planner's office). This included taking salvageable parts from sections of the fence that had greatly decayed and using them to restore other sections that were intact (or mostly so). Since Salem Common is on the National Register of Historic Places, the preservation of the architectural and historical integrity of its items are protected under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Today, much of the damage that occurred to the fence subsequent to the 1986 restoration has been repaired. A massive community undertaking was organized to paint the fence on its 150th birthday, reminiscent of days long gone by when American families were more connected to each other through such town-wide events. Even though all this work has been done in the last couple of years, there's damage to other objects on the Common that are invitations to vandalism and decay. And neglected maintenance is, indeed, such an invitation -- this seems to be borne out by the fact that little damage to the fence has occurred since the people of Salem painted it. Joseph Felt's words about the Common are particularly important today when he bids us "to remember the promoters of its improvements with sentiments of esteem." These would include all those who came out to paint it in the year 2000.